How about some Arachnids?

Spider web spectacle enthrals early morning walkers in nature reserve.

What beauty nature provides.

+1

I'm hoping everyone in London made some sort of effort to avoid treading on flying ants yesterday.

That must be such a weird experience... having wings that work one moment, then them dumping you on the ground the next and refusing to lift you off again. Up until that point, they still seem to potter along on their undercarriages with a sense of real purpose of getting airborne once again.


And then their wings fall off... altogether.

And they're left roaming in witless, weaving circles contemplating the rest of their lives as earthbound entities, just as they get flattened.

Well anyway, I did, and I'm 99 per cent sure not a single one came to harm :)

‘A black cloud’: 81-year-old man says he was attacked by swarm of bees — and survived

All Thomas Mizell could do was run.

The 81-year-old man was helping his cousin in a Cleveland, Texas field last week when a “black cloud of bees” attacked him, he told the Houston Chronicle.

Mizell told the newspaper he ran into the woods toward a lake, but couldn’t see where he was going as the bees stung him relentlessly.

“I said, ‘Lord, help me.’ When I fell down trying to get out of the bees, He said, ‘Walk by faith,’ so I did,” Mizell told the Chronicle. “My heart was pounding as I went toward that pond.”

---

Golden ringed dragonfly photographed this morning at Muncaster Castle....

Great shots.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Golden ringed dragonfly photographed this morning at Muncaster Castle....

Great shots.

+1

---

With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Those are lovely pictures, Gnu :)

Spiders fly on the currents of Earth’s electric field

Spiders don’t have wings, but they can fly across entire oceans on long strands of silk. For more than a century, scientists thought it was the wind that carried them, sometimes as high as a jet stream — in a process known as “ballooning.” A new study shows that the Earth’s electric field can propel these flying spiders too.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, found that when spiders are in a chamber with no wind, but a small electric field, they are likely to prep for take-off, or even fly. Plus, the sensory hairs covering the spiders’ bodies move when the electric field is turned on — much like your own hair stands up due to static electricity. This “spidey sense” could be how the creatures know it’s time to fly.

---

Bee Friendly Now :)
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vast/hotell-ska-radda-vildbina-fran-bostadsbrist

Man's influence on nature has led to both food and housing shortages for wild bees. Among other things, it is poisonous pesticides and landscaping where the flowers are getting smaller and that old trees like wild bees use as a dwelling are cleaned away.
Two thirds of the 270 spieces in Sweden are red-listed, that is, their survival is not self-evident. But there are things to do to help survive the important insects.
In addition to planting flowers to give them food, the message of wild bees housing shortage is spreading and more and more are setting up so-called wild bee hotels. The Nature Conservation Association invites residents to build hotels in their "Bivänlig nu" (Bee Friendly Now) campaign. In Västra Götaland, already 444 hotels have been set up by private individuals.

Those are lovely pictures, Gnu :)

Second this.

Great skill with camera and lens.

Probably tons of patience too.

Bee Friendly Now :)

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vast/hotell-ska-radda-vildbina-fran-bostadsbrist

Man's influence on nature has led to both food and housing shortages for wild bees. Among other things, it is poisonous pesticides and landscaping where the flowers are getting smaller and that old trees like wild bees use as a dwelling are cleaned away........

My loft bees (I'm in a single floor dwelling) were doing so well and getting really fat.

Some of the little creatures grew so fat they had a hard time landing in the hole to their hive.

.. but then suddenly 2 weeks ago the number of bees going out or coming back dropped drammatically.

After speaking to my neighbour about her garden she told me she had started to spray her plants (roses) for black fly.

The same drop in bee activity happened last year. (UK. Start of July.)

I'm wondering if there is a correlation between the average time people spray their plants with insectacide and the drop in bee population?

I live in a large city so most insectacide will be use on ornamentals like flowering plants and especially roses.

For me personally I wouldn't spray roses as they are a great source of food flavouring using the petals.

Shame I liked my bees and we had an understanding. They don't bother me and I let them live up top for free.

The oddest thing (except last years bee circle dance) was this really loud buzzing noise on some of this summers hottest days.

After investigation I found some of the bees clinging to the sides of the entrance hole fanning their wings to create a cooling draft for the hive.

I'm still waiting for honey to trickle down through the ceiling into my kitchen... Mana :)

My urban bees with their fluffy white bums. How cute is that?

My urban bees with their fluffy white bums. How cute is that?

Aren't they just so cute!! :)

But I'm not here to talk bees. I'm here to talk crickets.

I had to undertake an emergency dash out to procure Jaffa cakes for an other half, and almost completely forgot to because *spellbound blink* there are crickets,

chirping...

IN THE PARKS

ACROSS BOTH MY ROADS

and to hear what used to be permanent background noise for me once-upon-a-time-too-long-ago, I've had to travel to the Mediterranean to do so... until tonight that is.

There aren't many, but if you listen carefully, you can pick them out amongst the more traditional night time London sounds. And it made me homesick - which is so stupid - but it did :)

My urban bees with their fluffy white bums. How cute is that?

Aren't they just so cute!! :)

But I'm not here to talk bees. I'm here to talk crickets.

I had to undertake an emergency dash out to procure Jaffa cakes for an other half, and almost completely forgot to because *spellbound blink* there are crickets,

chirping...

IN THE PARKS

ACROSS BOTH MY ROADS

and to hear what used to be permanent background noise for me once-upon-a-time-too-long-ago, I've had to travel to the Mediterranean to do so... until tonight that is.

There aren't many, but if you listen carefully, you can pick them out amongst the more traditional night time London sounds. And it made me homesick - which is so stupid - but it did :)

Had to exterminate one that got in recently. Damn things can be so loud. Oh, if you want some, plant holly oak trees. They love them. Damn city put them down the entire block.

Had to exterminate one that got in recently. Damn things can be so loud. Oh, if you want some, plant holly oak trees. They love them. Damn city put them down the entire block.

Yes... I remember one got under our fridge and used its acoustics to drive us quite, quite insane.

Had to exterminate one that got in recently. Damn things can be so loud. Oh, if you want some, plant holly oak trees. They love them. Damn city put them down the entire block.

Every few weeks I have to track down & kill a cricket or 3.
They're OK outside, but inside they make reading impossible, let alone sleeping.

I can understand why a cricket was chosen to be Pinocchio's conscience.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Ladybirds don't like AC/DC

Researchers from Mississippi State University tested how various sounds affect ecosystems and discovered ladybirds — also known as lady bugs or lady beetles — drastically changed their behaviour when they were subjected to noise pollution.

Assistant professor and self-confessed AC/DC fan, Brandon Barton, said the research zeroed in on ladybirds because they are one of the world's most important predators of agricultural pests such as aphids.
The ladybirds were exposed to artists such as AC/DC, Willie Nelson, Guns and Roses, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and also city sounds such as jackhammers and car horns.

Dr Barton said all the bands and city noises caused the ladybirds to eat less.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

So Ladybugs like a quiet dinning experience.

---

Re. Crickets

Oh, if you want some, plant holly oak trees. They love them. Damn city put them down the entire block.

And what should we plant if we don't want them?

---

~Sue~

Re. Crickets

Oh, if you want some, plant holly oak trees. They love them. Damn city put them down the entire block.

And what should we plant if we don't want them?

Plant them a couple blocks away?

I did something incredibly stupid (even for me) yesterday :/

It's completely altered this week's plan too which now can't happen until next week, and it's put a whole load of other schedules out of whack, which got me a huge long angry lecture from my other half - like I needed it. I'd already told myself all of that and more, just in my head... plenty of times over and I was a lot ruder about it too, he just couldn't have been listening in at the time I suppose... but never mind...

I'm planning for my last sentence to contain everything necessary for everyone to get hurriedly back to whatever they were doing shortly after reading this one. So, if you don't feel like reading the long version, people... skip straight to the last line...

This line --- v is not it but is where you need to start your skipping from.

Seems something went and got installed in our garden that I didn't know about until after doing something I thought had been a really good idea (and sort of, quite beneficial too) which turned into being NOT A GOOD IDEA AT ALL.

No :[
(@))~((@)
*pained stare into space*

This thing that I'd instantly classified as a ricochet-effect (from the snapping sound I'd just caused) that had just shot out and then somehow, and slightly freakishly, propelled a fragment of firethorn and a small part of its attached twig onto a date with destiny... through my clothing to pierce my inside-right-knee... only extraordinarily more painful than was absolutely necessary... was the first inkling it was really not going to be an ordinary Sunday morning trying to catch up with jobs before the start of a big week or three to come that would make them impossible to get round to doing for ages otherwise.

And it didn't help that it was really quite gloomy there in the gloomiest section of the garden, but I could at least see enough of the projectile still protruding to pull the darn stupid thing out, which is when I got a grip on it with my left hand, whereupon the same horrible pain then happened to my thumb :{ and the wasp I now realised wasn't a bit of twig at all ... that I instantly released on realising my mistake, decided it wouldn't do me the same courtesy at all :\ but would instead, cling on to sting me again in the thumb. By which time barely two seconds had passed since I caused the snapping sound ... and that the wasp had obviously not wasted a fraction of from the moment I'd first laid an index finger and thumb on him to then flapping my left hand in the hope of shaking him off (because I kind of knew I didn't want it to die, but rather to leave me alone, and I also knew that if there were any other wasps around they'd get stuck into our brawl too, but on his/her side without even waiting to find out it had all been a terrible misunderstanding) but had sent out a far from accurate "help help I'm being viciously attacked" signal... which I assure you, he really, really wasn't... :/

And that's when my poor right knee got it again, and again and again :\ and my thigh too, from probably no more than about eight or nine of his little b#/%?\\! friends, although I can't swear to that because my brain was saying hundreds and hundreds, and it definitely wasn't that many, but at least I'd managed to flick the first foul-tempered one off my hand by then, and had begun to leg it - leaving my trousers inside out behind me in what I hoped would be a distraction for them to focus on (and work out how to get out from) instead of what had been inside them, because I really didn't want them to follow me as I pelted indoors, and secondly, because it would have taken them past Tinks on the trampoline, and I thought they might be angry enough to go for her if I managed to give them the slip.

Whereupon I exploded into the house, slamming the door shut behind me and then proceeded to run around banging all the windows closed because I really had no idea how big or bad a nest it was I'd inadvertently upset - by which time I'd finally drawn the attention of my other half and my son, neither of whom knew what had caused my sudden arrival in their midst dressed as I was and really quite upset because of course, until my voice returns - the whole thing had had to be played out in a kind of macabre silent horror movie scream.

But it wasn't over :(

It was as I went to proffer my poorly hand and leg in a sort of distressed and hideously swelling explanation of my state, that I caught sight of something move just out the corner of my eye, where my fluffy jumper ended and my skin started again - and proceeded to get stung three more times in quick succession, this time going up the side of my neck on a heading for my left ear which got my audience really, really noisy - to make up for my lack of any earlier which was oddly calming somehow, and led my other-half to whack at it really hard, with a rolled up newspaper while it launched its fourth sting, which splatted it well and truly into oblivion although still anchored in place by its stinging bit.

Obviously I can't be certain certain, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was that first one I thought I'd finally managed to shake off my hand but hadn't, and had instead flicked it somewhere onto my jumper from where it could launch its last attack.

So from maybe at most 10 wasps, I managed to get stung 23 times on my right knee, twice on my thigh, and left thumb, and four on my neck, which was a lot of oww's for just a few minutes, I have to say :( and has left me suffering a bit from small-flying-thing-heeby-jeebie-syndrome, which will hopefully pass.

HOLY CRAP, anniet!!!! I hope you're okay!

I did something incredibly stupid (even for me) yesterday :/

It's completely altered this week's plan too which now can't happen until next week, and it's put a whole load of other schedules out of whack, which got me a huge long angry lecture from my other half - like I needed it. I'd already told myself all of that and more, just in my head... plenty of times over and I was a lot ruder about it too, he just couldn't have been listening in at the time I suppose... but never mind...

I'm planning for my last sentence to contain everything necessary for everyone to get hurriedly back to whatever they were doing shortly after reading this one. So, if you don't feel like reading the long version, people... skip straight to the last line...

This line --- v is not it but is where you need to start your skipping from.

Seems something went and got installed in our garden that I didn't know about until after doing something I thought had been a really good idea (and sort of, quite beneficial too) which turned into being NOT A GOOD IDEA AT ALL.

No :[
(@))~((@)
*pained stare into space*

This thing that I'd instantly classified as a ricochet-effect (from the snapping sound I'd just caused) that had just shot out and then somehow, and slightly freakishly, propelled a fragment of firethorn and a small part of its attached twig onto a date with destiny... through my clothing to pierce my inside-right-knee... only extraordinarily more painful than was absolutely necessary... was the first inkling it was really not going to be an ordinary Sunday morning trying to catch up with jobs before the start of a big week or three to come that would make them impossible to get round to doing for ages otherwise.

And it didn't help that it was really quite gloomy there in the gloomiest section of the garden, but I could at least see enough of the projectile still protruding to pull the darn stupid thing out, which is when I got a grip on it with my left hand, whereupon the same horrible pain then happened to my thumb :{ and the wasp I now realised wasn't a bit of twig at all ... that I instantly released on realising my mistake, decided it wouldn't do me the same courtesy at all :\ but would instead, cling on to sting me again in the thumb. By which time barely two seconds had passed since I caused the snapping sound ... and that the wasp had obviously not wasted a fraction of from the moment I'd first laid an index finger and thumb on him to then flapping my left hand in the hope of shaking him off (because I kind of knew I didn't want it to die, but rather to leave me alone, and I also knew that if there were any other wasps around they'd get stuck into our brawl too, but on his/her side without even waiting to find out it had all been a terrible misunderstanding) but had sent out a far from accurate "help help I'm being viciously attacked" signal... which I assure you, he really, really wasn't... :/

And that's when my poor right knee got it again, and again and again :\ and my thigh too, from probably no more than about eight or nine of his little b#/%?\\! friends, although I can't swear to that because my brain was saying hundreds and hundreds, and it definitely wasn't that many, but at least I'd managed to flick the first foul-tempered one off my hand by then, and had begun to leg it - leaving my trousers inside out behind me in what I hoped would be a distraction for them to focus on (and work out how to get out from) instead of what had been inside them, because I really didn't want them to follow me as I pelted indoors, and secondly, because it would have taken them past Tinks on the trampoline, and I thought they might be angry enough to go for her if I managed to give them the slip.

Whereupon I exploded into the house, slamming the door shut behind me and then proceeded to run around banging all the windows closed because I really had no idea how big or bad a nest it was I'd inadvertently upset - by which time I'd finally drawn the attention of my other half and my son, neither of whom knew what had caused my sudden arrival in their midst dressed as I was and really quite upset because of course, until my voice returns - the whole thing had had to be played out in a kind of macabre silent horror movie scream.

But it wasn't over :(

It was as I went to proffer my poorly hand and leg in a sort of distressed and hideously swelling explanation of my state, that I caught sight of something move just out the corner of my eye, where my fluffy jumper ended and my skin started again - and proceeded to get stung three more times in quick succession, this time going up the side of my neck on a heading for my left ear which got my audience really, really noisy - to make up for my lack of any earlier which was oddly calming somehow, and led my other-half to whack at it really hard, with a rolled up newspaper while it launched its fourth sting, which splatted it well and truly into oblivion although still anchored in place by its stinging bit.

Obviously I can't be certain certain, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was that first one I thought I'd finally managed to shake off my hand but hadn't, and had instead flicked it somewhere onto my jumper from where it could launch its last attack.

So from maybe at most 10 wasps, I managed to get stung 23 times on my right knee, twice on my thigh, and left thumb, and four on my neck, which was a lot of oww's for just a few minutes, I have to say :( and has left me suffering a bit from small-flying-thing-heeby-jeebie-syndrome, which will hopefully pass.

---

~Sue~

HOLY CRAP, anniet!!!!

Along with yikes - that too is a very good all-encompassing statement, Suzie :)

I hope you're okay!

I'm mostly back to the number of lumps I had beforehand now, yes, thank you and I've taken a bit of time out of my scheduled activities to learn more about them and their life cycle which has proved interesting. I understand them a lot better than I did, and they really are quite fascinating in many ways - mostly from a distance I think... a longish distance, but as long as we don't have a stupidly unseasonal winter or anything, they'll be gone soon so I've mollified the rest of the family with that, into not rushing into exterminating them or anything. My trousers can stay where they are as far as I'm concerned. If there are any still trapped inside them, I doubt they'll be very happy ones on their release.

I'd never been stung by one before. So I've learned I'm not allergic to them, which is good to know I think, and will never mistake the pain for anything other than ooh-wasp were I to ever be again. They're the sting that keeps on stinging too. Every now and again... boom... they all went off as if timed down to the second in the order of receiving them, for several hours afterwards.

I must say I am a bit curious as to why they had it in for that knee in particular. There was a perfectly acceptable other one right next to it after all. I'm beginning to suspect it's the Deep Heat cream I'd had to resort to using on it the night before and again that morning, due to the joint really hurting every time I put any weight on it. (I'd stepped down off a ladder a bit wonkily I think)

According to google, its active ingredients are:

Active ingredients: methyl salicilate:12.80%w/w menthol:5.91%w/w, Eucalyptus Oil 1.97% w/w, Turpentine OIl 1.47% w/w

Whether it just focussed their attention due to its pungency, or if it had nothing to do with that and they had, over its reek, picked up the danger-pheromone the first wasp had left there when he stung me, might have to remain a mystery because I am not planning any attempt ever - to test the idea out.