Website updated, assasin bugs in the UK?

[Scary]

Hi everyone.
Just to let you all know I've just updated my websites. There are now some more UK show dates and more pics of invertebrates, like my new roaches and some new ones of my proscopids (and one of my new hamster Jenny, who is sooooooooo cute!) http://thesnailshelter.bravehost.com/

Come on all you European lot....you know you want to adopt some snails!

And someone has very kindly let me have some Pachnoda larvae, I'm now after assasin bugs. Any dealers/private individuals who who has any? :?

When I've finished with these kids thery're all gonna be like at all my bugs! (sly giggle!) Well hopefully not as its supposed to be an educational thing and they should enjoy themselves.

 

[fatbloke]

Scary

my colony of assassin bugs hasnt given me any eggs of yet but i have noticed that they are sticking their rear ends into the substrate so hopefully they are laying the only places i know that sell them at the moment is either http://www.virginiacheeseman.co.uk or http://www.easyexotics.co.uk/

john

 

[chuck]

i had my red spotted assassins lay eggs and they hatched. they didnt survive long after that b/c i couldnt supply them with small prey. would ants be a good food source, as long as all the eggs have hatched?

 

[fatbloke]

chuck

in the past when ive had young i fed them micro crickets and fruit flys as for feeding them ants im not sure about that

john

 

[chuck]

i wonder if CM had any success using termites as assassin food?

the problem i had with small prey such as fruit flys was that they always escaped. more got out of their cup than into the tank. i also found that these fruit flys or scuttle flys or gnats (were sold in a plastic tube with some green gel) were too fast for the assassins. plus my mom wasnt too pleased to find so many pesky flys around the house. whatever will i do when i mate my Ts :?

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Hello Scary,
I have white spots, red spots and orange spots you're welcome to buy. Global priority to the UK would likely be $9.

I feed my hatchling assassins with ADULT crickets; of course they have some help from older siblings in taking them down. Ter.isopods work great (BIG ones too) for feeding assassins babies -as outlined in the assassin book. You guys make them 1,000,000 times harder than they are with this fruit fly and pinhead cricket crap.
Keep in mind, unlike others who offer advice, I actually have the same ones I've always had and have produced more than anyone --esp. in the US but even you guys in the UK are likely to have ones that originally came from my stock.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Here's a few pics so you can check out the different ones (I'm assuming most people can figure out which photo is which by the color of the spots)

P.biguttata (biguttatus by a few mistaken or just silly people who decided they can change the original descriptors name to match the case of the generic ending which you can't) is the white spot and has been in the hobby at least 15 years.

P.rhadamanthus is the red spot and has been around less than 10.

P."mombo" is the orange spot. It is unidentified but the original adults were collected in the town of Mombo in the foothills of the Usambara mountains, probably 99.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Look closely at the last photo. Pay attention to the roaches pronotum, that is a small ADULT male hisser. They like to eat big stuff.

Females are a bit larger than males, esp. 'mombo'. Overcrowding and poor feeding doesn't necessarily kill assassins but poor care can grow adults a LOT smaller than they should be.

More info:
Reds- smallest, least aggressive, least cannibalistic, middle priced
whites- medium all around 10-20% bigger than reds, cheapest, easiest to keep
orange- biggest by far, most cannibalistic, most aggressive, most expensive- ocassionally spit in the enthusiast's eyes. Easy because of their ruggedness but their propensity for cannibalism makes them much more difficult than whites.

 

[Scary]

Thanks for all the info - Just out of interest, shipping livestock from the USA to the UK - wouldn't that take too long? Wouldn't you need specific paperwork? I have posted phamid ova overseas before but it didn't matter how long they took getting to their new home.
Virginia Cheesemans' Platymeris rhodomeria (reds) are - nymphs £3.00 each / Adults £7.00 each, and she doesn't have a price up for the whites(Platymerris biguttata).
Easy Exotics don't have any whites at the moment but they sell juveniles at 2cm for £3.95 each.
Why is it that bugs are so expensive? For example easy Exotics are selling Dynastes hercules for £95 - OK they aren't that easy to get hold of but come on! Invertebrates are generally easy to breed and produce large amounts of young. So why does it cost me a months wages every time I decide I'd like to start a culture of a new insect ? :?

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

They are predatory, not plant feeders.
They are pretty hardy. If you can find the species you want, available in your area I'd suggest getting them there. As a hobbyist, you should go out of your way to support your local invert salers.
That's about $150 for an adult pair of D.hercules, unless they're runts that's a good price.
How can you possibly think that such low prices are too high for the backbone of our planet???? (rhetorical question - please don't answer).

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Better answers:
If you really feel prices are so high and it is so easy you should buy a couple, breed a ton and sell them for 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 of what others sell them for and make millions and millions of dollars.
(Were you to attempt it, you would later apologize for your foolishness and wonder why the prices are so low)

Paperwork is the least of my concerns since this is arachnoboards where people don't buy things, they just talk. Talk doesn't require paperwork.

 

[Wade]

I would gladly pay $150 for an adult pair of D. hercules if they were available here(Assuming of course that I could convince my wife that new beetles were more important than paying our elecruc bill). I rear a native Dynastes and these beetles can take years to rear adulthood. I would expect anyone rearing them to sell at a price that allows them to recoup some of the time and effort involved. When you figure the years it takes to rear a pair of D. hercules you'll see that it's actually a cheap price, all things considered.

Scary, be glad that you don't have the overly restictive ag department regs we have to contend with, the USDA will come kicking your door down here if they find out you're keeping giant African land snails!

Wade

 

[FryLock]

Ahem Scary if you think that price for D.hercules was bad ya gonna love this... ;P i saw them at the 02 BTS show as final instar larvae they where £7.50 each i saw NON sell, and Mantid is right support hobbyist as offen as you can because without a lot of the little guys most of the stuff sold even today would be W/C.

 

[FryLock]

Come to think tho's prices you quoted for P.biguttata and P.rhodomeria are not bad be they self bred by the dealer or buyins, at this years BTS pairs of nymphs close to adult were around £5 and adults around £3.50 (could have been old breeders you never know) P."mombo" i may get myself when there commoner in euro land.

 

[Scary]

Better answers:
If you really feel prices are so high and it is so easy you should buy a couple, breed a ton and sell them for 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 of what others sell them for and make millions and millions of dollars. .

I know how hard it is to breed invertebrates - I have been doing this for quite a while! I just think that prices have risen in the last ten years or so for certain species. I used to go out and buy fruit beetles 15 odd years ago with my pocket money (and that wasn't a lot in those days!)

Paperwork is the least of my concerns since this is arachnoboards where people don't buy things, they just talk. Talk doesn't require paperwork.

I was asking if there is any legal paperwork if someone was to import from the states to the UK.

Fortunately for us here in the UK there are few if any legislations on keeping invertebrates because of the weather conditions - few invertebrates would survive the winters here so they are legal to keep.

I do buy CB bugs from local breeders and suppliers. I always support the small business.

Iwould gladly pay $150 for an adult pair of D. hercules if they were available here(Assuming of course that I could convince my wife that new beetles were more important than paying our elecruc bill)

I think I too would have difficulty in persuading hubby that beetles were more important than paying off the bills. I was just shocked because I didn't realise that they could reach that price, not that they weren't worth it!

Look if I've upset anyone or offended anyone I didn't mean to. I've kept invertebrates for over 20 years, and am now finally in a position where I can have as many different species as I want, rather than having to pick and choose. I was just asking advice!

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Hi Scary,
Sorry if I sound even slightly upset. I took my time and energy to provide you pics and info on the assassins and you are welcome to order them. You are also welcome not to, I find arachnoboards a very wonderful place to have some fun, talk, share info. but I get more sales from dead dead dead boards (likely since you'll sell more to 1 person looking to buy than a million who want to talk).
Admittedly I find the "why aren't bugs cheaper" question a bit foolish and cruel (especially since it's always followed by quotes for very reasonable prices) but I guess it's like anything else.
I think it's great you support your local bug salers so they might stay in business but I DID NOT meant to promote captive bred. I prefer C.B. when available but understand wildcaught may be the only way to keep some of the rainforests from being cut down for farmland. People save it if they can make a few $ but otherwise they'll just eat it.
(overcollecting is a rather silly concern when there isn't a single square inch of remaining habitat)

 

[Mister Internet]

Keep prices out of the on-topic forums guys, it's in the rules.

 

[Scary]

Many apologies.

 

[luther]

Save up for a few months and spend like there's no tomorrow at the next BTS show. That's what I did. It takes a little patience but it's great value for money. Plus, you get unrivalled choice and excellent advice.

 

[Scary]

When/where is it? I was going to a show in the midlands in September but it was cancelled.