EWWWW!! Nature!!

[shereads]

I could lose my Sierra Club Decoder Ring for this, not to mention my future as an entymologist.

I decided to repot a bougainvillea on the deck. Struggled to loosen the roots from the old pot. Finally lifted out the plant, only to discover that

EWWWWW

my hands and arm were covered with ants! Not just ants, but ants carrying tiny white larvae things!

Gak

Grabbed garden hose. Hosed down arms. Looked in bottom of "empty" terra cotta pot and found it covered with ants carrying tiny white larvae things. Not only ants, but also zillions of

URP

hideous tiny pale spiders. Countless, frantically racing-in-circles pale spiders of some mutant underground species that lives in ant colonies and dines on...

Eww!

Something snapped. My inner tree-hugger, who will spend an hour catching a baby lizard to release it outdoors so it won't die of dehydration in the air-conditioned house, and who used to cry when someone killed a spider, had an out-of-body experience, turned the hose to high-pressure jet blast, and took aim at that huge, seething ant/larvae/spider glob.

Dumped the dead insects and their watery grave over the side of the deck into the ferns. (Short-cut to composting.) Felt briefly guilty. Went to get bag of potting soil and returned to find that

Ulp!

they were back. Crawling all over the deck and the deck rail and circling the rim of the pot. Jet-blasted the hideous zombie-bug-things, dumped them over the side again into the ferns. Reached for the bag of potting soil and GOT ANTS ON MY HANDS AND ARMS AGAIN. They were all over the bag. Larvae, spiders, the works.

What is this, the Telltale Heart? The Amityville Horror?

To hell with the bougainvillia. I can't go back out there.

 

[matriarch]

I could lose my Sierra Club Decoder Ring for this, not to mention my future as an entymologist.

I decided to repot a bougainvillea on the deck. Struggled to loosen the roots from the old pot. Finally lifted out the plant, only to discover that

EWWWWW

my hands and arm were covered with ants! Not just ants, but ants carrying tiny white larvae things!

Gak

Grabbed garden hose. Hosed down arms. Looked in bottom of "empty" terra cotta pot and found it covered with ants carrying tiny white larvae things. Not only ants, but also zillions of

URP

hideous tiny pale spiders. Countless, frantically racing-in-circles pale spiders of some mutant underground species that lives in ant colonies and dines on...

Eww!

Something snapped. My inner tree-hugger, who will spend an hour catching a baby lizard to release it outdoors so it won't die of dehydration in the air-conditioned house, and who used to cry when someone killed a spider, had an out-of-body experience, turned the hose to high-pressure jet blast, and took aim at that huge, seething ant/larvae/spider glob.

Dumped the dead insects and their watery grave over the side of the deck into the ferns. (Short-cut to composting.) Felt briefly guilty. Went to get bag of potting soil and returned to find that

Ulp!

they were back. Crawling all over the deck and the deck rail and circling the rim of the pot. Jet-blasted the hideous zombie-bug-things, dumped them over the side again into the ferns. Reached for the bag of potting soil and GOT ANTS ON MY HANDS AND ARMS AGAIN. They were all over the bag. Larvae, spiders, the works.

What is this, the Telltale Heart? The Amityville Horror?

To hell with the bougainvillia. I can't go back out there.

*shuddering*, oh and I really needed to read that just before going to bed.

Thank you soooooooooooo much !!

 

[Liar]

To someone who have spent all of yesterday scraping weird, writhing, slimy creatures off the hull of a boat, and yanking the guts out of almost still alive fish every day for two weeks, some ants seems like a blessing.

Did you know that mackerels feeds on a) tiny poisonous jellyfish and b) baby mackerels? Niether did I.

#L

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I would have to set the deck on fire.

 

[doormouse]

Nothing a can of hairspray and a match won't fix

 

[shereads]

I would have to set the deck on fire.

It will need to dry first.






Bugs don't upset me, usually. It's the sight of bugs in a state of panic that makes my skin crawl. They're so FAST. And they'd as soon crawl over you as around you.

Why is it beautiful when a school of fish* move in perfect coordination, as if they're all one animal? But when insects do it, it's just creepy?









*Fish with internal parts intact, guts included.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

It will need to dry first.






Bugs don't upset me, usually. It's the sight of bugs in a state of panic that makes my skin crawl. They're so FAST. And they'd as soon crawl over you as around you.

Why is it beautiful when a school of fish* move in perfect coordination, as if they're all one animal? But when insects do it, it's just creepy?

Reminds you of those bad horror movies...or the scene in Harry Potter where those creepy ass spiders were running about.

 

[Liar]

Nothing a can of hairspray and a match won't fix

Meeean. I'll bet you were one of those kids who chased ants with magnifyers, or plucked wings of flies.

 

[matriarch]

Nothing a can of hairspray and a match won't fix

 

[Guest]

Meeean. I'll bet you were one of those kids who chased ants with magnifyers, or plucked wings of flies.

no that was me.. but
they were asking for it...

 

[doormouse]

no that was me.. but
they were asking for it...

My kinda gal

 

[pop_54]

Welcome to Gardeners world sher Just been doing the same sort of thing... every tub on the patio had a bloody black ants nest in... and the one at the front was occupied by red ants, them little fuckers nip you (red ones) not painful but itches a lot, so they got respect The black one's got dumped on the compost heap to take their chance.

 

[minsue]

Meeean. I'll bet you were one of those kids who chased ants with magnifyers, or plucked wings of flies.

Don't forget cutting up earthworms to figure out how many time you could cut them in two before both halves stopped squirming...or was that just me?

 

[Subo97]

antsy shereads

My dear, old Subo just happens to have an aardvark for sale.

 

[Liar]

Don't forget cutting up earthworms to figure out how many time you could cut them in two before both halves stopped squirming...or was that just me?

Being a seaside kid, I used to enjoy watching the fish I caught flop around and flutter their gills while they slowly suffocated. Mostly because I was too squeamish to snap their necks.

 

[minsue]

Being a seaside kid, I used to enjoy watching the fish I caught flop around and flutter their gills while they slowly suffocated. Mostly because I was too squeamish to snap their necks.

That sort of thing was always distressing to me, but then I also would have found the earthworms distressing if I weren't so damned curious. . . Apparently my gift for rationalization was innate, not learned.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Just as nature can fill your heart to overflowing with feelings of awe and wonder, she can turn around and make you retch and want to wash yourself in lye.

There used to be an underground comic called "Insect Horror". I wonder what ever happened to it?

---dr.M.

 

[doormouse]

Meeean. I'll bet you were one of those kids who chased ants with magnifyers, or plucked wings of flies.

And legs off daddy long legs

 

[shereads]

Re: antsy shereads

My dear, old Subo just happens to have an aardvark for sale.

Thank God.

 

[Guest]

yes, but...


everyone knows an ant cant... move a rubber tree plant

 

[rgraham666]

Well, geez shereads. How would you react if someone tore up your home by the roots?

 

[shereads]

Being a seaside kid, I used to enjoy watching the fish I caught flop around and flutter their gills while they slowly suffocated. Mostly because I was too squeamish to snap their necks.

Clearly, the pale spiders thought I was you. Or doormouse.

No animal torture! The insects' revenge is only the first wave; after that, hamsters and other helpless small animals sold as children's pets. Before long, Hitchcock's "The Birds" will look like a Disney movie compared to real life.

 

[shereads]

Well, geez shereads. How would you react if someone tore up your home by the roots?

I'd be sad, but not surprised. I own a wooden house in a subtropical climate. It's held together with duct tape and staples.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I'd be sad, but not surprised. I own a wooden house in a subtropical climate. It's held together with duct tape and staples.

Honey, that's called a crate.

 

[minsue]

I own a wooden house in a subtropical climate.

Why are the houses there wooden? I've always wondered about that.

Not that I've got room to criticize seeing as how my desert home is brick, much like a pizza oven.