@futurebird / futurebird.tumblr.com
Look at this big beautiful carpenter ant major from my Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony! I picked her up with the paint brush and just let her wander around on my hand for a bit. She's so gentle and curious.
She's so big you can really feel her walking over your skin. It tickles!
Thank u comrade tyranitar
that is godzilla
nothing but respect for comrade godzilla but that's fucking tyranitar
Is that tyranitar fucking bigender
Transitar
The disturbing thing about ant technology is it's all ants.
The fridge? It's an ant. Your tank? It's an ant. Your boat? It's you, and other ants. Your house? The walls are ants. Your weed control for your garden? Tiny ants? Your glue gun? It's an ant (a baby ant!)
So advanced high tech ants would have ant guns, and ant spaceships. Advanced ants would have ant computers for ants, made of ants. Advanced ants would have ants for storing data.
And ant bombs.
Wait! Those already exist!
There is a popular well drawn OC I've seen on here a few times, it's a creature that lives in space with other alien friends, it looks like a horse/elephant but is fuzzy, has almond eyes, fangs that have to be removed, It's a cute bashful creature and the artists has done many drawings of its adventures... anyone know what I'm taking about?
It looks a little like this:
And yet I can't stop looking at zipper designs. There are so many unique and cool options available. From waterproof zippers with vanishing seams, to zippers of unusual size. Different shapes and colors for the teeth-- so many textures.
I think "This cool zipper inspires me to make something-- then remember that if I buy a zipper and don't use it? It will just be a source a guilt one more unfinished project-- but I still can't stop looking around at all the cool zippers.
If you do know how to sew and make projects, why not use the coolest zippers you can find? A unique zipper can be a feature! Why go with anything boring-- just look at these lovely zippers!
dang, an actual useful and real "life hack" instead of those insane videos of people doing arts and crafts with a background of copyright free music
[Video Description: A woman demonstrates a method to put on your socks without having to bend over and tug on them as much.
Make the towel into roll/taco, like a big soft shoe horn ... put one end of the taco/towel into the sock. Then put your foot in the sock with the taco, which you can do by dangling it down and shoving your foot in.
Then pull the towel up and out.
There is audio on the video, but it was hard to follow so I tried to explain it more. This worked great for me. Socks are very annoying. ]
the fiercest hunter…
(juvenile Acanthophrynus coronatus)
[Video Description: A long limbed spidery creature, a tailless whipscorpion, this creature has two very long antennae-like legs and it is investigating a motionless meal worm in a bottle cap. It gently taps the meal worm to see what it is, then rather awkwardly manages to grab it with with two large claw like mouth parts (raptorial pedipalps). Holding the prize it slowly backs away.
The creature is rather like a "daddy long legs" (Pholcidae) but with a bigger body. It's not a true spider though it *is* a member of Arachnida a majestically awkward creature.]
Made the mistake of giving the beetles a really crisp apple slice (along with the usual veggies theyve decided to ignore in favour of apple) and I’m trying to sleep and all I can hear is tiny crisp crunching sounds. Like how can something so little make so much noise?
It literally sounds like someone is biting an apple outside my door
[Image Descriptions: A death feigning beetle munching an apple, a cute drawing of a cartoon bug eating a burger. ]
How can you tell if an ant is sleepy? they can’t blink so you might be boring your ant to death with a long-winded story and not even know it. Or maybe their room isn't comfy enough and they can't sleep well. Ants hate to complain. Solution?
Observe the antennae!
I couldn't stand it anymore. I'm not proud that I've done this.
I went to check out the paper (it's about the sleeping habits of fire ants / Solenopsis Invicta) and omg it's adorable - not just the antenna habits, but apparently the queens all sleep in little piles together and wake up at the same time:
The paper notes that they coordinate waking up at the same time by movement - one wakes up and '...much like a cue ball activating billiard balls... the queens moved apart from each other'.
Also they get like 9 hours of sleep in little 6 min naps. Cute!
Three years ago she murdered her sister. Her sister thought they would be queens together but Penta had her own ideas. She has only five legs and nearly 2000 daughters who I manage with a modified vacuum cleaner (it’s an automatic asperator.) I’m almost done moving them into their new nest. It’s been so much work. I’ve only killed four ants so far. Please don’t tell Penta. She is not patient with incompetence.
This is Tulip, the median carpenter ant worker. Today she enjoyed some wet cat food. She really liked it a lot! She was the first to try it and now all her sisters are digging in.
I can’t seem to find Pepper, the ant with the green spot, I think she might have cleaned the paint off (she was very dusty) — stay tuned for more important Tulip updates.
Ant minds, making ant choices, for ant reasons.
Sometimes the little ant you see on the sidewalk has been to places and knows about things you will never know.
At night she travels down, deeper than your basement, deeper than the grave, deep as the deepest roots of the great trees, where the earth is always warm.
She may know of caverns and pockets of life, scale insects in root-lined galleries, hidden streams, seams of minerals.
For an ant? Secret riches beyond the wildest sugar dreams.
I was holding out hope it was a provocative if a bit tasteless art project— the kind of art that embodies what it seeks to criticize too well—
reeee! is right this is awakening violent impulses in me I didn’t even know existed.
No. It’s a real project that sought and got VC.
Always trying to spot a bird
[Image Description: Eight panel hand drawn cartoon. Title shows a person with a headband in a track jacket arms up as if jogging. "Trying to birdwatch while running"
The first panel shows the shadow of a bird on a branch, then it is shown to be a little robin like bird "Junco"
the next panels show a shadow in the river, could it be a water bird? no, it's just a log.
Next the shadow of a little bird near the road? No, that's just trash.
Next some lumps in a field are those rocks? No, it's 100 Geese!!]
I often look for ants as I'm walking around NYC, and somehow this is even more dangerous than bird watching whilst running. I can't help it, I scan the sidewalk and low walls, the trees and plants for ants. Sometimes I head butt an investment banker in the stomach.
That's the "danger part"
I was talking to my husband today about antkeeping and in the course of explaining a complex colony rehoming (see the "innocent" twins I posted that colony is nearly 2k strong and CRAZY) I happened to say "anytime you open a port to a space that contains ants, ants come out of it."
He found this VERY funny for some reason and is now calling it "The Ironclad Law of Antkeeping: anytime you open something full of ants, ants come out."
I mean... he has a point. I guess.
They look so innocent at this age. Big yellow heads, soft exoskeletons. These major worker twins just emerged. They are sleeping. Their black antennae remind me of pigtails. So innocent, give them a week and they’ll be up to all kinds of adventures. (Camponotus nicobarensis)
How do I *know* they are sleeping?
