Honey Bees

A few months ago, we had a Honey Bee swarm over my mum's best baby apple tree. She wasn't very happy. Sadly, I wasn't here to attend this miraculous event, and the pictures that were taken are by my dad. He called in some beekeepers to remove the hive along with the queen. But after they took the queen, the leftover Bees died after a day or two, so we had a large pile of dead bees under our apple trees. :(

Photo by Clive Sidney

Black Crickets

In my last post, I said I'd be posting pictures of my Black Crickets, who eat my Mealworms.
The habitat is made out of a plastic shoebox, with bran to layer the ground (which you can purchase cheaply at most pet stores), a tub with damp play sand in, for the Crickets to lay eggs in (So far I've got about 1000 eggs in less than 3 weeks!), and a few sticks and leaves propped up around the habitat for them to get to the higher places, such as the tub of sand. Also, they have a toilet roll and some egg cartons for them to hide in (That's why you can't see many Crickets in the picture right now) Here's a picture of the Black Cricket Habitat.

Black Cricket Habitat
Photo by Alex Sidney

Now I'll show you how to separate Male Crickets from Female Crickets. The Female (Shown below), is usually very dark brown, or black in colour, and her wings are not very visible. Also, Females do not  sing, or chirp. You'll notice a long black sword-like stinger. This is an ovipositor, for laying eggs, ad is completely harmless to us. The Females are usually slightly bigger than the Males, although this can vary depending on the species. The Males usually have dark brown bodies and light brown wings, and chirp very loudly to attract Females. They don't have an ovipositor like the Females, but they have two short Cerci at their rears, which females also have. The Males are slightly smaller than the Females, usually.

Female Black Cricket
Photo by Alex Sidney

Male Black Cricket
Photo by Alex Sidney

The Crickets are Omnivores, so they will eat meat and plant matter. My Crickets seem to like Moths, small Butterflies, Mealworms, Cucumber, Lettuce, Bran, Apple, Carrot, and much more.

A Cricket's average lifespan is 7-8 weeks, but only 2-3 weeks as an adult. In that time, they can lay up to 2000 eggs each!

Mealworm Breeding

As well as Caterpillars and Butterflies, I also breed Mealworms, as they are great food for my Black Crickets (pictures coming soon), our garden Birds, my neighbour's Chickens, and my Tadpoles! Mealworms are generally golden in colour, and I breed Giant Mealworms and Mini Mealworms at the moment.

There will be a Factfile coming soon.

Alex

Mini Mealworms
Photo by Alex Sidney

Giant Mealworm
Photo by Alex Sidney

Giant Mealworm Pupa
Photo by Alex Sidney

Giant Mealworm Beetles
Photo by Alex Sidney

Small White butterflies

My hobby is raising and breeding all sorts of bugs, and lately, I've been helping my mum out by removing all the Large White and Small White caterpillars from her cabbages, as they were gnawing away furiously at all my mum's cabbages!
Here are some pictures of some Small White caterpillars, chrysalises, and butterflies, as well as a Large White caterpillar, of which I also breed commonly.

Small White caterpillar
Photo by Alex Sidney

Small White Chrysalis
Photo by Alex Sidney

Small White butterfly
Photo by Alex Sidney

Large White Caterpillar
Photo by Alex Sidney

Earwig & Lacewing homes

As an addition to my Bug Hotel, I decided to offer two habitats for Lacewings, Earwigs, and any other small crevice-seekers. I made it  out of 1 plastic bottle, and about five 3 metre long bamboo canes, with which half of them were split lengthways and the pith removed, and the other half left whole, and they were all stuffed inside the green bottles, cut in half to make two separate homes. Now that autumn & winter are approaching fast, I hope that Earwigs, Lacewings, and any other bugs may choose to use this cosy habitat to live in.

Photo by Alex Sidney

Photo by Alex Sidney

Photo by Alex Sidney

Photo by Alex Sidney

Photo by Alex Sidney

Another Hairy Visitor

Yesterday I found this Giant House Spider roaming around under our piano. I picked it up (My mum wasn't in the slightest in the mood for going anywhere near it!), and took a picture in the dark, using my flash, as in the sunlight, there were too many bright reflections. Then I let it go just outside the house. Maybe it will find a way back in through some of the pipes to scare my mum again?
Anyway, I hope you like this picture of this enormous spider!
Factfile coming soon!

Photo by Alex Sidney