What's on your mind?

[SurgicalBrute]

I do my best to move them outside when I find them. They don't belong in here with me, but anything that cuts down on the mosquito population during spring and summer has my thanks

[AlSymerz]

44 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Would probably feel differently about it if I was living in a treacherous hellscape full of lethal vermin, but thankfully I'm in kind, idyllic New England, a paradise on earth.

Our advertising campaigns are working then?

35 minutes ago, SurgicalBrute said:

I do my best to move them outside when I find them. They don't belong in here with me, but anything that cuts down on the mosquito population during spring and summer has my thanks

This is a benefit for us at the moment because apparently Ross River is starting to become a bit of an issue given the amount of water hanging around some places. 4 months since the floods hit NSW and Qld and the lower reaches of the Murray River still haven't seen peak levels. It wont peak at the lower end of the Murray River (or River Murray as they call it in South Aus) until mid January and it wont finally flush out to see for another few weeks after that.

[Thatguy]

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

treacherous hellscape full of lethal vermin

But we call it home.

[navybsn]

One thing Aussieland and Florida have in common, the fauna is much more likely to kill you than not if you're not paying attention. Not everything mind you, but enough of it to warrant knowing what that bug/snake/aquatic animal is before you go fucking with it. 

I don't mind outside spiders for the same reason as Surge, cut down the annoying bugs (which will also kill you). Most are harmless anyway. We do have the odd recluse or widow, but I've only ran across a few in my time. I mainly dispatch them indoors because my wife doesn't usually see them until I'm dead ass asleep upon which she commences screaming as of she's being murdered. Not conducive to sleep, so I do the advance work.

[AlSymerz]

Our eldest used to name the damn things but she was bloody good at spotting them. She'd forever come out of a room and say there was a spider in it which she'd named something yet one of us had only been in the room 5 minutes before and seen nothing. Sure enough sometimes they were tiny spiders but there was plenty of times they were also the size 10c piece (or maybe a US quarter)

[MacabreEternal]

Day 9 of being positive for COVID even though much better than have been all week.  Had delivery of wood for the winter and can't get it all in the house because there's so much crap waiting to go back to the storage unit, loaded what I could in the cars and then got approx. half the wood in the house.  Fucked now so rest will have to have tarp over it until tomorrow when I can clear space in shed.  Winter chores are the best.

[FatherAlabaster]

2 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

Day 9 of being positive for COVID even though much better than have been all week.  Had delivery of wood for the winter and can't get it all in the house because there's so much crap waiting to go back to the storage unit, loaded what I could in the cars and then got approx. half the wood in the house.  Fucked now so rest will have to have tarp over it until tomorrow when I can clear space in shed.  Winter chores are the best.

Ah man, that sucks. Hope you're getting some rest. Don't push it, Covid hits back. 

[AlSymerz]

9 days? Shit we don't hear about anyone copping a dose for that long here any more.

Get some bleach into you and rest up!!

[MacabreEternal]

I feel fine really.  Just taking forever to get rid of it.  

[Dead1]

On 12/17/2022 at 3:06 PM, navybsn said:

One thing Aussieland and Florida have in common, the fauna is much more likely to kill you than not if you're not paying attention. Not everything mind you, but enough of it to warrant knowing what that bug/snake/aquatic animal is before you go fucking with it. 

Funny thing is for most Australians' the most deadly thing they encounter are humans including themselves - ie motor vehicles and lifestyle choices that lead to heart disease/cancer/diabetes/etc etc.

Your average Aussie is a suburbanite and only ever encounters spiders.  I've seen as many snakes in the wild in a two day visit to Plitvice national park in Croatia as I have in 38 years of living in Australia.

And I do a little bit of walking through reserves and short bush walks.

 

Being a noisy bugger helps - snakes don't like noise/vibrations so slither away when it gets noisy.  Croatian snakes apparently didn't get the memo.  

[AlSymerz]

I like being an outlier to the average Aussie. I could go outside now and find a dozen different species of spiders 10 meters from the house. I could walk across two paddocks and find several different species of snakes. In winter, more so than summer, there is mobs of kangaroos out feeding with the cows every morning. There is foxes, rabbits, wombat, feral pigs and cats, and the most deadly of all Australian animals the ferocious Drop Bears.

[RelentlessOblivion]

Living directly opposite a creek I could walk about 100m and hear all manner of frogs, birds, and see the odd lizard or koala. Downside is mozzies are a real problem.

[Dead1]

12 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

There is foxes, rabbits, feral pigs and cats

 

I'll bet most folks here don't know that some of the most common wild animals in Australia are imported - cats, foxes, rabbits, pigs camels, buffalo, horses, cane toads, deer. 

Indeed Australia has the biggest wild camel population on the planet.

 

[FatherAlabaster]

Camels, huh? Outback camels... makes sense.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Don't forget squirrels. I think many of your various species of palm trees were imported from somewheres else as well. I've also heard a rumor about some pommie convicts being deported/imported (depending on how you look at it) down under some years ago.

[AlSymerz]

Yeah the camels are from the Afaghnies who spent years and years making the train lines up the centre of the country when no one else would. They brought them here to help them but with so many deaths and so few regulations many turned feral and now roam the outback in the largest numbers anywhere in the world. They are like brick walls to hit in the truck. Emus are the same, massive wild population in the outback and hitting one is like what American/Candaians's say hitting a moose is like.

We don't have may squirrels around here but we certainly have plenty of poms. No idea how many are as a direct result of the imported species of a few hundred years ago though.

[Dead1]

Actually the Europeans brought in the Afghans in to operate the camels.  

The wild pigs are probably one of the most vicious critters in the outback.

They have hunters who use large calibre weapons and dogs clad in armour.

 

Father in law had the joy of hunting them from a helicopter using an ex-army SLR L1A1 battle rifle (semi auto rifles are illegal in Australia for most part but are allowed in rural remote areas for pest eradication).

Here's a pic of one of the biggest wild pigs caught in Australia.

 

 

 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Holy fuck that's a big pig.

[FatherAlabaster]

All we need now is Navy and his smoker.

[AlSymerz]

Razorback was a documentary not a horror movie

However Boar (released a few years ago and borrowing heavily from the original), was a comedy.

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Hard to say which introduced species has been more disastrous for our ecosystem. Hindsight is 2020 but I fail to see how past generations thought introducing foxes, cane toads etc was a good idea

[AlSymerz]

Mozzies was another good one. Sure it made rabbits easier to catch but they tasted funny once you caught them.

 

[Dead1]

16 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Hard to say which introduced species has been more disastrous for our ecosystem.

Humans.

Even the aboriginals wiped out Australian megafauna in a very quick time.

Anglo-Europeans just made the whole process more mechanical.
 

Quote

Hindsight is 2020 but I fail to see how past generations thought introducing foxes, cane toads etc was a good idea

 

It made sense given the limited scientific knowledge available.  Also foxes and rabbits were introduced to allow British settlers and especially the rich to engage in their usual hunting hobbies.

 

And in some cases like gorse it was introduced because locals were nostalgic or wanted English style hedges and ornamental plants.

[AlSymerz]

5 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

 

Even the aboriginals wiped out Australian megafauna in a very quick time.

60,000 years is a quick time?

I'd also argue that if Aboriginals had such habits they wouldn't have lasted on the same land for 60,000 years.

 

[Hungarino]

29 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

Humans.

That's cheating, Dead