#bucket of snails

[loachfriend]

80 snails in a bucket, en route to their new lives courtesy of my local fish store. I kept more than I should have but baby mystery snails are irresistible.

[nothirtysix]

Day 5 (i guess????): Butcher Army

The butcher army happened while I was still mostly only watching Technoblade so some of my first introductions to Ranboo were from his perspective. I remember him just. Handing over the armor (and ending a plot line before it started lmao).

some close ups for you, my darlings.

[nopizzaaftermidnight]

[anipgarden]

One thing I've found important but also sometimes difficult to learn is that the difference between a 'butterfly garden' and a 'biodiverse habitat' is that you gotta accept that sometimes things are gonna die.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't try to tend to things. If I find a bunch of oleander aphids harassing some of my young milkweed plants, I'll get the hose and spray them off no problem--hard to tend a garden and save milkweed seeds if they're getting the life sucked out of them before they can even go to seed. If I see a lot of snails starting to devour some of my flowers and turn them into brown mush, I'll pick them off and toss them to the neighborhood ducks.

But with that being said, creating a biodiverse environment for wildlife means there's gonna be prey animals and predator animals, and some insects may fill several niches. I plant milkweed and other flowers so monarchs and other insects can enjoy them as a host plant and a nectar source. Some years, I can barely even find large caterpillars because the wasps just go ham and pig out. That doesn't mean I'm gonna hunt down any and every wasp nest and spray it to death for being oh-so-mean to my precious baby caterpillars! They're just trying to survive, just like everything else in my garden!

And in the grand scheme, everything is part of a cycle that feeds everything else. The caterpillars feed the wasps, which then feed the cardinals and chickadees and mocking birds. Later in the summer, I always see some ladybugs, and my aphid problems drop even without me bringing out the hose. Sure, the snails are a major problem for me, right now. But they might be feeding things I'm not even seeing, late at night--like blindworms, or possums, or frogs, and maybe even the birds are going at them when I'm not outside.

The literal basis of my pollinator garden is so things can eat other things--the caterpillars feed on the milkweed, after all. I can't deny that they're part of an ecosystem, and the effort in trying to just sprays poisons everywhere for no real reason.

If I really wanted to, I could try and collect every single tiny little baby caterpillar and keep them in a little container, so I can rear them by hand, if it hurts too much to think of them getting eaten by wasps. My next door neighbor did that. Brought in 26 caterpillars to protect them from outside enemies, and promptly ran out of milkweed. Out of all that, only maybe 10 tops made it. And the instant she set out her stripped-bare plants again, there were already more monarchs coming in and laying seeds on the stems of plants that just barely were starting to leaf back out.

Nature's a balancing act. Monarchs have been dealing with pests like wasps through all this time. Every time I wonder where the caterpillars are, I sure can still find a few dozen eggs on my plants. Butterflies are still dropping by, still laying tons of eggs on my plants. And it's not like I go out there five times a day to count caterpillars--for all I know, there could still be dozens of those little guys growing up where I don't even see them.

I feel like I'm losing my point. Long story short, if wasps are eating some caterpillars in my backyard, I'm not gonna lose my mind. I want my garden to be part of a wider ecosystem, not a members-only club.

[flashingbands]

Gem, and Grian's snails! In snail, hat, and human form!

[snezztheferret]

NEW SNAILS!!!!

[bird-likes-to-fandom]

converting mutuals into rhea ripley lovers since like. 2021ish

[bumpscosity]

Snails are so Aminal and also they love you

[roleslaying]

Man, between it being the off season for LARP and life stuff I haven't really been able to scratch that roleplay itch and it's starting to get to me. My little guys in my head, they're getting dusty, they need exercise... When will my silly little Role Play games come back from the war...

[5tupidusrnam3]

Fear

thing I made in the middle of the night some days ago

What the text says under the read more thing

hello I am a worm bucket

hello

(AAAAAAAAAAAA) ok I’m not welcome I’m leaving (AAAAAAA)

I also have scoleciphobia

[awkwardlii]

starting a collection of my favorite historical doodles/illustrations. just a bunch of my favorite lil guys.

these were found nestled inside various nahua-mixtec codices. delightful, as you can see

[welliguessimin]

What if I'd just freaking call my bestie whom I haven't heard from in almost 9 years? I could do that. At worst I'd reach her parents instead and seem like a weirdo (which I am)

[weirdstuffyoudontneed]

Soap But Make It Snail Barf!

If your bucket list doesn't include getting a big handful of soap disguised as snail vomit, what's the point of living?!

Buy it now on Amazon!

[jareckiworld]

Tetsumi Kudo (1935-1990) — Cultivation of Nature & People Who Are Looking at It [plastic bucket, mirror, snail shells, adhesive, paint, hair, screws, 1970]

[splatoonusna]

Team Bucket List takes the Splatfest win with a score of 415p! Congrats to the winners, thanks to everyone that participated, and be sure to grab those Super Sea Snails!

[thecontentsofyourfridge]

His name is Buddy. Do not scroll past without saying hi to Buddy. He is escaping that bath bucket to eat you.

(Also I know snails don’t have genders, but my whole family calls him he)