u/Camry08

I live in Northern Maine, but more coastal. I was digging in my garden beds when I accidentally disrupted a couple of ant nests with active brood. From one of the nests out ran what I believe to be a queen. I thought she would be okay but I was also curious so I googled it and it said she wouldn’t find her way back.

I tried to take all of the larger pupae and put them in the nest with the tiny ones so the workers could take them, but when I tried to put the queen over there (only 4 inches from where the large pupae were and where she popped out from), hoping they would lead her back underground.

They attacked her instead. I have now taken the larger pupae back because I don’t even know if they’re the same species anymore and I have her separated.

In the garden bed I only see light red/yellow ants, which I believe to be citronella ants and some even smaller than them black ants or maybe they’re very dark red variety? It’s a bit confusing, figuring out who belongs to what especially since I’ve seen some of the super tiny black ants run off with the citronella ants eggs.

I usually have two types of small black ants in my garden beds either ones that have a faint reddish to their center abdomen (really hard to see though because they’re so tiny) or the also equally extremely tiny black ants that have the pointy butts I think they’re the ones that spray formic acid or sting?

How do I handle this now that I have her? I don’t want to risk putting her near any ants in case they attack again. Is that the only way to see if an ant recognizes her or not is to put it near her and see if it tries to attack? Should I give up on finding her original colony? I would assume some of these ants in this bed have to recognize her as their queen if this is where she came from, but I’m surprised how many different colonies can live in a single raised garden bed.

I did see online something called brood boosting and I think that might be a safer method if I can get some help with an accurate species ID for her. I also have the larger Pupae currently because no ants have claimed them after the past 30 minutes and I was worried I made a mistake and mixed up their species by giving them to the citronella ants (if that’s what they are). Would she have better chances if I set her up with a brood?

TLDR: Found a queen ant and a couple of different broods. I need ID as I cannot find her original colony, but would like to try brood boosting her. Pupae are still being collected by workers so I have another 45 minutes at most before they’re back under ground.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

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My handsome boy takin a break

I live in Northern Maine and I’ve never seen one that looks like this before. I’m thinking lady to a more colorful species? She’s not a very good hunter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Saw this at the grocery store. I’m not really familiar with celery or growing it, but do they really grow giant bulbs like this? Could I just stick this bulb in the ground or something? I tried to look it up online but couldn’t find anything.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Found in northern Maine. I grew up here, but I’ve never seen this type before and I could be wrong, but is this a juvenile? I whipped out my ol regal jumping spood enclosure and have been feeding moths and flies so far.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edit to add: I tried googling it myself, but looking up red backed jumping spider, rusty backed jumping spider, or orange backed jumping spider did not work.

This stuff has given me a freaking headache, literally and figuratively. How is it safe to be on my chickens bodies but I’m having a hard time being around it? How do I clean this up? I don’t want to affect any insects, water, soil, or my cats.
Explanation is in video. Any help would be appreciated.

I’ve been noticing his wings kind of sticking out like this for the past few weeks. I have vitamins and supplements up the Wazzu. Is this a deficiency of some sort that I can correct? I don’t know how he could be deficient in anything.

Any experience and advice would be greatly appreciate!

I was given three bags of potatoes by somebody who got too lazy to plant them. I’ve never planted potatoes before, but looking them up I’m supposed to cut out pieces with a couple of eyes each? Are these potatoes still even candidates for cutting? Should I slice the potatoes to separate the stems?

These guys are a few weeks past when they should’ve been planted so the potatoes are kind of soft and wrinkly and covered in stems. Do I just throw the individual potatoes in the ground instead of trying to break them up?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I noticed he had a chip on the side of his beak at the beginning of the week that seems to have broken off, but it’s created a crack all the way around the tip of this beak. His beak is normally a perfect fit and closes, but as you can see in the video, the broken tip has pushed down a bit, and is now keeping his mouth open by resting in the bottom of his beak.

What do I do about this situation? Try to trim some off? Leave it? He just kind of stands there drooling everywhere. I think I’m gonna try and save up some money to get him a vet appointment because I’m worried that beak might be the least of his issues but maybe it’s something I can address now?

Idk if y’all can see the white line on my bottom lip? It’s very hard to get to go away. You know how your lips push out at the base? It’s like the white line is trying to do the same thing, but my lips are not small enough. I have to put on Chapstick every 20 minutes otherwise I am in pain or the white line gets more intense and connects. What is this called and how many other people experience it? I’ve tried to bring it up to doctors before, but they said it was normal with no further elaboration. I would like to know what it is and why if anybody happens to know!

Mystery weed seed I got from my Mimi last year. I soaked it in kelp water for 48 hours. Then damp kelp paper towels for another 48 until it had a decent tap root. I planted it just about three days ago. This appeared while I was at work today! There was no sign of a sprout even last night. I find this to be pretty interesting. Do they normally grow this quickly/rapidly? I’m a first-time grower.

He is going through his springtime hormones at the moment he’s constantly grabbing my legs and trying to step up onto my feet to mount them. He doesn’t dance for me, but at least he’s not tearing my skin open anymore. I’ve seen him dance for the babies so I know he can but what is he doing to Iris? (Iris is the scissor beak EE he was chasing). Is it just plain aggression or something more? She is 11 months old same as him, but has never laid an egg (vet said she may never due to her health condition)

Any thoughts, experiences, and or advice would be appreciated!

This is my 9/10 week old porcelain Dutch booted bantam. She needs a name. Her sister is named SandMolecule and her brother’s name is Loudmouth.

There hasn’t been a name that has stuck yet, at one point I was thinking Starmolecule or Stardust, but idk if that fits.

Personality wise, she is more ditzy and still than the other two. Her brother doesn’t care much for her and won’t even cry if I take her away, her immediate response to most things is to freeze and stay still.
A very quiet and still lady with big sweet eyes.
She loves a snuggle and will sleep with me for hours in my bed.

Sometimes I’ve worried that she’s sick because she’s not as spunky as my other babies, but I just think she’s more reserved and wants to be babied by someone.

Her immense feathering on the feet (not well shown in the pics) makes it a bit hard for her to get around or run. It looks like a person with flippers on trying to run and she tends to trip over her own feet sometimes.

Anyways, would love some name suggestions!
Normal ones, weird ones, I’m down for them all! I don’t really follow a specific theme.

Currently taken names from my other birds are:
Buffy, Iris, Rita, Chunk, Bigfoot, Loudmouth, and Sandmolecule

Did they lower the limit of creative works allowed?

I always have enough books out to cover the table and a row on the floor. I put away like six books to put down six different ones but I can’t place them down and every time I put another book away I can’t put another one down.

So yeah, this is my guy Chunk. He got all hormonal last month and became a walking tyrant. I started getting reactive and nervous around him, anticipating a bite at any given moment, but that seemed to make it worse. I just decided recently to take it and leave it and not be reactionary.
His attacks have calmed down a lot, but he’s being weird and kind of clingy. He was trying to dance at my nine week old black jersey giant rooster (can he not tell gender of a fellow chicken?).
He follows me everywhere I go, but whenever I make a turn, he grabs onto my pant legs and bites. Instead of a quick hammering bite that breaks skin and leaves blood blisters. He’s been biting pretty gently and holding on and pulling while stepping on my feet or wiggling between my legs. He’s never done this before and I have no idea what it means.
Is he just being less aggressive because I’ve stopped reacting or is he in a new stage of his hormonal phase?

Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated!

These are my three bantams the white one with the big comb and waddle is my white English game bantam roo while the other two are Dutch booted bantams. Loudmouth (the roo) will scream and cry, and throw a fit if I hold the mille fleur but could care less if I kidnap the porcelain. My porcelain booted is very quiet and reserved. Not as spunky as her sister.
I’m more used to raising chicks in pairs, so I didn’t realize there could be such obvious favoritism in a trio.
Is this typical?