General Discussion Thread

[starfallz]

Curry, I had mine all out at once as well. I would think it isn't a good idea to ask people questions while they are still loopy from anesthesia though. o_o

http://imgur.com/a/79rVa

Is this the right thread....

Bugs! And nice cat-tax there.

[Róisín]

Owl, those photos are really cool, especially the ones down in the clover. The wolf spider with her eggball is lovely. Your 'mutant daisy' is the result of the plant's response to a virus, which is generally carried by a sap-sucking insect. The red-bodied, clear-winged creature you have labelled 'thing' is a predatory wasp, they hunt insects (generally caterpillars) or spiders, though themselves often nectar eaters, because their babies are carnivorous. Somewhere in the vicinity will be a nest or burrow waiting for her to put in her paralysed victims and lay an egg on each one.

The wattle gall develops from a chemical reaction of the wood. There are tiny gall-wasps whose babies eat the green sappy tissue of young wood. When an egg is injected under the bark it is accompanied by a growth hormone which makes the tissue of the wood grow very sappy and sweet, to better feed the wasp grub. The grub pupates inside the eaten-out gall, which at that stage is tiny, then burrows out and flies off to conduct its wasply life. But sometimes the gall keeps on growing, hardens, splits, gets infected with wood-eating fungi. I think that's what has happened to the one in your picture. Fascinating bits of Tassie nature.

[JoB]

I am a functional human being who looses fights to headboards

"I wanted to hit the sack but accidentally picked a fight with its evil steppdad instead"

I don't know what I'm going to use these for? Am I just going to keep them for reference?? what kidn of reference would I need these for?

Probably not the answer you're hoping for, but if you should ever disappear and the police wants to check an unidentified body, they would try to match it against DNA extracted from your preserved (and hopefully unperforated) teeth.

Teeth are quite good at preserving genetic material for DNA tests, there've been fires where the entire body of a victim except the interior of their teeth turned out to be unusable for testing.

[Daéa Reina]

aww, Owl's pictures are so cuteeeOHMYGOSHSPIDER

[Auleliel]

aww, Owl's pictures are so cuteeeOHMYGOSHSPIDER

I know, those are some beautiful spiders!

[eyjafjallajoke]

From the lil Ari days when I used to believe in the tooth fairy, my mom saved all of my teeth, and I found them one year. >_>;
I dunno where they are now, but I kind of regret not making a necklace out of them, just so that someone would wonder where I got all those teeth(I don't know if I would have the nerve to actually do it, but, yeah).

[Curry]

Ha haaa, I'm probably going to just store them away and not think about them until I am living alone (so I can make a teeth necklace without freaking out my poor innocent mother). Think of how much badass a necklace of Actual Human Teeth would add to any cosplay _{especially sigrun nyohohoho}

[Miss Honeyham]

From the lil Ari days when I used to believe in the tooth fairy, my mom saved all of my teeth, and I found them one year. >_>;
I dunno where they are now, but I kind of regret not making a necklace out of them, just so that someone would wonder where I got all those teeth(I don't know if I would have the nerve to actually do it, but, yeah).

Why did I not think of this? I literally had all my teeth (including a lot of really nasty-looking molars I had to get pulled) just hanging out on top of the fridge for like... 6 years. dang. what a terrible missed opportunity.

[OrigamiOwl]

Owl, those photos are really cool, especially the ones down in the clover. The wolf spider with her eggball is lovely. Your 'mutant daisy' is the result of the plant's response to a virus, which is generally carried by a sap-sucking insect. The red-bodied, clear-winged creature you have labelled 'thing' is a predatory wasp, they hunt insects (generally caterpillars) or spiders, though themselves often nectar eaters, because their babies are carnivorous. Somewhere in the vicinity will be a nest or burrow waiting for her to put in her paralysed victims and lay an egg on each one.

The wattle gall develops from a chemical reaction of the wood. There are tiny gall-wasps whose babies eat the green sappy tissue of young wood. When an egg is injected under the bark it is accompanied by a growth hormone which makes the tissue of the wood grow very sappy and sweet, to better feed the wasp grub. The grub pupates inside the eaten-out gall, which at that stage is tiny, then burrows out and flies off to conduct its wasply life. But sometimes the gall keeps on growing, hardens, splits, gets infected with wood-eating fungi. I think that's what has happened to the one in your picture. Fascinating bits of Tassie nature.

Ah thanks for the added information there!
I roughly knew what the wasp was, but was way too sleepy at the time XD so "thing" sufficed ;P but I knew next to nothing about their lifestyle, so thanks!
The wattle gall was one of MANY, that tree is covered in them, it reminded me of the chapter start page with Lalli and the flesh blobs X3

[Sunflower]

Owl, those photos are really cool, especially the ones down in the clover. The wolf spider with her eggball is lovely.
Your 'mutant daisy' is the result of the plant's response to a virus, which is generally carried by a sap-sucking insect.

The red-bodied, clear-winged creature you have labelled 'thing' is a predatory wasp, they hunt insects (generally caterpillars) or spiders, though themselves often nectar eaters, because their babies are carnivorous. Somewhere in the vicinity will be a nest or burrow waiting for her to put in her paralysed victims and lay an egg on each one.
<snip>
Fascinating bits of Tassie nature.

Thanks for the background, Róisín!  Knowing what's going on helps me appreciate Owl's lovely photos even more.

I have a miniature rosebush in a pot whose flowers this year were all "mutated" like the daisy.  Does that mean they were infected with a virus, too?  If so, is there a way to get rid of it, short of discarding the plant?

[Róisín]

Owl: glad to be useful. You may have gathered that I am a total nature nerd!

Sunflower: if your rose was flowering normally until this year, probably a virus, yes. There are some chemicals that will do similar, but I don't suppose you've been feeding your rose growth hormones or synthetic dyes? In roses the condition is generally spread by aphids or flower thrips.  Keeping those down, either with soapy water, physically rubbing them off if it's a small bush, or encouraging ladybirds and lacewings to come and eat them, should help. Some departments of Agriculture will actually sell you little packages of predatory insects (or their eggs, depending on time of year). Is that a thing in America?

If it's a small bush and hasn't been infected for too long, there are things you can try. Prune your rose heavily, taking out all the obviously infected areas and a few inches below them,until the tissue looks healthy. Don't worry, roses can take very hard pruning, and are generally the better for it. Take the opportunity to shape your rosebush, opening the centre up for better airflow and cutting the outer stems so the top remaining bud on each stem is facing outward. Good airflow through the bush prevents a lot of the fungal diseases that afflict roses. Cut the stems at a slight slant, not flat, so water will run off the ends easily (fungal disease prevention again).

Don't compost the pruned-off wood or leave it lying about. Gather the prunings and dispose of them by burning, or in a sealed parcel in the rubbish, so as not to reinfect your plants if some sapsucker decides to make a meal off the wilting branches. If your bush has not yet gone dormant for winter, give it a good deep watering, keeping the water off the leaves (that's a good rule anyway- roses are martyrs to fungal infections, and dampness encourages fungal spores). In any case, topdress the pot with some nice rich soil and a light mulch, then water it with dilute seaweed concentrate (can you get Seasol or equivalent in California?).

As a general rule, roses live longer and flower better if they are not overwatered or overfertilised. Soft sappy growth encourages sapsucking pests and the diseases they carry, and makes for leafy rosebushes with fewer flowers.

Whew! Sorry about the wall of text, but I hope it's useful!

[urbicande]

Whew! Sorry about the wall of text, but I hope it's useful!

I don't even have rose bushes and I thought it was useful!

[Róisín]

Thanks, Urbicande!

[Auleliel]

That was a lot of cool information, Róisín! Thanks!

[Haiz]

I won't be home until tomorrow late, but here's an oslo adventures update:

- at 3am, the night before the eluveitie concert, we found out VIP tickets were still on sale. I like to think buying these is the best middle-of-the-night decision making I've ever partaked in.

- VIP tickets consist of meet&greet with the band, an extra acoustic mini-concert, and merch loot.

- At 4am I realized I have the opportunity to give the band a copy of my calendar.

- I was a vibrating nervous wreck all day after making that decision. And, uh, sleeping for a couple hours. We did that.

- They let us into the concert venue a little over 7 and the band was there and they were even filming and I was 110% super awkward the entire time, but tHEY LIKED MY CALENDAR AA A A AAAAAA AAA!!!!!!  and then we sort of gravitated towards one of the eight band members who wasnt surrounded by fans, the bassist (there's a stereotype joke in here somewhere), and he was actually really chill and the easiest to talk to. All of them were really nice it was a Generally Pleasant Experience if we look away from the fact that I was feeling pretty faint from being in constant awe over like,, talking?? ? to one of my favourite bands? ? I've never met any of my idols before what the hekc

- FRONT SPOTS SECURED. Guy next to me with almost reynir-length hair warns us that he's gonna headbang. It proves to serve as a cooling fan under the concert. I appreciate that even if my shoulder is covered in his locks half the concert.

- The first band is italian and they're all wearing kilts. The lead singer has fake leaves sewn to his shirt. They are hilarious and adorable.

- Second band is icelandic and I was told they sing in icelandic, too, but it's not like I can hear what they sing when they scream anyway.

- The eluveitie concert, on its own, was 2 hours long. We had already been there for three hours at that point. It was 2 hours of amazing. There was an acoustic part in the middle of it and I was really starstruck ahaha. The guy next to me, the headbanger, brought up his phone at his point. We gave him the stink eye until we realized he was buying VIP tickets for their concert tomorrow in Stockholm.

- At the end, I got hold of a drumstick. I never thought it'd happen to me so I was like WOWOOW WOW WOWOWW about it for hours afterwards. I don't know what im going to do with it but im gonna treasure it foreverrrrrr. My friend got one of the setlists! We managed to even get it signed by five of the band members later, and it's now part of their really impressive setlist wall.

- Concert was over half past midnight so it had been a really intense evening hahahah. SO WORTH IT