As usual, my posts about how I’m ‘just about to post more’ have come to nothing, but I have an actual reason this time… my new experiment is drying up due to unforeseen cricket death, so I’ve been restarting it again while panicking over what might have caused such widespread destruction! Our first thought was that it was cricket paralysis virus, which has had a few outbreaks in the past (generally in places which rear crickets in bulk as livefood for reptiles etc), and has even led to businesses going under and people declaring bankruptcy. However, the stocks seem to be fine, so we’re of the opinion that some stress has caused the crickets to start popping their clogs early. I’m going to see how this new batch goes, and implement a few new things as regards cleaning and general stock maintenance, having received some advice from Dr John Hunt down in Exeter (a collaborator of my supervisor’s who also uses crickets and is an all-round awesome guy).

However, combined with my having somehow been coerced into giving a talk at the Scottish Ecological Ageing Group Meeting next week (I don’t work on ageing, so that should be interesting), this has been a pretty high-stress week for me as well. Thankfully, unlike the majority of my crickets, I’ve not yet been found curled up dead in a small piece of egg carton, but there’s always time.

I’m also due to go ahead with my interview for John Taylor’s ‘The Reptile Living Room‘ podcast this weekend, as part of his ‘Reptile Apartment‘ site, so that should be fun! Hopefully I shall remember not to swear, as my mum will tell me off if I do.