#the insects are the worst

[tardis--dreams]

There's silverfish in this apartment so the only chance for my body to get some rest would be collapsing from exhaustion otherwise i will not sleep for a While

[thehmn]

Nothing horrible to see here. Just some ladybugs enjoying the warmest part of the figurine.

[m43l5720m]

"I'm Turbo! The greatest racer ever!"

🔴|🔴|🔴

⚪|🔴|⚪

⚪|🔴|⚪

eh fuck it, self-indulgent Turbo stimboard be up on ye

[galacticnova3]

@onenicebugperday Bit of an unfortunate update, but not without hope.

A week ago as of posting this, Green Bean Casserole had a pretty severe mismolt. I think they fell and got stuck behind their favorite stick in an awkward position after leaving the exuviae. I only found and assisted them the next morning, but by then their exoskeleton had already hardened up. Thankfully all of their limbs are intact and functional, but, well... The situation is far from ideal, as you’ll see.

At first I was pretty worried they wouldn’t make it; they seemed to be struggling to move around due to the deformity, falling when climbing and generally looking wobbly. I moved them to a different terrarium set up for my flat headed snake Absinthe, both because of the softer substrate and the lack of skinks that might be bold and attempt to take advantage of a weakened mantis. I wasn’t even sure if food would be able to pass through their system, and they had no interest in prey at all, which wasn’t a good sign. However, with some adjustments to the layout of the temporary terrarium I moved them to, they did climb and manage to hang from the lid with some effort. GBC seemed like they were a fighter, and the day after the bad molt they accepted and ate a grasshopper, so I decided to see if I could get them to their next molt and hopefully allow them to recover.

They’ve since adapted to their new shape, and I’ve moved them back to their usual terrarium for easier monitoring and better sun access. They’re climbing and hanging without falling, eating well, and drinking water droplets from the screen lid when I water the terrarium. I’d say they’re about as close to thriving as they could be in this situation! Here’s how they’re looking today. Ignore the escapee grasshopper in the background, its jailbreak was short lived…

I do feel a bit mean for making this comparison, but…

There’s a bit of a resemblance, isn’t there?

[gardeneticist]

I found such a sweet little elephant weevil today! <3

[scoups4lyfe]

😭 blueberry over here trying to fking cheese his way into waking up the mecha

(1) Gira has more patience than me I would’ve made an attempt at the king’s life by now

And—

(2) I think mayhaps Gira is of royal bloodline somehow :3c

OOP—

THE TEARS—

[darksouls2yuri]

oh my god do not look at the tags on the mississippi aquarium dolphin post. if hating animals for no reason was an olympic sport

[lynnalyl]

I just love Hymenoptera order—

And these insects’ petiole (basically petiole = waist) reminded me of Vash… Actually, drawing this, I found even more similarities, like if wasps were a reference to his character design haha

[futurebird]

I should be sent to jail.

I feel like such an idiot. A klutz, a total jerk. I killed my Dorymyrmex queen while changing the tube to their nest. Sometimes I feel like they do much better when I just don't mess with them at all. Every bad thing that's happened has been because *I* did something.  I was trying to connect an additional nest since they have been growing so well, and all of them were on the other side of the little box, but the queen spazed out and ran over to the tube and got hurt. 

They have a massive pile of brood. A beautiful outworld that I at last got right. And then I murdered their queen. I should be sent to jail.

She was such a lovely queen. Kept her wings for three years.  I'm going to miss her and I'm devastated that I won't get to see the colony grow. 

At first I didn't even want to say anything about this, but that's silly. The lesson here is that changing nests and tubing is always dangerous to your colony. And I KNOW that. But, yeah. It's the worst part of this hobby how fragile they are and how responsible I will always be for what happens to them. I feel like such a monster. Like I shouldn't even be near any ants.

Why didn't I find a different way to change that tube?

Am I too sensitive?

IDK. I really love my ants. I try to be good to them in exchange for the strange way they have to live. I try to be grateful for the things I learn from them and the joy I get from watching them. But, maybe that queen would have had a much better life in a sidewalk crack in a quiet corner of the park. Poor girl. Poor colony. I'm so so sorry little ones. I really ruined it for all of you.

They will keep going for months, when my Pogonomyrmex queen died... it was a whole year until they were all gone. They even laid male eggs. So, many male alates. Then I had to figure out what to do with those boys. 

I wonder if the Dorymyrmex will do that. That would be nice.

[kedreeva]

Hello hello from England! (That sounds so Eurovision... I should be asleep) one thing I'm proud of this year is actually winning NaNoWriMo for the first time ever. I've not finished the story, but I started out with a brand new story idea on the 1st and finished a day early. I plan to go back to it and finish it off, before editing it and seeing what I can/want to do with it.

A good thing that happened to me this year is the friends I've made through my newly set up (in April) WI (Women's Institute) group. I moved to a new area with my partner (who works away on ships for four months at a time) in 2022 and didn't know anyone at all. So, I found out about this group that was starting up and went along to some meetings and now, I have new friends made up of older ladies and I feel more a part of the community I live in. I now write our newsletter to give back a little.

This little Halloween void is Nox, we didn't place the pumpkin on her cushion, she went ahead and hooked it and decided to take a nap on it.

I hope you have a wonderful new year's evening, however you're celebrating! Thank you for doing this, I've been thinking about what to say for a few days now! X

Hello to Nox as well, and Happy New Year! It sounds like you're not just fitting into your community, but helping to create community! What a great thing <3

I shall present to you... a fully grown Hadah!

her right wing didn't quite expand all the way while drying, but she made it through otherwise!

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Leah! Happy STS! Do you have a favorite maggot fact, and what the fuck (/pos) inspired the big kiss in Love Death and Maggots?

Hi Jamie!!! I'm a fucking massive nerd when it comes to animals, so I'm glad you wanna hear about maggots <3 I personally love that fruit fly maggots are vegetarians, except for when they're cannibals! They're so awesome, so me frfr. Probably my favourite kind of maggot!

As for the big kiss? Well, I kinda saw your tag for the Friday Kiss, went 'man, I wish I had something to show for it, I always end up skipping the Friday Kiss tag' and this spontaneously formed from my brain. So we kind of have you (and everyone else who tags me in Friday Kiss Tags) to thank (or blame) for the entire thing!

Thanks for the ask hehe

[briar--rising]

Going to visit my mom yesterday turned out to be a terrible idea. Fuck. The thing is, it was kind of fine? On a surface level? She only said one thing that really upset me (though it was a doozy). The rest of the time she was on her best behavior and did a good job interacting with me. And I was 100% in mom-mode and thought I was having fun. It's impossible for me to truly check in internally when I'm with her. What I'm actually feeling is almost completely inaccessible to me, and slowing down to really try to notice just...can't seem to happen? Instead I just enter this state of "here's how to act with mom" and in that state I feel fine and happy but then as soon as I leave it I realize it was exhausting and awful actually. And that while I didn't notice, underneath the surface there was all sorts of panic and fear and rage and confusion and loss of self and destruction of understanding and connection with reality. Time spent with my mother, even when it goes well, is probably my biggest psychosis trigger. Something about the way my mind twists when I'm with her is just...very dangerous. I really thought I'd be okay because we've been doing well talking on the phone and I've been doing very well in general, but um...apparently pushing that to several hours alone with my mother was...not my best plan lol. At least I can use words and my limbs again this morning, last night I could barely speak or move for several hours.

[muddlemore]

Roach in the dishwasher just krill me now

[thebusylilbee]

"This is the most massive episode of species extinction since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. More than half of all insects are disappearing worldwide at an accelerated rate; the hecatomb is reaching the staggering figure of 80 % for Europe. When insects disappear, the entire living chain is affected. More food for birds dying en masse, fewer pollinators for key food crops. A frightening assessment in a synthesis of 73 studies pointing to the responsibility of intensive agriculture in this collapse of life."

[heavensickness]

[erebusvincent]

I got got by something and now I have a huge yellow welt with red inflammation around it on my ankle. Today it’s less red but now it’s blistering up. It’s killing me. I think my foot’s going to fall off.

I hate summer so much.