#my bugwatching

[jaybug-jabbers]

I keep seeing these guys running around at night that look like mealworms, I finally took a photo to look it up because I am so curious what they are...

And apparently they ARE mealworms???

I've also seen a lot of little black beetles all over the neighborhood and oh my god they are darkling beetles (the mealworm adults), aren't they. We just have a crapton of them living around here. It's so weird to see them in the great outdoors, I used to raise them to feed to my reptiles or whatnot when I was a kid.

[creature-wizard]

So again, who decides what "Engaging and participating" means? Who decides what degree of engagement and participation is enough? If someone tells me that to really engage, to really participate, I need to cut certain people out of my life, or give them most of my money - well, *I* can't judge if that's bullshit, because I can't trust my feelings, because "connection" is what's important and connection is not a feeling. So what should I do?

The point I've been making isn't that your personal feelings don't matter at all ever, but that feeling connected and being connected are two different things, and people need to stop confusing the two. Your emotions matter in general, but they also have nothing to do with whether you're connecting with nature or anything at all. You can have all kinds of fascination with nature and still not be connecting with it whatsoever; you could feel absolutely nothing and still be very connected because you are actually engaging.

Try some form of gardening/keeping plants. Get into birdwatching, bugwatching, plantwatching, and/or weatherwatching. Volunteer to clean up garbage. Literally just actually do something and see how it goes.

The one who decides how much engagement is enough, is you. If you don't want to engage at all, then don't. This isn't Christianity, you aren't going to eternal damnation if you aren't totally one with nature or something.

And also, because this isn't Christianity, your connection isn't measured by what you're feeling. Nature isn't just Leafy Jesus or something, you don't develop a personal relationship with it by letting it into your heart; you start by recognizing your role within it as a vastly complicated system and go from there.

[pushing500]

I did end up installing the Toddlers mod, and now we see the result! Baby Ro has become Toddler Ro!

The first thing he did with his newfound mobility was "bugwatch". I thought it was amusing that his bugwatching happened to be right where Frisbee the giant scorpion was walking, and I mean... Yeah, sure. A lot of people would consider her a bug. Entomophobic Zonovo does, at the very least.

Debby has decided to cause more drama with her polyamory trait, and Laurie has to pay for it. I wonder what will happen if Eva really does turn out to be a mime? That would definitely add drama to this story. Poor Brennan and Laurie, though.

We had an eventful raid with Eurros Pusmeberrus, a distant relative of Andrei and Andy's, coming to visit. We managed to capture her, but I don't know if we'll recruit her. She kind of sucks.

We also captured her friend, who was "unwaveringly loyal", but that was of little consequence as we had just finished building a subcore ripscanner. Doere was not a prisoner for very long.

Before Doere was ripscanned, Albina patched her up to avoid her bleeding out, and Henry tagged along to watch. I think the 'work watching' learning desire is my favourite one. Usually, it's cute to imagine a little kid trailing someone and bombarding them with questions about the jobs they're doing, but I'm not sure if it's quite as cute when it's watching someone operate on a prisoner.

Pacifist Vu started a social fight with Irwin, which resulted in her whole arm getting destroyed. Luckily Albina has the 'regrow limb' psycast, and hopefully, Vu will learn not to pick fights with people she has no hope of beating, no matter how empowered she feels wearing stolen liberated armour.

Then we got raided again by more people related to a colonist (and to prisoner Pusmeberrus, who in turn is related to Andrei and Andy). Fortunately, Hazrov is a crack shot and downed enough of them that the others turned tail and fled before they reached us. It made Wendy a bit sad, but I'm sure she'll get over it.

Finally, here's Andy being better at drawing dinosaurs than I could ever hope to be.

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[audible-smiles]

having a container garden on my back porch is gonna turn me into a bugwatcher, because they’re everywhere. butterflies in my hanging basket. bees on my chives. isopods under my flower pots. small flies on my lobelia. tiny spiderwebs in every nook or cranny. big ol’ wasps hunting around my hydrangea. they’re even worse at holding still for pictures than birds are, if that’s possible.

[forestanomaly]

Question game!

How do you de-stress?

What is something you're really good at?

How are you feeling right now?

Free Pass! What's your favorite thing to do outside?

I come outside and scream! It's only half-joke. One of my coping mechanisms is singing, I live in a village so I can go outside pretty much whenever I want, so when I feel bad (or happy, or just want to wiggle, or have to walk my dog...) I go out and sing along my playlist loudly, or just sing songs I remember or wrote without music. I also love walking, I find that it often helps to go on a twenty-minute walk around the streets when I feel overwhelmed.

I'd like to think drawing, but not like in a way that I'm better than other artists, but in a way that this is the thing I do and exercise the most. I also like to think that I'm good at reading animals? I try at least, it not always works but I really like them and I keep trying to talk the neigbourhood dogs into letting me pet them. Some of my friends said that I'm good at comforting people, but that's a complicated topic!

I have my school finals tomorrow so I'm lowkey stressed as hell but I'm also too tired to be actually panicking. That may change though. But I hope it won't.

As I already said, I love singing and walking outside .) I also love bugwatching (birds are cool, but they live in the sky! And sky is soo bright for my sorry little peepers that it hurts to look at it!), talking to animals in hopes that they will let me pet them and climbing into obscure places like dence woods or high hills, though I kinda stopped doing it that often because I'm afraid of landmines ._)

Thank you for asking, have a nice day!

[cupcakeshed]

I do this with my cat unironically. Specifically bugwatching

[drew-g-smith]

New Frontiers in Procrastination

https://vimeo.com/344889963 [Can’t figure why the embed is down]

Comedy/ Experimental/ “Documentary”

Conceived, Shot, and Edited June 22, 2019, Based on the prompts: Theme: "My own worst enemy" Prop: Ball

[talking-about-bug-snacks]

SPRINKLEPEDE

There are a few myriapod Bugsnax on Snaktooth Island, but only one MILLIPEDE Bugsnak, and that is Sprinklepede! How novel to have a creature based on an animal known for its long body, and have it a round loop. It brings to mind a millipede just resting while curled up for safety!

...and that sort of does describe Sprinklepede! It just wants to hang out. To find it, you must look not down in the leaf litter, but up, where it can be found on the side of Snorpy’s Bugwatch Tower!

I have to tell you something right now. I took so long to find Sprinklepede. I thought there had to be a catch. I thought that maybe I had to summon it, and that to summon it, I would have to play basketball in Chandlo’s dunk zone. It’s a loop like a basketball hoop. Maybe it likes basketball and wants to see you prove your skills! But it really was just up there on the tower all along.

If you want to catch Sprinklepede, you’re first going to have to bother it. If it is hit with the Snakgrappler, it will descend, but this has only just begun! Sprinklepede can roll on its side extremely quickly, too quickly to catch! It is such a sight for a donut to roll around the forest. It does always follow a set path, so the Trip Shot can be placed to stun it once you are In The Know. My favorite part is that Sprinklepede makes use of a stationary Lunchpad to bounce up a cliff! It can actually be caught in the air, unable to dodge like it is on the ground!

Sprinklepede is the fourth and final Bugsnak that was featured un-bugged on April Fool’s Day. Look! It’s Donut! It just rolls and falls down, and clearly someone just off screen had pushed it to get it rolling, and I think that is just wonderful.

[thorninyourpaw]

hi hello I’m glad you enjoy this I’ve been sitting on my brother’s porch bugwatching for like over an hour bugs get up to some weird shit man

today I watched some other kind of flying bug mount a wasp and ride it like a horse for a good 15 minutes

this is exactly the type of things i want to be told. i love this hello. hi

[spearxwind]

Some bug friends i found today while being outside for abt 30min Bonus: dead scolopendra (aka a very big centipede)

[jaybug-jabbers]

Tiny treasures from today's walk: Cute 'lil yellow mushroom (possibly a Death Cap!), California Bordered Plant Bug (he was zooming), oak apple gall (growths induced in oak trees by tiny parasitic wasps).

Look at how tiny the California Gall Wasp (Andricus quercuscalifornicus) actually is, so smol and cute. Its abdomen is so round, just like the galls it makes! 😂

When I went on my walk, I saw more species of birds in five minutes than I have for a whole year in Utah. It's so ridiculously nice to live in an area that is lush and full of life again. I haven't gone bird watching in many years, so I need to brush up my skills and break out the binoculars. Maybe start my bird list back up again. That'll be fun.

[callmebliss]

Little things are big things are little things

Daughterchild has an appointment in the city today, so I went to to wrangle my paintbox out of the trunk of SALM’s car so it wouldn’t be sitting there in the city in the expected near-100-degree heat of the day. When I got downstairs, neighborman was sitting on the steps doing bike repair and the kiddos (all four of them) swarmed me.

The eldest (8) immediately started showing off her bike riding sans training wheels skills, and the youngest (almost 2) unsuperglued himself from my leg just long enough to go get his favorite water pistol to show off to me. I got my paintbox and blanket out, put them on the steps, and admired both waterpistol and the several bikes.

While I was helping the eldest girl try to figure out why her bike chain kept going tick-tick-tick-tick-tick instead of shifting when she tried to go into fifth gear, SALM and Daughterchild came down. I rescued the abandoned waterpistol from the driveway behind his car, reined in the kids, and by the time he was on the road was getting pulled across the driveway by several tiny hands and smiles to sit on the Big Cool Rock in the shade.

It’s quite a nice rock - not quite knee high, as broad as a couch, with a flat top just slightly tilted toward the woods and deep valley/gully beyond the edge of the driveway. The wee fella sat next to me exploring my FitBit watch, all manner of delighted when I showed him how to push the button to turn on the screen, and the Eldest Neightborchild told me all about how they love to sit there and look for birds, and watch the trees, and think up games and adventures and inventions and stuff. We agreed that the soaring branches above the valley made it quite like a cathedral.

After alternating between some bugwatching and some “watch me, watch me!” hopping from big rock to big rock alongside the driveway (and letting each child try on my glasses and laugh in startlement at how strange the world looked), it was time for their bike ride with their dad. I showed the lad and the secondborn girl the secrets hidden in my paintbox, and agreed that maybe we could all have a Painting Party in the backyard later as long as they bring their own paints.

Breakfast was a half dozen cherry tomatoes plucked off the porch plant on the way in, with bits of white cheddar and squirts of yellow mustard. I swept a bunch of dirt and detritus out from under the kitchen table, although there is still more to do, and I repotted the kitchen money tree plant into a larger pot. There are still dishes waiting for doing, but I figured I’d waited until after coffee to hit them. Fed the cat, poured the coffee, and went back to the kitchen to grab my phone....

I could not find my phone.

It was not on the end of the table near the door, nor the end near my bag. It was not on the counter nor the cutting board. It was not on the bathroom vanity where I had put it while doing the needful. It was not on the porch steps. I had a very bad feeling.

Luckily, I have a “backup phone” that used to be DC’s. When she got her new one, it became mine so that I could attach it to the hotspot on my phone and use it to run two Pokemon Go trainers at once - very handy for raids when we might not otherwise have enough people. I fiddled with it, trying to figure out if I could use it to send a message to SALM or DC, and then remembered that Find My iPhone is a thing that exists. I brought it up. I logged in. I selected the device.

It was Last Seen on the very street and outside the very building where DC was having her appointment.

As it turns out, as long as the device in my hand with no SIM card still had wireless, I could still send iMessage texts to other iPhone users, and was able to text them to let them know and ask them to rescue my phone from the trunk so it doesn’t overheat. Since he’s in the city, SALM is going to be playing Pokemon Go, so I gave him my login info so he can get onto it on my phone as well and join me in on some raids.

It all feels quietly meaningful to me: nice that I am not, as I had been fearing, so umbilicalled to my phone that I have constant active awareness of where it is; nice that I can have such a good time with the neighborchildren and that the appreciate the wonders available in our mundane shared space; nice that even though I cannot grow the fat beefsteak tomatoes of my youth I can still enjoy the essence of one of the best summertime sandwiches my father ever taught me; nice beyond reason that the trust built between SALM and I is such that I can give him full unsupervised access to my phone without a second thought, because not only is there nothing there I don’t trust him knowing, but I also trust him to not snoop into anything aside from going into Pokemon Go.

And it’s nice that I have the backup phone and was able to download the Roku Remote app to it so I can second-screen some Netflix or something while I start test-crocheting the pattern I’m working out from That Shawl.

[xx-evil-wizard-xx]

I was bugwatching from my porch window which is a thing I do now I guess (it’s like exposure therapy but some bugs are cool looking also) and I just saw a gentleman make a beautiful white little coom deposit on my window

[rubygypsygirl]

Cute Cat Photos 💜💜💜 So I’m sitting here and all of a sudden I hear my cat almost like whimpering but not in distress. She wasn’t hurt in any way, so I look over and there is a moth up near the light. It reminded me of when my son was a little boy and he started screaming “Mom! Mom! Bug! Bug! Get it away from me!” There was a bug in the bathroom and he was freaking out. Now she is standing vigil looking for the moth. 😂😂😂. #catlovers #bugwatching #gratefulheart https://www.instagram.com/p/B9_i9fEle-a/?igshid=tkzjewmhjj17

[estuarine-space-communism]

on Halloween I found an unusual spider at work that I didn't think much of, but knew I didn't recognize. so I shared it with my facebook bugwatch community, and no one - even experts - knew what it was. after a day of everyone being stumped, it was identified as a rare species of sheetweb weaver that is found in the North Atlantic region, but is so obscure and little-known that it doesn't have a bugguide page and there are only a handful of records of it anywhere in North America. there are also no pictures of this species on google. it is being submitted to bugguide as the first record for the genus in North America. wow. needless to say this is the rarest find I have ever made.

[1800crypticcryptids]

OH MY GOD IM ONTO MYSTERY SPOT YESSSS