Hey /an/, I'm from the Chicago suburbs and I want to attract as many bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, etc to my backyard. What's the best way to go about it?
I've been googling it but I know nothing about gardening or anything and I feel like you guys would have tips/experience/stories
There are certain plants which attract butterflies and bees.
google that.
Let your yard go to weed first, then you'll see them in the summer.
Hummingbirds like monarda, so do bees.
Melissa officianalis attracts them like nobody's business, and it's tasty.
Bats come after the moths, and the moths eat the weeds. To attract cool moths, grow tobacco, it summons luna moths when it flowers.
Any plant in the milkweed family will bring you some kinda butterfly.
Monarda officianalis is a good start for your area though, it's called bee-balm. And it cares for itself.
If you can get lemon balm you'll have bees after it spreads, (a little after a year) and then you'll be able to fight the weeds with it.
Dandelion flowers are a godsend to these little european bugs(honeybees and dandelion aren't from here, and so they stick together. If you don't have dandelions, then stop killing everything with roundup.
Seriously though, let your backyard have a weedy ugly patch first, then you'll have better soil. Those weeds make fertilizer, medicine, food, and shelter for good critters. They don't need your care, or water, but they will teach you what you need to know. If grass is all that grows, then take some old cardboard boxes, and place them where you want to kill the grass, cover them with dirt and let nature unfold.
>>2020990
Fill a bucket with yard/dead leaves clippings and water the spot with that shit. In fact, if you have a tree that sheds leaves, do not rake them, let them rot and bring forth the fungi and things that nature likes. Dead leaves are gaia's skin. You need a lot more water if somebody took your skin away.
Bees need lots of surface area, like bushiness, cause they can only drink dew that falls in the morning and night. The plants constantly breathe out water, and the bigger they are, the more it helps.
Mulch is the only bee-safe way to kill weeds, and it also feeds the soil, and thus indirectly the bees.
Some plants die after a year, look into native perennials if you want something stunning, and awesome. Nature uses everything, so you can't judge your yard harshly if you get box-elder bugs invading in the fall, or overly curious jumping spiders. If you kill something, you tip a domino, that affects the way things unfold until you stop doing that.
Plants love tea, any kind.
Cabbage tea helps their stalks, tobacco tea kills pests, old tea leaves or coffee grounds are their bread and butter.
My cat has been vomiting like twice a week for months now. He's also recently gotten the habit of sniffing around for people food, even though he'd never done that before, eating pretty much only his dry food before and some tuna sometimes. He's completely healthy and happy otherwise, as far as I can tell.
He's a 11 years old castrated male, indoors since we're in an apartment. I've taken him to the vet twice, changed his food, given him special food, changed his water thing for one with running water and nothing has helped.
I'm almost resigned to cleaning up cat vomit every other day now. Still, can't go wrong with 4chan.
What should I do?
Picture is him chillin' on my PC tower.
When he vomits, what does it look like? Can you see hair or is it just digested food?
What food is he eating right now, and what was the "special" food you tried?
Did the vet take any blood work or offer a diagnosis?
Do you free feed or do you feed him measured amounts twice a day?
>>2020837
Liquid or food he just ate.
Some kinda fattening wet food for recuperating cats. The vet recommended it.
He took blood and said something about the kidneys not working efficiently, I don't remember exactly but he said it wasn't serious. That was why I got the running water.
>>2020852
Free, pretty much.
Birds are the most adorable creatures on the planet, and there's nothing you can do about it.
>>2020747
we can throw wings on dogs and... nah, your right.
'specially baby doves.
pic related.
>>2020747
BOOM BITCH
Get out the way!
>>2020752
please tell me more
I want to rescue an adult cat from a local overcrowded shelter but I live alone and work 40 hours a week + having a social life of 10-ish hours a week so that's around 50 hours a week I won't be able to give the cat company.
Is this ok or should I pass? I'd buy lots of toys and he'd have some nice window views
that cat or another will get u=put down if you don't so go ahead. also if theres another the cat will get along with they'll be happy to sell you more than one.
>>2020572
Cats are still work. Just be prepared for litter box and cleaning up after.
I work 40 hours too. The cat will be fine just be sure to build the relationship.
It's fine, especially as you're looking at adopting an adult cat. Tell the shelter what you're looking for, but they should have literally dozens of cats that would be perfectly happy getting in 50 hours a week of quiet napping or grooming time while you're out so long as you spend time with them when you're at home. You could also adopt a pair of cats that enjoy each other's company but it's not a requirement if you'd prefer just one, there are plenty of cats that prefer being the only cat in the household.
Betta general and other questions.
so my betta has started to move a lot less and sit in weird spots like a corner that he never goes in or the bottom of the tank. I just cured him of ich and since then he has been acting a bit odd. When i give him a nudge he starts to swim around then go back to being a statue. What do?
I was thinking he might just be kinda tired. He isnt refusing to eat though.
Is he just chillin?
I tested for ammonia and changed about 30% of the water but he's still faceplanting in the rocks. the shrinp are going crazy with all the shit that rose out of the rocks. Ill just give it time
/thread
i'm going to my parents house over the holidays for two weeks...should i leave my 3 year old cat in my apartment and have my neighbor feed her every day or should i bring her along?
Take the kitty
feed the neighbor
>>2020182
come on arent you guys supposed to be like animal experts or something
Depends on your kitty's temperament. If she's very social and attached to you, it'd probably be more stressful to leave her behind. If she's fairly independent and/or you know she hasn't done well with adjusting to change in the past (many cats don't), let her stay in your apartment.
So I finally had this date. It was with a lady from the internet. We were having a good time, she was laughing at my jokes and showed positive body language. I showed her my town, we had some drinks and so on. I was about to say goodbye, when she asked if she could go to my place. I was getting kind of nervous. Should I do this at the first date? Normally, I do not show my ant farm to a lady after the first date.
But, since everything was going that well I didn't want to disappoint her. I figured we could go to my place and just ignored that awesome ant farm I have.
So, we ended up in my place. We were talking a bit and it was getting kind of... You know! So, we started kissing. Everything went well, until she stopped kissing. I was confused and asked her 'what's wrong?'. She pointed to, yes indeed, my ant farm. So she said, 'That's a nice ant farm you have there.' I knew it was a really awesome ant farm, but really I wasn't supposed to show her on the first date. Right? So, ok, we started talking and she was asking a lot of questions about my ant farm. She took numerous pictures of my ant farm. She wanted to know the species, were I got them from. And well, I told her everything. I mean, I didn't want to be rude and not talk about my awesome ant farm.
So I was looking straight into her eyes, thinking we could continue the romance. Am I right? But she kept looking at my awesome ant farm. Which I could understand, because it is really awesome and the ants were really rare and expensive. Forward a few minutes and she suddenly says 'Well, it is late, I got to go now.'
No big deal I thought, I have her phone number. Nothing. So I thought I should call her. Nothing. I totally forgot I had her on Facebook, so I decided to contact her by that and she still isn't responding to any of my messages!
What am I supposed to do!? I didn't even mean to show her my ant farm. She was kind of nice, so I'm really hard broken by this.
Help me out brothers!
holy shit
cucked by your own ants
>>2020201
Hahaha lol
>I'm really hard broken by this.
Damn, that's a nice cock blocked Freudian slip if there ever was one (either that or you're retarded and think it's supposed to be "hard broken").
Hey guys what is this insect?
babby leafhopper
>>2020083
looks like some leafhopper.
hard to say from that pic.
I've got a Double-Tail (pic related) that absolutely shredded about 50% of his finnage in the past 24 hours. I noticed some nipping around the edges when I gave him breakfast yesterday morning, not much more in the evening.
He's generally pretty aggressive, to the point of being a complete asshole to females (will attack them to cause harm more than often. I've stopped trying to breed him.)
He's nipped his own fins in the past, but only a couple bites, usually when he can see his reflection, or another betta he can't get to. He gets a serious murder-boner for attacking other bettas.
I put him in a 20 gallon community tank a couple months ago with a clown pleco and a handful of fathead/rosy minnows. He actually seemed to have calmed down, chasing a minnow when it got too close to him, but never hitting the murder switch with any of them. He'd usually just hang out in the wisteria or explore the corners of the aquarium.
The community tank is established, well-filtered, and well-balanced. Heated to about 77 degrees, and is aerated and well-planted. I have no idea why he would suddenly get it in his mind to rip himself down as far as he can reach.
OP here: Sorry for the shitty image. He won't hold still for a single fucking moment. Best pic out of 20.
>>2020072
How powerful is your filter? Betta don't like heavy (or even light) currents.
>>2020077
The filter is really barely more than a trickle. Enough to get the water around the bottom of the tank moving so the pleco can continue being a couch potato.
More than a few inches away from the source, the current is just strong enough to push a memeball a few more inches away. On the other side is the 1" aerator stone that creates its own current.
I doubt either of these are bothering the betta, since he tends to stay toward the surface most of the day, on the side furthest from the aerator.
WTF is this creature? Found second one today in my flat. Kind of tick? thanks anons
another pic
Chelifer cancroides,
micro-scorpio without tail. Venom comes from the "claws" Eats small insects
Sidymella
I've found a stray cat not too long ago, brought her to the vet and turns out she is about 50-55 days old. Was told to feed her 35 grams of kibble and half of canned food a day. She barely touches the kibble though. We went to the vet last Tuesday and since then she only ate 15 grams in four days instead of her supposed 35 a day.
On the opposite every time I give her canned food she eats it all, barely have the time to give it to her and she already jumps on me to eat everything in the can, so she currently eats like 5 grams of kibble if lucky and a whole can of canned food. Before I used to just put a whole can together with the kibble in her bowl and let her eat all she wanted, and she used to eat a whole can with some kibble in a day, but now if I give her a whole can on the spot she could easily eat all of it immediately, so it starts to make me wonder if I'm making my cat starve or something.
The vet says to not put canned food on the floor together with kibble because bacteria can easily get on it or something like that, and only leave it on the floor for no longer than 15 minutes (which never happens because she eats it all when I give it to her), and he insists I keep giving her only half a can a day, and if she starts starving or something she will eventually have to resort to kibble. I can't stop getting worried and thinking I should feed her more though, she goes crazy when she sees me getting the cans or her bowl, even more crazy when I start cooking food for myself, keeps climbing on my legs to try and get to the food, I'm forced to close her inside a room and hear her cry from the other room or she will keep trying to eat my food. Her scratches also get very mean during that.
What should I do? Should I give her more canned food? Maybe just put as much as possible in her bowl and if she is done eating it after 15 minutes I remove it from the floor to avoid bacteria?
Just give her canned, vet is being silly, you could feed 100 percent decent wet food or kibble either way but of course the cats going to prefer the wet stuff.
15 minutes not giving more than half a can, that guy is some kind of nutty hack or something. Bacteria seriously... Don't worry about bacteria ffs cat eat wild shit they catch from who knows where... Just don't let it eat stuff that's been left out for more than oh 18 hours or so. And get a vet that's less ri-fucking-diculous. im sorry you've been hassled by such a crazy person
>>2019904
Seriously? Wew, I know nothing about cats but that sounds like bad time. I'll definitely go check another vet next time. Still I hope I can get some more replies about this, hope you don't get offended if I don't immediately trust some random anon on 4chan instead of a vet, even though I don't exactly trust him as well. She was never crying, scratching and complaining before I went to him and started not putting canned food on the floor anymore.
It's only a stray cat, not some sort of exotic animal that can only be fed certain things. If you feed your cat at the same time(s) everyday, the problem of your cat bothering you while you're trying to make your own food should go away so make some sort of feeding schedule (it did for all the cats that I've owned so I'm just speaking personal experience here). My cats always went nuts when I shook the kibble box or showed them a can of wet food.
You're worrying about this too much.
>Senpai! I... I...!
Why is nature so lewd?
>>2019890
oh baby
>>2019890
I can't even begin to understand how this would ever evolve.
>a plant evolved a fucking airsoft gun.
My new "friends", post your buds. Preferably birbs.
What the fuck am I looking at?
Where is this?
Some kind of shelter for birds?
Why is there wood everywhere?
Is this someone's back yard?
wtf
Why are there so many Eagles in the same place?
My roommate stepped on my cats tail yesterday, she yowled loudly and now (12 hours later) she's walking around with a dropped tail and gets mad when I touch it. She seems to be able to move her tail, but she's being extremely tender about it, and is currently hiding under my bed. Could this just be a bruised tail or something minor? Do I wait a couple days before going to the vet to see if it improves?
You already know the answer, Anon, and you already know what you're going to do.
Don't look to us for justification.
I'd take her to the vet. At the very least, you could get her some good pain relievers. If it still hurts that badly twelve hours later, it probably is more than a bruise. You'll probably need an xray.
Yes, it could just be bruised, and yes, it could also be badly broken. There's no way anyone can diagnose it over the internet- personally, I would take her to the vet as soon as possible (though not in the middle of the night or anything) if she's hiding and reacting badly when it's touched. Cats are usually very quiet and undemonstrative when in pain, so if she's clearly stressed 12 hours later, she probably is hurting quite a bit.
I'm pretty sure my dog doesn't really like me and would rather spend even more time with my mom, my uncle or her best doggyfriend.
What do I do?
I was thinking suicide but I'm open to other suggestions.
Bribery.
YOU MUST DOMINATE
>>2019466
Be the only one to feed it
Cuddle it often
play with often (fetch, tug of war, wrastling)
Walk it a couple times a day.