I tell everyone. It easily weeds out those who aren't interested in a major part of my life. It's not like it's herpes. If I had that, I would let them know as well. I'm all about instant full disclosure. Sometimes it's too much for some, but it gets all the cards on the table for a quick hand.
LOL....kind of like those homosexual folks that, when first introduced, feel the need to share their sexuality with you, eh? "Hi, I'm Carl and I'm gay!" Umm...OKAY! "Hi, I'm Carey and I'm heterosexual!" :blink:
I used to chat with the cashiers at Walmart about my various business-need purchases (dog food & bird seed for the rats that are fed to the snakes, etc.), but have found a bit of discretion (especially here in Bible-thumper* territory) goes a long way toward making my life a little easier. (I'm also in a long-haired, denim-skirt-wearing phase, so likely people think I'm part of that "snake-handler" religion*, too!) Now, if I share, it's usually with the tattooed, pierced freaks & weirdos (here used as a term of endearment), since they are usually well-acquainted with the odd & unusual (and probably find it even stranger to hear about it from an obvious conservative like me!)
Our first reptile show where we introduced mantids, there was no interest at all. Our second show, we brought Monkey Face (RIP), and had her out and every person that stopped by was either, "Aww, COOL! A mantis!", or "Eww! Those things creep me OUT!"...our THIRD show, we were selling them like hotcakes! Now, we're known as the "mantis people" at the shows...though, we still occasionally get funny questions ("Those things eat plants, right?"), we have noticed significantly more educated people stopping by our booth ("Do you have any of those pink flower mantises?") I like to think that this was because of their initial exposure to it when we brought the first ones. It's likely, they saw them, were interested, went home & did some research! :clap: We tend to get a lot of the same people at the shows...we call them "regulars".
Since getting into mantids, ourselves, we have noticed that we have much greater respect for ALL insects, and are vastly more apt to "rescue" a stray spider in the house now than we ever would have before!
*Disclaimer: I am a conservative Christian, myself, and have great respect for Penecostals & other fundamental Christian groups, so my use of this term is not intended to be derogatory in any sense.
