#dealing with ants

[balkanradfem]

On rain-related pests in the garden

So this year has decided to have one of the most rainy springs I've seen. It's been raining for a week and a half, and the prognosis is rain for another week. It reminds me of the first year of my gardening; we also had incessant rain for almost a month, and everyone was saying it was the absolute worst year for gardening yet. Me, who has not gardened ever before, thought it was the best year ever because I had garden produce like never before in my life (because I never gardened before), and was extremely pleased with it.

So, what does constant rain mean for gardening?

It means different things for different plants. Peas, for example, absolutely love it. Wet and cold is their ideal growing conditions, they're having a great time and growing visibly bigger every single day. Peppers are also having a great time! They love being watered and being watered constantly makes sure they'll produce some good roots. I've also noticed cabbage and kale doing very well in the rain, potatoes seem pleased, and all of the squash and the beans I've planted are coming out of the ground, and I'm guessing they're growing roots and waiting for sunshine to do better. Tomatoes, however, are not pleased at all. They're prone to getting sick if their leaves get water and then dirt on them, and since they're all small and close to the ground, they're getting dirty easily. They're also struggling to draw enough nutrients from the ground in the cold, so some are turning black, and others are a little frozen in time, just waiting until it's sunny again so they can grow.

There's a common problem in the community gardens, and people's gardens in general, where this much ran can cause a flood, meaning your plants can get their roots and stalks completely covered in water, and they do not enjoy or tolerate that. Plants that are drowning end up with their roots rotted away; it can happen to seeds as well, if they're completely underwater, they'll rot before managing to sprout.

There's another, equally big problem with this much rain – the slugs are thriving. Slugs have gotten into everyone's garden, and they're eating, well, almost everything in sight. I have had a good share of my baby bean plants eaten away, and I'm seeing big pieces of my baby cabbages missing. Beans seem to be their favourite, they're focused on annihilating them instantly, but they'll also happily eat strawberries when ripe, lettuce, cabbage, peppers, green beans, and anything that is pulled out of the ground and rotting. I actually found most of the slugs in my garden feasting on some old plants and weeds I pulled out that started rotting, there's something irresistible in it to slugs, apparently. So what can you do about slugs?

There's many tricks and methods commonly used and shared, like, put a container of beer in the ground, and they'll all drown in there. They can get picked off and eaten away by a specific variety of ducks. Some people will grow plants that are specifically alluring to slugs to distract them from their other garden produce, others will just go ahead and use diatomaceous earth or some kind of poison to get them to go away. I've never tried any of that; my true and tried method is picking the slugs off, and putting them somewhere else. It takes a lot of dedication and time, but it seems to work; if you're constantly in the garden and picking slugs away, they don't manage to reproduce, so you don't have to deal with their babies next year. With this much rain though, you'll get slugs no matter what you do, they can easily slide to your garden from any patch of grass nearby. Their eggs can also last for several years underground so eradicating them is completely impossible.

If you're trying to pick off your slugs, you need to know how to find them; slugs are not out there and eating your produce all day. They come out early morning, late evening, and after the rain stops. I will usually pick early morning or late evening to visit the garden, and pick them off once a day. It's good to remember to take some gloves so you do not have to deal with the slime (though apparently it's very healthy for the skin), and it's good to have a little container to put them in, so you can easily gather a lot before taking them away.

I found it's easier to find slugs if you're out there weeding and fertilizing, then you catch glimpses of them more easily than when you specifically go and look for slugs. We humans have the advantage of seeing the world from way higher above than slugs, and we tend to move a bit faster, so walking for 2-3 minutes and releasing slugs away from the garden, can disorient them from easily finding your garden again; it's likely they'll find something else to eat closer to their destination. I've never had slugs return in any significant number, it's more likely that you'll get new slugs who are just living closer to your garden.

From the book about 'pests' I've read recently, it's described that killing them largely does not work at all, because it's the food source for the animals that determines how fast they reproduce. So I don't think annihilation is possible, if you're creating a food source, they'll take it as a hint to reproduce at a higher rate, since resources are made available for them to do so. If you're introducing a species that is a predator, you have to count on that species reproducing massively as well, as you've put them in an environment with a large food source. Dislocating the food source, making it unavailable, or dislocating the animal that is eating your produce, so they can't find it again, could potentially hint them into slowing down reproduction, as they're not seeing any food source nearby, I think that's why this method works.

Another problem that is appearing in the garden as the result of the ongoing rain are ants. Ants by themselves are not that harmful to plants, but you know what they do? They'll farm leaf-lice on your plants. They'll find a plant and let lice put their eggs there and then guard the eggs and have bunch of lice eat all of your plants and it's terrible. So ants also need to get a little displaced and find somewhere else to build their farms other than your garden! I've not figured this one yet; I know you can mix 2 anthills in order to create an ant war and have them annihilate each other, but I don't want to make that kind of historical ant drama. I'll look into other options!

[weepylucifer]

one of the weirder more unexplained phenomena on this site are those people you'll sometimes see in fandom tags who make like... stimboards of some completely uncontroversial character and then they have the most bizarre DNIs underneath like. a banner of some cartoon character and "DNI: NAZIS, WAR CRIMINALS, AXE MURDERERS, HOMOPHOBES, POOL TOY FETISHISTS, PEOPLE WHO LIKE CHERRY COKE, ANYONE WHO HAS EVER SHIPPED THE TRAINS FROM THOMAS THE TRAIN ENGINE TOGETHER" and all of these are posited like they're equally bad. but it's only stimboard posts that have these banners. absolutely no one else ever does these

[anoant]

God of Time

[starlit-soothsayer]

So what's your issue with Sai? /genq

I have issues with plenty of people. The internet is full of obnoxious individuals, and for the purposes of my main accounts online I quickly block them (it's what those tools are for, after all). That doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching from a distance, however.

Sai is just one on a long list of internet people that wreak havoc wherever they go. Most just don't seem to notice that because she often targets (or tries to target) people that the internet masses are likely to frown upon. Lily Orchard is ideal for this. A vast majority of the internet dislikes her or doesn't care about her. To me, though, it's about the same as watching any United States election since 2016. It's not about getting something good anymore, it's about taking the side of the guy who sucks a little less.

To put it simply, Sai and Lily are two sides of the same coin.

Lily just so happens to have done much worse things by comparison and Sai just so happens to have opinions on media most agree with and internet history that hasn't been picked clean. At the end of the day though, their personalities and way of interacting with the web at large are incredibly similar.

Both of them, despite repeatedly claiming the opposite, are hopelessly obsessed with each other. Both of them use what little amount of minority status they have as a shield against critics. Both of them love to argue, to the point where it seems it's the only form of communication they can navigate. Both are quick to cry cowardice when someone decides an argument isn't worth having and walks away. Both of them must get in the last word, always. Both of them feel that they are in the right all the time, and that anyone else is either stupid, immature, or both. Both of them often label others as sensitive until it's their own feelings that are on the chopping block.

The best thing that Lily could do, if she really wanted to hurt her critics and make them leave her be, is to simply disappear from the internet entirely and let the people leeching off of her starve. The communities based entirely on making fun of her would dissolve overnight. Lily would never do that of course, because she has the same problem as Sai (one also pinpointed by CrimsonEnder): she simply can't let things go.

Neither of them will ever have the ability to walk away from something unless they have the final say, no matter how small it is. I've seen them both revive petty squabbles that have already long since simmered down for the sake of just wanting to argue.

It's not exactly difficult to put together why Sai has so many "haters" when almost every public interaction she has is a argument. It's not always about some form of homophobia or sexism or difference of opinion. Pardon my French, but sometimes your personality just fucking sucks.

[mari-lair]

chimera ant killua?

ooooh I like the sound of that

head too empty for a proper au, but have this doodle

[killugon-truther]

ngl one thing that annoys me to this day is the fact that the anime uses he/him pronouns on pitou (and they/them, at least in the eng dub),

refers to him w masculine terms in general (pitou even refers to themselves stereotypically masculinity),

and yet, ppl STILL call pitou a girl and STILL use she/her on them, when literally neither of those things are used to refer to them, ever, by anybody.

the show/subtitles: “he, him, they, sir, etc.”

the fandom: “she, her, girl”

like… 💀 hello? lmao.

[grinchwrapsupreme]

oh the executive producer of From said that people don't watch tv to get answers to the mysteries that are set up in said tv? yeah that tracks things are starting to make sense

[sunderwight]

has anyone written a Loki series fic where Don the Jet Ski Salesman comes home one day to find his boys hiding something in the garage, and is tiredly like "is it snake? I better not go in there and find out you guys robbed a zoo--" only to open the garage door and see an injured, bewildered frost giant Loki prodding cautiously at a bag of doritos (the boys attempted to provide sustenance) (could be angst or good just be the version from the What If? episode trying to recover from a bender with Thor)

[headfullof-ideas]

One of the supporting characters I introduced and then posted nothing about was named Abel, and he’s actually going to be quite important later in the story. But right now there’s not much involvement from him, but his relevance will be mentioned a deal bit earlier than when his hands on involvement begins. However. I have been drawing some little snippets or interactions to get to know these supporting characters better myself, and this is something I cooked up for Abel, and how he feels about two specific riders

One…two…or maybe eleven babysitting mishaps and incidents with a Piranha Toddler Kari and a Child Leash Toddler Ant later, plus additional crummy parents with crummier parenting styles, and Abel is firmly heck no on ever having any children of his own Ever. Fortunately for his ‘pass on the family blood and name!’ Father, his sister wants kids, and Abel is pretty sure it’s only because she’s never actually had to deal with small children in any capacity. He has battle scars from his babysitting days, scars he got before he ever got into dragon training, and he does not want to willingly go through it all again

(He does not admit to himself that if something happened to a friend with kids, he would absolutely take their kids in, because he’s a softy who doesn’t actually hate kids, he’s just traumatized by their biting and chaos)

[raintailed]

YAYAYAY!!!!! My final funguary guys!!

ANT (Acidity Near Thresholds; xe/xer, they/them) finally gets a redesign!

Oops ANT got molded :[ don't worry, they're ok! This is for the icing sugar fungus prompt.

Tox/The Moldy (it/its, ze/zir), for the final magic mushroom prompt. I chose to interpret it as a free space, so this guy is based on moldy dwarf bulborbs from Pikmin 4 :D Also Tox is responsible for ANT being toxified lol

Also funguary has been SO MUCH FUN and it's the first art month thing I've managed to complete! (even though i skipped some prompts)

[actingwithportals]

Getting into Hollow Knight was one of the best things I'd ever done for a lot of reasons but namely the fact that I am significantly less afraid of bugs than I used to be

[b4kuch1n]

langa special

[ants-personal]

for my silent hil au i think I've figured out at least a few of the main locations lol

obvs we have the school and while itnserves for randys trama as well as time passes that randy is inside it slowly starts to shift and change into a bulding he doesnt recognize its sublte at first doors not where they normally would he a classroom he cant place the colors on the wall are different the school shifting from his to that of bensons course he doesnt know that right away there are small details drawings signed by various kids but one stands out for being more melancholy the signture is ripped off but the name starts with a b stuff like that

I havent figured out what the b teir eneimes would be here but the big baddie of course is a monster who reselmbles a sheppard that primaly attacks by trying to grab and smother randy against him while making unsettling grunting and groaning noises

[uncomfortablefingerguns]

You find one ant in your house and suddenly the ghosts of them are everywhere. Movement in the corner of your vision, phantom itches all over your body. You stop trusting every drink not in a clear glass. You go on a cleaning spree. You try home remedies. More still appear. You swear they’re following you. Nothing is safe, no carpet is sacred.

Then suddenly, they’re gone. A day goes by, nothing. A second day, you still have the bleach close at hand. A third, you’re wary but you start to relax. A week passes, and you’ve all but forgotten about your little pest problem. You let your guard down. You carelessly leave one dish out.

And that’s when you see them. They’ve returned and they are in greater number than you could have dreamt. You try to kill them but they’re unending. It is too late now.

They have won.

[boag]

My bug phobia has actually gotten sooo much worse in adulthood like I used to LOVE moths and butterflies but now even seeing a close up picture of a butterfly on a screen has the capacity to cause me distress if I see its little legs and stuff…… maybe it’s bc I moved to the city when I turned 18 and I’m not surrounded by all kinds of bugs 24/7 anymore

[digishima]

The Twins are complete!

Patterns and lace are from Clip Studio’s asset store.

(Featuring my favorite trope, heteropaternal twins.)