#spiders are so good for the ecosystem

[briwhosaysni]

I gotta say, I am Not Happy with the frequency with which I'm suddenly finding spiders in my new apartment, nor with the fact that each one has been bigger than the last.

The first one a couple days ago was tiny, maybe like half a centimeter. The next one yesterday was maybe a couple centimeters. Bigger, but still small enough for me to deal with on my own. This morning's I would estimate is about an inch across (firmly in "hell no" territory), and at this rate I'm genuinely concerned I'm gonna wake up tomorrow to a fucking wolf spider or something in my kitchen, at which point I will unfortunately have to burn the entire place down

[vulpinesaint]

saw + killed a spider while i was cleaning the bathroom earlier so now i am subject to the spider’s curse (constant crawling feeling all over me and being Sure it’s another spider for the next two hours)

[headspace-hotel]

How to begin a sustainable way of life

This is a draft of something I've been writing for a couple months. It is mainly focused on the culture of the USA. Feel free to repost or otherwise share, with or without credit.

Do not tell people what to do—help them do it! 

Give the gift of relief from being forced to engage in society’s unsustainable ways of life. 

“People need to eat more plant-based foods.” ->Talk about your favorite recipes, give others recipes, cook for them, and grow vegetables and plants in your garden and give them away as gifts. 

“People need to repair their clothes.” -> Offer to repair others’ clothes, and teach people how to repair their clothes. 

“People need to buy less clothes.” -> Give them old clothes that you don’t want, help them repair their clothes

“People need to buy less plastic stuff.” -> Learn to make things that can serve the same purpose, such as baskets, and give them as gifts. Let people borrow things you own so they don’t have to buy their own. 

“People need to stop using leafblowers and other gas-guzzling machinery.” -> Offer to rake the leaves. You can use them as compost in your own garden. 

“People need to be more educated about nature.”-> Learn about nature yourself. Tell people about nature. Be open about your love of creatures such as snakes, spiders, and frogs. Do not show awareness that this could be strange. You are not obligated to quiet down your enthusiasm for creepy crawlies to demonstrate awareness that it is weird. Point out at every opportunity how these animals are beneficial. 

“People need to use cars less.” -> Offer rides to others whenever you must go somewhere. Whenever you are about to go to the store, ask your neighbor or your friend who lives along the way, “Is there anything you need from the store?” 

You cannot control others’ behaviors, but you can free them from being controlled. 

If you think to yourself, “But this would be so difficult to do!” ask yourself WHY? Why does your society coerce you into less sustainable ways of living, forcing you to consume excessively? After thinking about this, consider that it is less simple and easy than you thought to make more sustainable choices, so why would you judge others for not doing it? 

Do not act alone—act with others! 

Environmentally friendly behaviors that can be done alone, without collaborating with or consulting another person, are the least powerful of all. Whenever an “environmentally friendly” behavior is suggested, figure out “How can I give this as a gift?” or “How can I make this possible on the level of a whole community?” 

“Personal choices” do not work because every single person has to make them individually. If you are focused on making your own personal choice, you are not focused on others. If you are not focused on others, you are not helping them. If nobody is helping each other, most people won’t be able to make the “personal choice.”

You inherently share an ecosystem with your neighbors  

            Start with your neighbors, the people physically close to you. You live on the same patch of land, containing roots from the same plants and trees. You can speak to them face to face without traveling, which means you can easily bring them physical things without using resources to travel. 

            Always talk to your neighbors and be friendly with them. Offer them favors unprompted and tell them about how your garden is doing. Do not be afraid to be annoying—a slightly annoying neighbor who is helpful, kind, and can be relied upon for a variety of favors or in times of need is a necessary and inevitable part of a good community. If you make the effort to be present in somebody’s life, they will have to put up with you on some occasions, but that is just life. We cannot rely on each other if we do not put up with each other. 

Simply spending time with someone influences them for good 

Every hour you spend outside with your neighbor is an hour your neighbor doesn’t spend watching Fox News. Every hour you spend talking with someone and interacting with them in the real world, eating real food and enjoying your real surroundings, is an hour you don’t spend only hearing a curated picture of what reality is like from social media. 

            Isolation makes it easy for people to become indoctrinated into extremist beliefs. When someone spends more time alone, watching TV, Youtube, or scrolling social media, than they do with others, their concept of what other people are like and what the world is like comes more from social media than real life. TV and online media are meant to influence you in a specific way. Simply restricting the access these influences have to yourself and others is helpful. 

A garden is the source of many gifts 

If you grow a garden, you can give your neighbors and friends the gift of food, plants, and crafted objects. This is one of the foundational ways to form community. When you give food, you provide support to others. When you give plants, you are encouraging and teaching about gardening. It is even better when you give recipes cooked from things you grew, or items crafted from things you grew. You can also give the gift of knowledge of how to grow these plants, cook these recipes, or craft these objects. 

More on gift-giving

            Some people are uncomfortable with receiving items or services as gifts. They want to feel like they are giving something back, instead of having obligation to return the favor hanging over them. 

            It can help to ask a simple favor that can be easily fulfilled. People generally like the feeling of helping someone else. 

When you give someone a gift, it can help to say something like “Oh, I have too many of this thing to take care of/store/eat myself! Do you think you could take some?” This makes your neighbor feel like they are helping you. 

When allowing others to borrow items, you might not get them back. Don’t worry about that. It just means the item found a place where it was needed the most. You can ask about the item if you think it might have been forgotten, and this can create an opportunity for a second meeting. But don’t press. 

If the person you give to insists upon some form of payment, this is a good opportunity to negotiate a trade. 

Ask to be given compostable or recyclable things 

Ask your neighbor to save compostable scraps, biodegradable cardboard and paper products, and any other items that might be put to use. Use them in your own compost pile. Or, start a compost pile at the edge of the yard where you both can add to it. Remember that “wet” compost like vegetable and fruit bits needs to be mixed with twice as much of “dry” and “woody” compost like cardboard, leaves, small twigs, paper and wood bits. 

Use the front yard for gardening

Overcome the cultural norm that the front yard is only decorative. Use the front yard for gardening so you can be seen by others enjoying your garden, and others can witness the demonstration of the possibilities of land. In the front yard, anything you do intentionally with your land can be witnessed. It also makes you a visible presence in your community. 

Grow staple foods 

Don’t just grow vegetables that cannot be the core component of a meal themselves. Grow potatoes, dry beans, black eyed peas and other nourishing, calorie-dense foods. Grow the ingredients of meals. You could even build a garden around a recipe.

Invite neighbors and friends over to eat food made from things you grew 

Be sure to send them home with leftovers.  

Grow plants for baskets 

Containers are one of the fundamental human needs. If we had more containers, we wouldn’t need plastic so much. You can learn to make baskets, and to grow plants that provide the raw materials for baskets. 

If someone rakes their leaves, ask to have the leaves  

If you see someone putting leaves in bags, don’t be afraid to ask if you can have the leaves. More likely than not they will be happy to agree. 

Collaborate with neighbors to plant things in the no-man’s-land of the property line 

In the border land between your neighbor’s yard and your yard, it is almost always just mowed grass because no one can plant anything without it affecting their neighbor. But these border lands add up to a lot of space. It would be much better if you talked to your neighbor about what would be nice to plant there, and together created a plan for that space. 

Give others the freedom to wander 

Make it clear that you will not get mad if the neighbor’s kids play in your yard or run across it. Invite the neighbors onto your land as much as possible. Tell them they are allowed to spend time in a favored spot whenever they would like.  

The power of the hand-made sign 

If there is a yard sale, you always know about it because of the hand-drawn signs placed around. Therefore, a cookout or unwanted item exchange can be announced the same way. In rural areas I have seen hand-made signs that say: FIREWOOD or WE BUY GOATS or EGGS. This is one of the few technologies of community that remain in the USA. If someone who looks to buy and sell can put up a hand-made sign, why shouldn’t you?  

Religious people or people with strong political opinions like to put signs everywhere. If they have the confidence and courage to do so, why shouldn’t you? 

So if there is a message you would like everyone to see, use the simple power of the hand-made sign. Proclaim “BEE FRIENDLY ZONE!” above your pollinator garden with all the confidence of a religious fundamentalist billboard. Announce to the world, “VEGETABLES FREE TO ALL—JUST ASK!” “WE TAKE LEAVES—NO PESTICIDES.” Instead of YARD SALE, or perhaps in conjunction with YARD SALE, you can write, PLANT EXCHANGE or SEED SWAP or CLOTHING SWAP. Who can stop you? 

Someone has to do it for society to change  

Some of these ideas might be eccentric, strange, or even socially unacceptable, but there is no way to change what is normal except to move against it. Someone has to be weird. It might as well be you. 

[brainworms-all-night-long]

Oh my god bugs don't even get me started on bugs, there's literally so many and everywhere in every niche imaginable and you could go outside to look at a cool bug right now

I've always been more of a reptile and avian enthusiasts but I have recently opened my eyes to bugs and arachnids as well and oh my god my quality of life has improved significantly. The second you go from "ew annoying thing in my drink. Wasps are the spawn of Satan that are deliberately malicious! Spiders are disgusting and scary and need to be killed on sight!!" to "that is literally just a little guy that has a fraction of your live span trying to get through its daily existence, yet as a lineage has been on this planet for time incomprehensible yet again"

Yes some of them are pests and even dangerous by carrying infectious and life threatening diseases, but they don't do that on purpose, none of them are actively malicious until you wrong them first (in reference to people messing with hornets which have photographic memory btw)

The fist animals were bugs, the first creatures to take powered flight were bugs, first terrestrial predators and herbivores were bugs and so on and so forth. We have numerous fossils and resin encased bugs to tell stories of history, some of those helping us understand disease better, and make us realize ancient animals were literally just living beings known to a world that looked different but fundamentally remained same

We think mammals are peak because they're easy to see and we're mammals (humanocetrism check), but bugs have been here before anything thought of even becoming a mammal and were gigantic at one point. Smthin smth 90% of all species of animal on the planet prescribed ARE BUGS (a third of those are probably weevils and another half are beetles)

And some people don't even even consider bugs animals

Here's a jewel beetle I saw on my way from school for the last time just now :D

I actually teared up when thinking abt the horshoe crab once, like fym this organism has been existing since the Ordovician which was around 450mil years ago, they managed to survive the most decimating extinctions that man knows off, ice ages and tropical climates, Apex predators that come and gone, their lineage has been alive for so long they completed a full rotation around the Milky way Galaxy TWICE, and if you have the means you could GO and SEE IT and HOLD IT TODAY because it is still scuttling about the shores of our planet as it did for time so long it is near incomprehensible.

Through all that, they barely changed, their fossils look like they're imprints from yesterday, there's a trace fossil of a poor crab suffocating in an anoxic lagoon that is around 150mil years old and there's a full HD colored video from 2022 of a horshoe crab helping another flip from it's back for absolutely no reward or personal benefit other than helping a fellow out

[gallusrostromegalus]

any gardening advice for dealing with a million pill bugs consuming the plant life in a supremely wet climate? (there are so many they are killing my strawberries and rhubarb everything says wait for it to dry out but it is dry for like 2 months here max (pacific northwest) any and all wisdom will be accepted please god)

I regret to inform you that the real solution is multi-year terraforming, but this is also our duty as residents of planet earth.

The GOOD news is that in the interem, you can surround your strawberries with Diatomaceous Earth to protect what's left of them (make sure to dig around the stems to get any lurking there), and that when you break it out over the course of a couple of years, the terraforming is very manageable in both physical effort and financial impact.

The reason you have an ungodly number of ravenous rolly-pollies is because you have an even more ungodly number of rolly-pollies than you are imagining that have fuck-all to eat and fuck-all eating them. I do not know the exact circumstances of your yard, but odds are your property has no isopod food or real predators because it's either been terraformed into suburban sterility OR terraformed to sterility and then neglected, which is not the same thing as rewilding.

I can't speak to the PNW specifically, but I highly recommend reaching out to your county extension (look up "(your county name) extension phone numer/email") and they'll be able to give you contact information or websites for people who can tell you how to basically re-terraform your yard back into a viable landscape with native plants and minimal upkeep for your area.

Once you've got the local ecosystem going again, the isopods will leave off your strawberries to eat their normal detritus and will also be a lot more cautious about roaming far and wide for food once their predators like Woodlouse spiders, centipedes, frogs and newts and almost all birds are regularly patrolling the garden.

@headspace-hotel definitely knows more about this than I do, but I've had a lot of success with diatomaceous earth as a short-term protector, and every time I've put in more native shrubland/steppe plants in CO, my pest problems in general go way down.

[markrosewater]

As someone who only recently got properly into Magic this year my stance on the recent UB Standard legality is that so long as the mechanics are good, fun to play, and work well with the other Standard legal sets then I don't particularly care if Final Fantasy is legal.

But.

There is something about the Marvel Universe being Standard Legal that feels off. Final Fantasy shares many aesthetic and gameplay similarities to Magic that make it slide into the general ecosystem better from a Look/Feel perspective. Meanwhile, as much of a Spider-Man fan as I am, it is going to be incredibly weird seeing Peter Parker or Miles Morales face off against the critters of Bloomburrow, even more than Thunder Junction or Duskmourn do.

I will attend the Final Fantasy and Spider-Man prereleases because I love playing Magic and I am interested in both sets, but I cannot shake the feeling that this decision makes the overall play experience strange, especially since SIX Standard sets of a year is way overdoing it (maybe 3 In-Universe sets and 1 UB set would be a better balance?)

I understand the decision from a logical standpoint but the emotional reaction to Magic losing some of its Qualia is something that I can't ignore

I have read many of the responses to my request for emotional responses yesterday (I will continue reading - there are just a lot of people sharing). A common through line is the feeling of loss, that the decisions we’ve been making are taking things away from them.

So, I wanted to take a moment to talk about something that I believe Universes Beyond is adding to the game. I’m not talking about value to other people that aren’t you, but something that is upside to the enfranchised players that are the backbone of the game.

As I’m head designer, my focus is on mechanics and the core gameplay experience of playing the game. Universes Beyond has been a bolt of energy for the design of the game.

Because so many of you are sharing personal stories, I’ll use my own experiences as a way to illustrate my point.

One day, when I was seven or eight, I woke up and went downstairs to see that my Dad had bought me a comic book and left it out on the counter for me as a surprise. It was Spider-Man.

I must have read that comic ten times. It was the start of a life long love of comic books. I’m not quite sure why the superhero genre, in particular, spoke to me so strongly, but it did.

As a teenager I was a bit of an outcast, and when I stumbled upon the X-Men, it felt like a story that was core to my lived experience. I too was an outsider, but out there were people like me and if I could find those people, we could bond over our similarities.

I enjoy designing Magic. I mean really, really enjoy designing Magic. I don’t throw around the term “dream job” lightly. It is truly a lifelong passion. I spend so much time writing about it because it is something that brings me so much joy, and there is a desire to share that joy with others, my found family that shares my similarities.

Designing Marvel cards has been electrifying. I have spent years mastering the art of Magic design. Getting to combine that with my love of Marvel characters has been inspirational. It has inspired to make designs I would have never thought of.

It has pushed me in directions I couldn’t have predicted and resulted in designs that tickle both my inner Mel and Vorthoses.

And it hasn’t just affected my own designs. I have given more notes on card designs than I have in my twenty nine years at Wizards.

For example, the amount of back and forth with Aaron who designed the five Secret Lair cards we recently revealed at New York ComicCon was exhaustive. He and I have long bonded over our shared love of Marvel, so getting to translate that into Magic with him has been amazing.

And each Universes Beyond product we’re making has people as equally passionate about that property.

My point is from purely a design perspective, Universes Beyond has had huge dividends. It has inspired us to make fresh new designs. It has sparked creativity. We are making awesome card designs, mechanics, themes, and sets, things that most likely wouldn’t have come into existence otherwise.

The passion that beloved characters and worlds has inspired in us is translated into amazing Magic design, something that will make the act of playing Magic better for anyone who enjoys the nuts and bolts of the raw gameplay of Magic.

[bogleech]

With most insects and things I can understand that they have a place in the ecosystem, but I have trouble understanding the same thing with bed bugs. Are they just like. Kind of domesticated ticks? How did they end up almost solely indoors (to my understanding)? I had them in my apartment a while back and it was a pretty traumatizing experience. I know they don’t carry diseases like mosquitos and are really more mentally/emotionally harmful than physically harmful.

I saw your post about how we should be thankful the world isn’t so sterile that there’s no living thing left to harm or inconvenience us. And I do agree! But I think bedbugs are the one thing that I have trouble fully grasping that concept with. It’s harder to see the bigger picture with something that occurs in such a small and personal space, I suppose.

I can't find the post where I launched into this before but tiny bloodsucking animals ("micropredator" is growing as the preferred term over lumping them in with "parasites" per se!) exert a lot of important pressures on their host animals; everyone knows predators change how animals eat, sleep, mate, nest together and migrate, but so do the things that just "annoy" them, like having fleas! Additionally "micropredators" work together with predators and diseases in regulating population balance, and by taking nutrients non-lethally from their hosts, they help redistribute energy back into circulation! A little flea or tick or bed bug collects a little blood protein from a bear, it gets eaten by a spider or it dies and rots, and now that bear's protein energy is back in the food web well before the bear has passed on! All throughout that bear's life, its blood is "becoming" all these little pesky bugs that then become food for other things! When it comes to bed bugs, which are closely related to stinkbugs, assassin bugs, aphids and other "true bugs," they adapted to live in bird's nests, bat caves, rodent dents, anywhere juice-filled vertebrates come home to and rest, and the ones that feed on us are so closely related to a bat-specialized species you can only barely tell them apart:

The "bat bug," however, can't utilize human blood well enough to maintain an infestation on human hosts alone! They fully require bats!

We aren't sure when some bat bugs branched off and started traveling with humans, but we do know that they used to be MUCH MUCH EASIER to deal with. Perfectly ordinary pesticides used to clear up a bed bug problem just fine. That changed when we invented DDT and tried to use it to wipe them out altogether. It's one of the harshest synthetic poisons ever developed, and it kills through just an ion channel in the animal's nervous system. By drenching North America in DDT for years on end, we "seemingly" wiped out bed bugs and a few other things, but really all we did was give a few generations of human beings a bunch of new chronic illnesses and give a few generations of insects a mutation that makes them resistant to not just DDT but lots and lots of other poisons.

Bed bugs basically destroy people's lives but never naturally evolved to be that good at it; it's just another result of capitalism ignoring the warnings of the scientific community. People died rich off DDT before they ever had to care about its after effects.

[ctrldoll]

teehee i found your post on ao3 and saw spiderverse and jjk!! >v<

i was wondering if you could do a kinda crossover with gojo as spiderman (cliché ik pls dont come for me) infiltrating enemy base and finding out that reader IS the enemy (any villain of your choice) BUTTTTT reader also happens to be his significant other aaaand yeah angst drama heart wrenching scene NO HAPPY ENDING PLS AND TYYYYYY

Yes!

I loved writing this! I decided to go with Villain Reader! 's persona being similar to Hannibal's! (Yes, I've recently watched the films and series! They're great!) Thank you for letting me write this, Anon! It was creative and so much fun! ♡(˃͈ ˂͈ ) !

Request announcement!

New Revelations, Same Old Embrace.

Pairing: Spider-man! Gojo Satoru / GN! Reader

Genre: Angst/No comfort

It’s been days. Weeks. Months. Hours upon hours have been spent. Days where exhaustion tolled continuously despite exertion of energy into ensuring that it was done. That it was possible. Good was finally going to be done over the city. Justice would brought swiftly and prevail.

Satoru’s eyes remained locked on his target. An office building that seemed average alongside its companions of brick and cement. However, this was the location all his investigation brought him to. The paperwork behind it, despite it being so much, covered the owner in anonymity. "What's the status, AIS?" He scans the area for wandering security, having marked their stations and schedules. By now, they’d be at the entrance gate or circling through the other buildings. “They’ve already searched the building. One’s stationed at the building after the one to its right and their partner is walking towards the entrance where three of them are. One’s watching the surveillance cameras.” AIS informed him. A 3D hologram of the building was brought into view, infrared detection of the security confirming its words. "Thanks."

Satoru slid the window and curtains back into place and observed. The room was rather simplistic. Pens on their stands and paper on top of the desk. He lifts a document and looks through. It's the same piece of financial information about the office he looked through. It lacked creasing, as though it was barely touched. "No dust." He utters to himself as he looks at his fingertips, rubbing his index and thumb. "Satoru, it's nearly time for dinner. You had informed [Name] you'd arrive on time." AIS reminds him, bringing the time into view: 8:15 PM.

"Shit- I forgot." Again. The tiny voice in the back of his head seemingly reprimands him. Guilt fills his underbelly when he remembers the (nearly) subtle hurt on your face when you woke to him sneaking into bed on midnight. He knows his duties constrict his relationship with them, but he’s unsure of how he’ll reveal himself. Every time an opportunity to reveal, it’s almost as though his throat is constricted, only able to speak when regarding something else. “Please send a text saying I’ll be home later.”

"There's got to be something here." He whispers, shifting his attention back to the task on hand, lightly looking through the desk for anything. "Pause." AIS halts his movement, it's hologram drifting close to the edge of the right side of the desk. "There's thrumming here- it's electricity." With a push at the edge, a framework with a button in the middle is revealed.

Brushing off his hesitation with motivation, he clicks it. The back of the office is split into two, revealing an elevator. “What are the chances this is safe?” He asks AIS, surprised as he walks into it. “Low, but there’s only one way to find out. I didn’t expect this either.” “Right.”

The glass walls presented an unexpected furnished thick sheet of metal structuring the elevator’s components. “What is this place?” Satoru wonders, quietly observing the ecosystem of nature and technology around the elevator. “S-ator-” AIS tries to inform but goes quiet. “Something’s messing the bandwidth and blocking me. You’ll have to manage on your own while I figure it out.” The message appears on his screen within the mask. “Damn it.” Satoru responds, now on high alert. The elevator halts to a stop once he reaches the concrete floor and opens.

The skillet is on high heat as [Name] tosses the vegetables around. Their attention shifts to the steak graced by the oil underneath it as it starts to sizzle. "I hope Satoru comes home soon."

You were unable to shake off the feeling that something was amiss each time you thought about his whereabouts in the late night. The possibility of him straying away for someone else seemed ridiculous to you when the late arrivals started happening, now, they took a tiny compartment in your mind. You never entertained the thought for too long, though.

What if? What if he’s seen through your delicately disguised persona of an average individual? What if he’s seen the icky gore and murk in your core? What if he’s aware you’re a terrible person?

“What?” You stare at your watch that indicates activity within your base with every flash and ding. No one knows about it. Anger and nervousness flares through you while you conclude on the only person who could infiltrate it as you turn everything off in a rush and head on to it.

Spider-man.

Satoru’s eyes gloss over the machinery on the workstation within your lair. He’s confirmed that they are of your work due to its wiring being similar to those he has stored over time.

Looking at the corner, he detects a bright object luring him it. It’s a brooch. “What?” He recognises its similarity to the custom one he gifted you on your last anniversary. Even the initials match yours and his around the detailed metal and intricate gemstone. He hurriedly scans it, every detail proving accurate to his surprise. A piece of paper drops to the floor next to him and he lifts it. His eyes widen in surprise and anxiousness overcomes him. It’s a photo of the both of you in a photo booth with you smiling while he kisses your cheek.

Before he can rush through the possibilities, a gas rapidly begins to fill the room. He rushes to the elevator, pushing the button but it fails on him. Dizziness begins to overcome him and his eyes search for any other exit. He falls to the floor and breathes in more of the toxic fumes. The elevator opens and his eyes drowsily move to the blurry view of a masked silhouette, who twists their head. Everything fades to black.

Clink. Clank. The plate is gently placed on the table. Silverware has been set as well, adding onto the domestic feeling. Pop. The sound of the corkscrew popping the wine open causes Satoru to sluggishly awaken. Remembrance buzzes through him and he quickly acknowledges the lack of constraint he feels around his face.

Looking around him in urgency he notices the familiarity of the area. The books are in its usual spot and his glasses are on the tiny table in the corner. The chair next to him has a briefcase on it. He's home. Sitting in the dining room.

He tries to move, but the metal confinements bound around his wrists prevent him from doing so. He's still wearing his suit-except for the mask.

"Be careful. We wouldn't want you to injure yourself anymore that you already have. No need to worry, the gas will wear off." The voice softly said, intimate as he heard its tone many times before. He lifts his head in fright of what he's see and his senses prove him right. You look straight into his blue orbs in exhaustion, struggling to comprehend the disgust and hurt you feel towards him. Anger fills him as he observes your form. Your height and suit match. Everything makes sense now. You're his villain.

"Why?" Satoru seethes as he sweats. His eyes are slightly swollen, face flushed red as hurt occupies every sense within him. "Why not?" You turn away for a moment, slightly ashamed. "It seems I've gotten rusty over the years. I shouldn't have left anything there. You would have remained none the wiser." You angle him over his plate of food and wine. With a quick glance at his defeat, you sit at your own position across from him.

"I decided to cook one of your favourites this evening. Guess something mystical brought me into preparation." You sarcastically say with a chuckle, cutting into your meal. "Years? All those people you've hurt, [n/n]—" He pauses at the slip of your nickname and you visibly flinch. "How could you?"

"Easily, honey." You place your fork down and hold your wine glass. "It's the way of the world. Predator eat prey. Man eat man. I've maintained myself by adjusting to it." The rim is brought to your lips and you sip. "This wine is really good. You should try it." You begin to crumble when the next topic slips in your mind.

"Never thought you were Spider-Man. Your late arrivals here make so much sense now. How do you even do it? Those injuries I leave you with must be terrible to tolerate. I'm sorry about them." Tears prick the edge of your eyes, time being a hassle to you as you comprehend how much it is slipping.

"I can help you, please." Satoru always noticed whenever you were upset, and despite the new revelation and the lack of mistrust he held of you now, a part of him still wanted to cling on- to love you.

"There's no help for me, darling. It's been too long. I can't change." You lift your head, uncaring of the tears that carelessly slip out of yours when you see his slip out bit by bit through his red swollen eyes.

"I've hurt you countless times. The...one person I swore I wouldn't harm." You take in a large gulp, uncaring of the formality before dropping the wine glass on the table with shivering hands. You hear a slight crack, but pay little attention to it. "It looks like I'm done with my meal."

"We can do this. It'll take some time, but please. I love you." You let out a wail at his plead, moving to stand before him. "Satoru, please." You gently place your fingers on his cheeks, hurting at the sensitivity from the gas he must feel. You're selfish enough to maintain the hold, wanting to savour every second left. "I'm leaving, Satoru." Slightly tightening your hold on him as he shuffles. "You don't have to." "I must."

"But know this, I truly cherished every moment we were together. You were the one person I've valued in my life. I've been loved, and I've ruined it." Satoru attempts to break out once more but his efforts are all in vain. You brush off a tiny droplet that slips out of his eye and lay a gentle kiss on his forehead. The acidity of the gas causes a slight tingling sensation on your lips. You should have at least wiped him of it, but it'll eventually fade.

"I'll find you." Satoru says, defeated and slumps his shoulders. "I don't doubt your ability, but I'll make sure it'll be difficult." You embrace him despite the limitations of the chair. His breath on your neck causes a shiver within you. He hates how it feels like all the others you've shared. He hates how he craves it to last.

You step away from him, heart heavy but affirmed on your decision. "The constraint will break free in twenty minutes, the house and lair will detonate in three afterwards. Your things are safe in the location within the message I've sent. AIS won't be available until you're out of this household." You inform him and place a timer in front of him then grab your briefcase.

"Goodbye, Satoru." You look at him one last time in a hope he'll respond. He bitterly looks away, causing you to rush out, wiping your tears as you open the front door.

The click of the door finalises your presence. Satoru pushes his hands with all his strength, but no movements work. His wrists are raw and the effects of the gas begin to slowly wear off. His anger pushes him further to attempt to break free. He lets out a pained shout as he feels skin tear on his wrist and blood begins to seep through his blue suit. His eyes turn to the timer, which states that there are seventeen minutes left.

Meanwhile, you try to calm yourself in your car as you drive out of the city. Your tears blur your sight and you quickly attempt to brush them. You're driving too fast for your comfort, but the pain of the end of your relationship dominates your fear. You're nearing your lair.

It'll be quick.

The car will detonate in the lair.

All your information will auto-delete in the sequence.

Your finances are settled through an off-shore savings account you've kept to yourself.

You will rebuild.

[nargacuga-tamer8000]

Inspired to make this idea ever since it's canon that Erik has trouble relating to other people. SO, here's him trying the only way he knows how. And I had my hunter in mind, but I will make this an x reader for everyone to enjoy. Hope people like it!

Field Notes on Affection: Data Collection

You have been feeling rather down lately due to two things: a strange feeling of homesickness is one, but the major thing is that your feelings for Erik seem to be unnoticed. At least, that's what you think.

Erik had gotten strangely focused.

Not in the usual “ran off after a glowing mushroom or a giant spider” way—but deliberate. Structured. His notebook pages, normally filled with charts and crude sketches of bugs, had begun to feature strange little diagrams. You recognized one—clearly a Seikret—presenting a fish to another. Another sketch showed a flying wyvern preening its mate’s neck.

You blinked at it, frowning slightly. “Erik… are you… studying monster courtship?”

“Yes.” He didn’t even flinch.

“Why?”

He didn’t look up from the page. “Behavioral analysis. Trying to map patterns of emotional communication across species.”

You tilted your head. “...For the Guild?”

“No.” He looked up now. Met your gaze for once, and this time… didn’t look away. “It’s for you.”

Your breath caught.

His expression stayed serious. “I’m not good with human emotions. But I understand creature logic. So, I thought… maybe if I studied how monsters form bonds, I could approximate a framework of how to show you—” He paused. Cleared his throat. “—That I… care.”

You felt like someone had cracked your chest open.

He flipped the page, cheeks tinged pink. “For example, the male Lala Barina creates a nesting spot of paralyzed prey to protect its mate. I thought about building you a stronger sleeping mat, but Gemma said that might be ‘too creepy.’”

You snorted.

He continued, flipping again. “Then I observed the Seikret's bonding display—gifting rare items, like scales or shiny objects. I’ve given you flowers, teeth, feathers—though not prey. Yet.”

“Yet?” you laughed.

He smiled, finally—boyish and awkward and so Erik. “If it helps. I will.”

Your heart was doing ridiculous things.

He tapped the last sketch—two Talioth nuzzling after a cooperative hunt. “This is the one I’m most curious about. Shared effort under duress. Fighting beside someone to build connection. Do you think that’s accurate?”

You were still staring at him, stunned.

“Erik,” you said slowly, “are you trying to love me like a wyvern?”

His brow furrowed. “I don’t know how to love you like a person.”

That shut you up.

Because that was the most real, most raw thing he could have said. Not a poetic confession. Not a grand gesture. Just… Erik. Sincere. Searching. Trying.

He reached out suddenly and took your hand. His grip was clumsy, unsure. Like he didn’t quite know the right amount of pressure, or if it was even okay. But he did it.

And you understood.

“I don’t need you to get it right,” you whispered. “I just need you to try.”

His fingers twitched slightly. “Then I’ll keep documenting. Until I do.”

A Few Days Later...

It started with the food.

He handed you a bowl of stew without being asked—awkwardly holding it out, clearly trying not to spill any. You blinked, surprised.

“I noticed your appetite has decreased since the last inclemency,” he said, as if explaining a weather report. “But you still respond positively to Alma’s spice blend. So, I adjusted the ratio.”

“…You made this?”

He hesitated. “I supervised.”

You took it slowly, unsure. But one taste confirmed it—your favorite. Spiced just right. Nothing bizarre. Warm in a way that made your chest ache more than your stomach.

“I wrote it down,” he added, fidgeting with the hem of his sleeve. “In case you like it again later.”

Then came the questions.

Not the ones about monsters or ecosystems or pollen. The kind that caught you off guard.

“Do you prefer cold mornings or warm ones?” he asked one evening as you watched the sun dip behind the canopies of the Scarlet Forest. A Rathalos roaring one final time before nightfall.

You tilted your head. “Why?”

“For relational calibration.”

You blinked. “…What?”

“I’m building a profile.” He flipped open a little side notebook that he took from one of his interior pockets, not his usual field notebook but one marked in your favorite color. “You smiled yesterday when it rained. Noted. You also linger near the central fire even when the temperature isn’t low. Possible comfort preference. I’m still adjusting for external variables.”

You tried not to laugh. You really tried.

But it escaped anyway—soft and stunned and affection-drunk. He looked up quickly at the sound, startled. You saw the tiniest flicker of pride in his eyes. Like a Palico who had just landed a successful hit.

“You’re studying me like I’m a monster,” you said, teasing.

His voice was quiet when he replied: “No. I’m studying you like you’re important.”

And just like that, the laughter died in your throat—because now your eyes were stinging again.

The next evening, you found a sketch on your cot.

It was you.

Not perfectly drawn—his style was clinical, anatomical even—but it was you. Sitting with your legs curled up, one hand on your chin, head tilted toward something off-page. Your expression soft. Thoughtful. Real.

He’d captured a moment you didn’t even remember having.

Scrawled in the corner, small and neat, were the words:

Observed during quiet hour. Subject appears calm, self-contained, and brighter when near firelight. Causes irregular spike in my heart rate. Source unknown. Hypothesis: proximity comfort. Continue observation.

You pressed the page to your chest and breathed.

No one had ever wanted to understand you like this. Not just admire you or flirt with you or chase you. But understand you. Your preferences. Your comfort zones. Your weather patterns.

And somehow—despite the charts and confusion and scientific detachment—Erik was learning to love you in his own, strange, honest way.

[prismaticpichu]

when baby!Seph can hear heartbeats ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧

~

Wolf Spider

Ba-dum...

Ba-dum...

Ba-dum-dun...

Large, mako-ringed eyes burned like curious stars, enraptured by the creature's movements, the feline slits within those green embers tracing every deft, skittering motion that carried it forward, carrying it through the dark.

Ba-dum-dun...

He canted his head, continuing to study the alien shape, observing it from a fresh, inquisitive angle—pupils blooming, irises glimmering, ungloved hands palming against the cold tile as he leaned in closer, drinking in more of its foreign features.

Ba-dum-DUN...

The creature was no larger than a teardrop, no taller than a bulbous splotch of ink, and a loud majority of its size was dedicated to its spool of thin, threadlike legs: four on each side, if he was counting right, amounting to eight total legs jutting from its body, the likes of which were split into two like a plump, blackened cell.

Ba-duM-DUN...

It paid no mind to the emerald moons watching over it, unbothered and unfazed by the pools of mako-jade light that drenched it in limelight, which observed it under a flameless heat lamp as it continued its journey along the cold, hard tile; independent, courageous, determined. It didn't scurry away as the boy inched ever closer, gingerly dipping his head until his nose was practically kissing the floor, his eyes nearly level with the brave, precious organism.

Ba-dUM-DUN...

It was so quiet in his room, so still. He bridled his breath as to not disturb this rare swath of tranquility and kept any noises to breathy hums and rumbles. He didn't want to shatter it; he didn't want anything to shatter it. He just wanted to lie there and lie there forever, soaking in the company of this mysterious creature that had wandered into his room that didn't view him as a predator, animal, or prey. A little miracle that coexisted beside him, breathing the same air, walking on the same planet. A little treasure that omitted the barriers of his ecosystem, ignoring the venomous web that constructed his world, binding him to a life as an apex predator: always hungry, always hunting, always killing.

Ba-DUM-DUN...

Ba-DUM-DUN...

Ba-DUM-DUN......

And, closing his eyes, the boy simply Listened:

Ba-DUM-DUN...

Ba-DUM-DUN...

BA-DUM-DUN...

Life was so precious, so fragile, so—

"Sephiroth!"

BA-DUUuummmmmmmmmmmmmmsqsdhhhhhhh.

And one that was extinguished, ever so brutally, as the professor slid open the door to his room, stepping forward in one harsh motion and instantly squishing the creature, instantly severing its life.

Sephiroth's eyes snapped open.

"What are you doing on the floor, boy? Get up! It's filthy; do you want to catch something...?!"

He didn't even get to respond before Hojo checked his watch, muddy eyes narrowing behind the hazy film of his glasses.

"Come, get yourself ready. Stand up. Brush yourself off; training starts in five minutes."

"...Yes, Sir."

"And you will not hesitate this time, do you hear me? The President will be watching—examining you, examining us. And you do not want to disappoint me, do you?"

"…No, Sir."

"Good, good. Then come.”

And there was nothing to do but follow him out, walking into the web once more.

[maeve-is-annoying-about-books]

I didn't really wanna talk ahead of the Dungeon Meshi anime but I had this thought bugging me as I was skimming the manga. So, spoilers for what's to come.

I don't think it's any coincidence that Laios' party, out of a cast of infinitely more capable people, makes it to the final floor of the Dungeon. Why? Cause they aren't heroes.

Look at Kabru, he's the poster boy for anime protagonists. He has a tragic backstory, a personal beef with the dungeon, skills trained by a master of the crafts, and a large party who seems genuinely friendly together. He has everything going for him to one day dive to the bottom and gain closure for his story but he just can't. He never will, because the dungeon does not work on his logic. It turns out that there is no plot armor against hearing a siren sing for the first time.

What about Mithrun then? Personally wronged by the Demon, he's the paradigm of vengeance. A tragic hero who will do anything it takes to get to his goal and probably die achieving it. He has a party full of dark history and interesting dynamics, really laden with moral greyness. Not Berserk but a step closer to it than Kabru's story. But he is, unfortunately, also a classic hero archetype, and although his skills are impressive they aren't fit for the ecosystem around him, singleminded vengeance will see you killed by changelings, the cold, or starvation.

Shuro, it's gotta be Shuro right? A man from a distant land but a familiar one to the primary readerbase. He goes back to train, hone his mind, collect a party, and save the love interest from a cruel fate. Perhaps he will learn there is no saving her, and tragically be forced to slay the monster she's become. His journey ends the second Faligon dies, so he has no chance, ever, of becoming the Dungeon Lord. There doesn't need to be any extra traps to deter him, he'll get what he wants at the fourth level and be gone, his desire simply isn't pointed that way.

Laios, on the other hand. None of his party are heroes, they're all here for selfish reasons and have absolutely zero illusions about heroics and greater goods. Laios is here to save Falin, he only wants his sister to be safe. And to eat and document monsters. Marcille is here for forbidden magic and Falin, and her two desires coincide with her resurrection. Chilchuck is here because he got paid up front and can't leave without rumors spreading. Senshi was always here and he just wants to live in peace with nature. None of them have heroic intent, broadly. But it also means they don't have heroic conceit either.

Laios' party will eat anything. They'll run from battle, take shortcuts. They treat monsters not as grand challenges to overcome but something to fight for their lives with. With their teeth if need be. There is no honor here there is only living. Honor gets you strangled by treasure bugs. Revenge will see you abandon your party to giant spiders for the mere shot at your target. Duty sees you skipping meals because your goal is so important. It is striking how different the dungeon is between Laios and the others. They all treat the dungeon as their personal hell to be striven against and conquered, only Laios sees it as an extension of the living world and understands his place in it. And I think that is so fucking cool, it's so multifaceted. Like, their exact skill set is perfect for getting through the dungeon because of how they all treat it. But also because the dungeon wants them there, because they have very personal, strong desires. Desires that shape their skills, and desires shaped by their skills in a kind of Ouroboros.

And it's an interesting question of how much of both factors into their progress in the story.

[cctinsleybaxter]

Catch-22 characters as bugs, woman edition!

Cont. a series of drawings I started years ago; explanations under the cut

Nurse Duckett- Banded sphinx moth (Eumorpha fasciatus)

Nurse Cramer- Goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia)

The nurses are some of the most acceptable (and pink) species of bugs that are generally disliked- a moth and spider. These are both found throughout the continental US and can be a bit intimidating, but are generally taken for pretty and well-liked garden guests. Crucial part of the ecosystem but only sometimes as helpful as people say, i.e. incidental pollinators

Luciana- Italian small wood-scorpion (Euscorpius italicus)

Solitary with some maternal-filial loyalty, eat voraciously and indiscriminately, their bark (appearance/threat displays) is worse than their bite (gentle city-dwellers that dole out very minor stings when threatened.) Not for everyone but most bug enthusiasts find them enchantingly beautiful; paired well with Yossarian's much-misunderstood cockroach

Scheisskopf's Wife- Eastern cicada-killer (Sphecius speciosus)

I was really second-guessing myself on making Scheisskopf a cicada instead of a tent caterpillar, but I made the right call because imo cicada killers suit his wife perfectly; 'scary' wasps that barely have stingers and are incredibly docile when they're not hard at work for themselves (great scientific name btw.)

Nately's Whore- Wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi)

Italian native with a gaudy pattern* but clever and patient hunting style; males need to get at females when they've freshly molted into sexual maturity so are less aggressive + quickly so they don't lose out to a smaller male. Overwintering being part of their life cycle lined up close enough with her need of a good night's sleep

*Halfway through working on this I realized I was giving most of the adult women bugs known for their striking patterns, and given the role of Rorschach tests in the book I'm calling it intentional

Kid Sister- Velvet mite (Trombidium holosericeum)

A much smaller arachnid than her sister; cosmopolitan species and another of the more 'acceptable' bugs on account of their size + pretty texture and coloration, but predatory and territorial in their own right!

[bnha-headcanonss]

Sero headcanons :)

If you leave your dorm room in the middle of the night and head to the kitchen, Sero will 100% be there, no matter what time it may be.

He kills at Just Dance and often plays with Mina, Denki and Kiri. Denki and Kiri get tired quickly, Mina puts up a good challenge but Sero always come out on top.

Other than the guided dances of Just Dance, he’s a pretty okay dancer, not horrible by any means but not the best.

The rest of 1-A does ask him for pieces of tape from time to time and they have to cut them a little for a better sized piece.

Loves Spider-Man for, hopefully obvious reasons (this includes the infamous Spider-Man kiss)

His sleeves are usually stretched out so around the dorms and out in public he’ll wear a muscle tee.

The kind of guy who actually listens to anything and everything. His #1 most used app is Apple Music. (I feel like it suits him better than Spotify)

Natural flirt. Yes he’ll intentionally flirt too but he’s a natural at it and doesn’t realize until somebody else says something about it.

One of the more intelligent guys in 1-A, just super humble about it/tries to hide it.

Humble overall except with Denki where damn near everything is a competition.

Despite popular belief, not a stoner. Tried it once, hated it, never again. But he doesn’t mind being around others who do it and will happily tripsit if it means his friends are safe and okay.

Likes spicy food but not Bakugo spicy, little more mild than that.

Has stuck pieces of tape to his friends and waits for them to notice. There’s one folded on the bottom of Denkis shirt and he has yet to notice. (it’s been about a month and it may never come off)

Plant guy, lots, and lots of plants. And he’s very serious about them.

Tries to make a dead conversation funny but can read the room as to not may inappropriate jokes.

The Neighborhood >>>> and he puts people ON

Has the most complicated, mind boggling handshake with his friend group and each one is very different.

Hypermobile and he uses it as a party trick.

Has one hell of a comic book collection. And besides loving Spider-Man he’s more of a DC person but thinks both are awesome, it’s just what he grew up with.

Amazing natural come backs. Incredibly funny but they are only funny if he doesn’t try to be funny iykwim.

Extremely hygienic. Shower shoes, shower caddy and everything.

Wears a very clean and fresh cologne.

If you tell him there’s a bug somewhere and you don’t want to touch it, he’ll grab a paper towel and release it outside, he won’t kill them since they’re essential to the ecosystem.

He wants a couple tattoos but they’re often seen as taboo in Japan, and he hates needles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally finished my 2nd college term 😭🙏

[subwaytostardew]

▽ Subway to Stardew - Adoptable Joltik ⚡️

This would play after Emmet's 8 heart event and getting Joltik up to 8 hearts as well.

I released a separate mod specifically for adopting Joltik, so you only need to get them up to 8 hearts to adopt them! You can do it right now!

Adoptable Joltik Mod Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/21002

And of course... Commentary under the read-more.

Joltik's adoption event sat in the drafts for quite a while. It took me whole a day to implement and I didn't let myself sleep until I finished everything. (It's 1 PM now...)

The event ended up wildly different because of how extra custom pets are implemented. You would think that they would be added in the same way as you get your cat/dog that you select during character creation. No. You have to buy a license. Only Marnie is authorized to sell them.

Here's the original script for Joltik's adoption event:

[Joltik Adoption Event]

Emmet: @! Joltik likes you verrrrry much. They want to stay with you. I'm letting you adopt them. Yup. I filled out all the paperwork. The Joltiks are legally documented now. 

I never gave ours a name... Galvantula wouldn't let me. She is verrrry picky about it. But that's okay. Joltik is yours. You should name them. She came along for approval. So. What name should I put on the adoption form?

[Name input box like Marnie's adoption thing...]

[Galvantula pauses for a moment to think and then offhandedly agrees.]

Emmet: Galvantula didn't shock me for that. That name is okay. Yup. I will file that with the Ferngill Republic. Don't worry about it. Make sure you take verrrry good care of our little Joltik!

[Joltik jumps and heart emotes]

◇──◆──◇──◆

The whole naming portion was a source of much more frustration than it should have been. In events, the name input box is brought up by the "catQuestion" command (which applies to dogs chosen at the start, too...

If you refuse, then Marnie also shows up no matter what you do. Farmhouse positions are also tricky and made even harder to find reference for after 1.6 added the farmhouse being moveable. Joltik kept spawning where Emmet was supposed to be so I had to use a move command just to get them to spawn one tile to the side. Galvantula was fine. I didn't get to updating her vanilla portraits yet so she's staying quiet.

The catQuestion command also only adds the pet you pick during character creation. There's no fields to target the usage. You have to buy a license. It's the only way to get another pet. I didn't want Joltik to replace a cat either since in-story you would have to earn the trust of both Emmet and Galvantula... There's no way you can do that by the first 25 days of spring. It's immersion breaking and you lose a cat.

I did find the license aspect funny though. It was oddly fitting for the mod's lore of Pokemon being pretty much banned from the region. Emmet is a threat to Stardew Valley's ecosystem. Not the best guy for the task of combating anti-Pokemon xenophobia.

Pet sizes are apparently hardcoded so I had to make a new spritesheet for Joltik as if they even need a 32 x 32 pixel area per frame. I did end up making new sprites for them while I was at it. I tried to base it off of the cat's behaviors so I have less animation fields to edit (I was tired). The cat loafs a lot. Trying to convey that in a tiny spider posed quite the challenge.

After everything was done, I figured that the whole adoption portion of the mod could easilly be taken apart to be its own mod as a demo of sorts for the expansion. So I went and made a content pack to post.

Bringing up your starter pet's friendship level takes quite some time, so it would be awkward if I let the event play with no preconditions. Because of that, I ended up including Joltik as an NPC and locking their adoption behind their heart level.

We actually only had two lines per day of the week (not including season) for daily dialogue. That shot up to six lines per day of the week for a full 0-2-4-6-8-10 in spring because I was determined to publish a mod. (I've been modding for nearly a year nonstop and I don't have anything playable... humiliating...)

Anyways! I hope you're all having fun with 1.6! It certainly brought new challenges and opportunities to the modding scene!

▷ Station Steward Thylak

[gorodkrovi]

what are ur favourite things about takeo and nikolai and what are ur favorite head cannons for them

guaww .. this question ❤️❤️❤️ anon if you’re a friend od mine who caught me saying i wanted to talk ab nik and tak more… thank you

if not you’re a psychic but heyyy

anyway

my favorite thing about takeo is how sexy he is. just kidding but actually it does factor into it he’s genuinely the only good looking one out of any of them. richtofen CHOPPED dempsey MODERATELY NORMAL nikolai IM BIAS (my opinion on him is an outlier). also, i love to Write takeo. I love his support of his team, his loyalty to everyone, his dedication to moving forward. I like that he has dreams of the future. That’s badass. Also i love his relationship with dempsey not even in a shipping way. Just. Them as friends ❤️

nikolai .. hmmm this is good question! what is my favorite thing about him… i think it’s his humor. i love to giggle at his lines and theyre SO quotable. i may be intensely neurodivergent for thinking exclusively in nikolai voice lines but erm WHATEVER .. and i also just love the difference between primis and ultimis nikolai. yes there are big differences between all of ultimis and primis but cmon… the nikolai pair is the funniest one imo (and maybe the saddest, but i have opinions on why Dempsey has a sad relationship with his ultimis counterpart)

as for headcanons … i will think ..

i think takeo is very in tune with nature but ESPECIALLY with bugs. No this has nothing to do with the spider lore with takeo it’s because i think he has Sympathy for the small things in life. He appreciates their role in the ecosystem and doesn’t kill things just because they’re creepy or crawly.

takeo secretly loves fashion. i mean, i love his outfit the most out of all of their designs tbh, but i just know if you gave that man pinterest he would have the time of his life.

ok one last one for tak.. he has anxiety 💔 like real and having dreams of the future doesn’t help

nikolai auuaggh i have so many thoughts on you

oh i think he LOVES to dance and is a huge fan of music. he can sing and dance and would probably be great in theatre but he was too broke and too In the military to be able to.

i can tell he is incredible at masking his issues. everyone thinks he’s all strong and shit but then you listen to his voice lines and he’s like “okay but what if i just died haha” poor guy is struggling out here but he wouldn’t let anyone know that. Gotta beee strong. Gotta keep on pushing on cause there’s always gonna be another mountain (anyway listen to his revelations voice lines)

um also he’s just a silly guy :P i think he loves dogs and cats and all animals because he worked on a farm!!! ask him about his plow guys

thanks for the ask im insane if it wasn’t obvious

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Are Cowbirds Invasive?

(Originally published on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/are-cowbirds-invasive/)

When discussing invasive species, we often think of species that evolved far away on other continents. Here in the United States, thousands of non-native species have been brought here since the dawn of colonization; while not all became established, a significant number have since become aggressively integrated into local habitats, much to the detriment of native species they displace or otherwise harm. But sometimes a species will simply encroach upon an ecosystem adjacent to its native home, and then spreads from there, having the same negative impact as other relatively new arrivals. Which begs the question: are birds on the move like barred owls (Strix varia) and cowbirds invasive?

I want to especially look at the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater). Like the barred owl, these chunky songbirds have expanded their range in North America in recent decades due to the extensive damage we’ve done to habitats across the continent. Both were particularly affected by the destruction of the Great Plains. Settlers tore up the ancient grasslands with plows, suppressed fires that had kept forests from encroaching, and started a trend of afforestation–planting trees where they aren’t supposed to be–that continues today. In the latter half of the 19th century, the plains bison (Bison bison bison) was slaughtered almost to extinction to make money off the sale of their remains, and to disempower indigenous communities throughout the region who were reliant on this keystone species for their very existence.

The owls hopscotched across the growing number of tree plantations that dotted first settlements, then towns, then sprawling suburbs and cities, and thus were able to reach all the way to the west coast, where they have put serious competitive pressure on the northern spotted owl. The cowbirds, on the other hand, became refugees as all but the last few hundred bison disappeared from the landscape. They instead turned to domestic livestock like cattle for their survival.

(Read the rest under the cut.)

Same Habits, Different Hosts

Brown-headed cowbirds are unusual in that they evolved to migrate with the bison, rather than waiting for new herds to arrive. The birds feed on insects stirred up by the herd’s hooves, along with seeds of grasses and other plants along the way. Cowbirds perching on the backs of these enormous mammals would have been a common sight prior to the bison’s near-extermination, and today they may still be seen watching for prey from on top of cattle, horses and other domestic livestock.

Because cowbirds have spent thousands of years migrating with their bison hosts, they couldn’t afford to settle in one place for months at a time to raise a nest of chicks, particularly as spring and summer would be prime time for finding insects to eat. It might be weeks or even months before a herd would return to a given area, and without the help of the bison the cowbirds would have had a difficult time finding enough insects on their own, let alone for a hungry nest of babies.

So the cowbirds evolved a rather controversial strategy: brood parasitism. Instead of building their own nest, they find someone else’s and leave a few eggs there for the unwitting owners to raise. Some people anthropomorphize the cowbirds as being “bad”, “lazy”, “evil”, and so forth. And, of course, it’s easy to call cowbirds invasive, too, since they literally invade the nests of other animals.

But nature is amoral; there are no inherently good or evil animals. While we may project our distaste for the cowbirds’ practices onto their value as a species, brood parasitism is simply one of a plethora of strategies animals have evolved in order to pass their genes on to the next generation. If it gets the job done, then it is an evolutionary success. Like the mate cannibalism of some mantids and spiders or animal infanticide practiced by male lions, baboons, and dolphins, brood parasitism may be vicious by our standards, but it is a legitimate survival tactic in the sometimes-cutthroat world of nature.

Are Cowbirds Invasive?

We can certainly call cowbirds invasive when they hop into a nest they didn’t build just to drop off an egg. But are they invasive on a more widespread level? Arguably yes. Not all invasive species were physically transported by humans, but the impact is the same: they have a deleterious effect on one or more other species in their habitat. And unlike coyotes, which only spread to new horizons when their competitors were extirpated by human hunters, brown-headed cowbirds are not filling a niche that was previously taken by another species. they are, instead, an often-unwanted addition to local ecology.

In addition to tearing up the Great Plains and then planting trees there, we also cut down massive numbers of trees in historically forested areas across the continent, leaving patches of fields in which cattle and other livestock graze. This has led to the spread of the cowbird beyond its normal range in the prairies. Other bird species that evolved alongside the cowbirds have developed ways to respond to brood parasitism, from throwing cowbird eggs out of the nest, to building a new nest entirely.

A young cowbird sits in a sparrow’s nest. Note the sparrow egg in the lower left corner that has been pushed out of the nest.

But birds in the cowbird’s expanded territory aren’t always so savvy. That includes species that have seen declining numbers in recent decades due to habitat loss, lead and other toxins, and predation by another invasive species, the domestic cat (Felis catus). Since cowbirds and their chicks will both remove their hosts’ eggs from a parasitized nest, and cowbird chicks may toss their host’s young out or steal all their food, this means fewer numbers of the host species being successfully hatched and fledged. All of which means cowbirds are becoming a serious conservation concern.

That being said, we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss an entire species by calling all cowbirds invasive. Within their native range in the Great Plains, they are an important part of local ecology. And–unlike certain members of our own species–they are not intentionally cruel animals that want to see other living beings suffer. They are simply doing what their ancestors have done for thousands upon thousands of years, and unlike humans they have no capacity to consider the impact on their hosts.

One last note: if you are tempted to remove cowbird eggs from a nest, please don’t. First, it’s an activity best carried out by professionals who have a better sense of what nests should be attended to and when. Moreover, egg removal can not only cause the host birds to abandon their nest and their own eggs, but cowbirds are more likely to attack hosts who remove the offending eggs, and you could be setting the nesting pair up for retaliation from the cowbirds. And brown-headed cowbirds, like almost all native birds in the United States, are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it a federal offense to disturb or harm the birds themselves, as well as their eggs or nests. If you are in an area where cowbirds are considered to be invasive, and you are concerned about another species’ nests, contact your state wildlife department or the closest Audubon Society (some of these societies have changed their names in recent years, but fulfills the same roles as before.)

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!