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A new power is rising. It’s victory is at hand. This night the land will be stained with the blood of Rohan. March to Helms Deep. Leave None Alive! TO WAR!!!
There will be no dawn for men.
Well... I didn't know what they were when I saw them, so I let them live. I was on my way to work, so I just took a quick video and left. After finding out they were after the plants in the garden, which is the direction they were crawling, I bought a bunch of hydrogen peroxide and doused the whole garden bed. Hopefully that was enough
If your plants survive id reccomend picking up some food grade diatomaceous earth powder!
Great for killing insects and is very safe for mammals (you and any kids could eat it if they wanted to) and is very cheap too!
It is deactivated by water so if it rains, you'll have to reapply.
Keep in mind that it gets rid of all bugs including beneficial ones as well so id really only use this when you know there's a big problem (assuming you don't want to manually compensate for any bugs you destroyed in the garden)
Do NOT use diatomceous earth to kill fungus gnat larva, or outdoors in general.
Once the fungus gnat larva are in the ground, DE will do nothing to them, and it really doesn't do as much to their soft body anyways. They are eating the fungus on the roots that the plants need (symbiotic relationship), and also the roots, and are protected by the moisture in the ground. It won't even kill them in indoor potted plants. I've been there, even with bottom watering or a tube to water and keep the surface dry, the larva are not going to care about DE. It will work on the adults' exoskeleton, but it still doesn't matter much, they do all of the damage as larva and pupa, which is the majority of their lifecycle. As soon as they are adults, they mate, lay eggs, and die, the longest they can live as an adult is 7 days.
And like you said, it also is harmful to beneficial insects. It'll hurt the predatory wasps, lady bugs, lace wings and pollinators. They could end up with other pests as a result since the predators will move on. Use it only indoors.
Being outdoors, predators will find them sooner or later. Nematodes are an option that can be spread in an entire garden if there's an infestation that is actually hurting plants.
Edit: spelling is hard
A friend of mine had a giant wood pile for firewood. After being in the same spot for a couple years it was time to clean it out and up and get all the what was then, mulch/dirt/compost up from the bottom of the pile. As we started scraping and shoveling we realized that we were separating families, some thrown in fire some thrown in woods. We had become death, destroyer of worlds. A whole ecosystem, an entire world gone in an hour as though it was never there.
Edit: we were both tripping balls on a tab of acid each. I feel like that’s pertinent information to more accurately picture our mindset and remorse.
Ah yes , "the woodpile". I've spent the last three Saturdays fighting back Shelob and her spawns. Each log I move results in a bigger spider than the last one skittering at me all gas no brakes.
Saturdays have not been fun lately.
My aunt had some acres in the country and of course had some abandoned cars out in the fields or near the workshop. We’ll one day she asked me and my cousin to deal with a wasp situation. Now, wasp killer is flammable, and being 10-13 year olds of course took the opportunity to create a flamethrower.
Do you know what’s scarier than a wasp attacking you? Do you think it’s a lot of wasps? No, it’s flaming wasps… we gave them super powers.
What's scarier than a lot of flaming wasps attacking you? A lot of flaming wasps attacking you while your bloody stump of a hand can't grasp any doorknobs or anything to get away because a can of bug spray exploded in your hand.
And now you're just laying on the ground, writhing in agony as dozens of flaming wasps sting you to death and slowly set you on fire as you scream for blissful death, attempting to drag yourself away with your one good hand as you bleed out through the other.
Don't try to turn things into flamethrowers kids.
Gnat facts! So I have this buddy and whenever we go hiking or hang out at the creek he always gets the gnat cloud floating over his head. They just follow him like a halo! We figured he must have super insect powers and looked into it. They fuckin! Those floating gnat clouds are gnat orgies! So his head just smells like super sexy to gnats and they really liked fucking over his head. He is an artist and has long unwashed hair so idk… Gnat facts!
Imagine a hawk thinking there is easy snake breakfast, nope, just dirty maggots between your toes. I’d imagine they pick their feet up and look under them like they stepped in dog shit.
It is an adaptive strategy. But it is not about looking like a more dangerous animal. It is about traveling faster and more efficiently.
Imagine there is a bottom row of caterpillars walking on the ground at a certain speed. Above them, there is another row travelling at the same speed. But since they are walking on the backs of the ones below, they are moving much faster, like a moving sidewalk.
Add a few more rows above and the tops ones are really zooming compared to the ground ones.
The ones on the bottom row, when they end up in the back just climb to the top and zoom back to the front.
As a unit like that they can travel much faster than their fastest individual.
I like to imagine from their perspective they are charging full steam ahead screaming and hollering war cries and from your view they are barely moving.
Edit: Thanks for the silver, friend!
Edit 2: I really appreciate the gold! Thank you!
Supposedly the larvae move in collectives like this to move faster/save energy by rolling over each other. But they also end up imitating a snake, kind of. I wonder if that's effective at detering birds. Kind of surprised there aren't any birds chowing down on this.
I’ve never understood why some insect larvae do this to seem bigger and more of a threat, they’re just making themselves a bigger target for the flamethrower.
I have heard they do gain some momentum from it but I always wondered if that would be worth the risk of a smart crow figuring out it’s a bug buffet, it seems to have worked for a lot of bugs for a long time so I guess they know what they’re doing.
I think part of it is to seem like one bigger creature, and to utilize safty in numbers for those smart enough to see past the ruze.
Sure some of them may die, but that's a sacrifice they're willing to make.
I’m just surprised how well it works due to the intelligence of some birds. I see how from above it would really look like a snake and to anything at eye level with it you’d probably just run away in disgust. I know I wouldn’t feel great about 1000 burgers lunging towards me.
Yeah, having 1000 burgers wiggling towards me woul be pretty terrifying.
There's a lot of pretty interesting survival strategies that work suprisingly well.
Flamethrowers are not around for as long as the birds are. Evolution is slow! Unless you speed it up by applying flamethrower selective pressure. But I am afraid of what gnats will come up with as a defense against flamethrowers.
Isn't this the one type of larvae who usually lives on oaks and causes a lot of respiratory issues each spring? Google translator said something about gnat being mosquitos but these certainly are no mosquitos - nor their larvae?
You are referring to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak\_processionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_processionary). We have them here, and when found, they close down the paths in the woods around them to protect the people.
Gnats (these insects) have a lifespan of about 7 days, and 5 minutes is around 0.05 percent of 7 days. The average human lifespan is about 72 years, and 0.05 percent of that is around 13 days. So yeah it is probably a long time for them lol
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World War II as a tactical weapon against fortifications
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That’s more like thousands!
Dozens!
At least 20.
Dude be realistic
I mean it's definitely more than 10
I counted 11 but I think there’s significantly more. Hard to fully know.
There's literally **some**
Tens of thousands!
But my lord there is no such force
*HONK HONK*
Tudoom toDUUUUUUMMMM
A new power is rising. It’s victory is at hand. This night the land will be stained with the blood of Rohan. March to Helms Deep. Leave None Alive! TO WAR!!! There will be no dawn for men.
BUT MY LORD THERE IS NO SUCH FORCE
A NEW POWER IS RISING
LOTR music starts playing
Less than half of what I hoped for.
At least a couple..
Well that's gnat good.
To the promised land
We ride wriggly and chrome!
OH WHAT A DAY, WHAT A LOVELY DAY!!
r/unexpectedMadMax
WITNESS ME MY BROTHERS
Witness? Yes, you are witness. Even so, what I, Karsa Orlong, shall shape, you cannot imagine. No one can.
Witness me garden gnome!
A hundred generations from now (i.e. a few summers), gnats will tell stories of their gnat Moses
r/remindme 2 months.
Gnoses
Mass extinction event incoming in your garden
Nuke em from orbit!
It's the only way to be sure
Genocide is okay in this case, I’ll allow it.
So u/7Drew1Bird0 what did you end up doing? I can’t sleep until I know you got rid of them.
I’m one of the larvae, he’s torturing us one by one, please send help
hi, local bird here, we're on our way
Thank you I can see you coming from the south let’s do this
Just stand up as high as you can ok ? We are gonna try to swoop in without stopping
It’s a trap!
What a fucking ride
Do a barrel roll
The fire is the help. Trust me.
gnat larvae suffering? Good.
Well... I didn't know what they were when I saw them, so I let them live. I was on my way to work, so I just took a quick video and left. After finding out they were after the plants in the garden, which is the direction they were crawling, I bought a bunch of hydrogen peroxide and doused the whole garden bed. Hopefully that was enough
Do your plants enjoy hydrogen peroxide?
I hope so! I read to use diluted 3% but it also said to use it in moderation which obviously was not an option
"If I can't enjoy my plants, you fuckers don't get to either!"
Peace is never an option.
If your plants survive id reccomend picking up some food grade diatomaceous earth powder! Great for killing insects and is very safe for mammals (you and any kids could eat it if they wanted to) and is very cheap too! It is deactivated by water so if it rains, you'll have to reapply. Keep in mind that it gets rid of all bugs including beneficial ones as well so id really only use this when you know there's a big problem (assuming you don't want to manually compensate for any bugs you destroyed in the garden)
Do NOT use diatomceous earth to kill fungus gnat larva, or outdoors in general. Once the fungus gnat larva are in the ground, DE will do nothing to them, and it really doesn't do as much to their soft body anyways. They are eating the fungus on the roots that the plants need (symbiotic relationship), and also the roots, and are protected by the moisture in the ground. It won't even kill them in indoor potted plants. I've been there, even with bottom watering or a tube to water and keep the surface dry, the larva are not going to care about DE. It will work on the adults' exoskeleton, but it still doesn't matter much, they do all of the damage as larva and pupa, which is the majority of their lifecycle. As soon as they are adults, they mate, lay eggs, and die, the longest they can live as an adult is 7 days. And like you said, it also is harmful to beneficial insects. It'll hurt the predatory wasps, lady bugs, lace wings and pollinators. They could end up with other pests as a result since the predators will move on. Use it only indoors. Being outdoors, predators will find them sooner or later. Nematodes are an option that can be spread in an entire garden if there's an infestation that is actually hurting plants. Edit: spelling is hard
DE shouldn't be inhaled while applying it and keep your pets away from it while applying it.
Shit's basically asbestos lite. 😬😬😬 safe until you breathe it.
That ought to do it. But I still say it would have been cooler to dump a whole nest of fire ants in their midst. 🐜 (except red).
Well we already have an ant infestation, but I guess they're either the wrong kind of ants or maybe just a bunch of slackers
u/7Drew1Bird0 PLEASE DONT LEAVE US HANGING I GOTTA KNOOWWWWW
They have him.
RIP u/7Drew1Bird0, we hardly knew ye
They got him. He gone!
He just laid on his stomach and opened his mouth. All crawled right in.
How do I delete someone else’s comment?
And there goes my appetite.
I assume you needed to put the camera down in order to operate the flame thrower?
No, that’s the flamethrower with a camera on it
GlowPro
BlowPro?
Different kind of a camera, more of a pleasure device
Dude... ThrowPro
Ahhh, the new iFlame. Impressive.
Oh the solar lense, nice.
I have a GrillBlazer, might have to stick a camera on it
Don't own a flame thrower so i went with chemical warfare
APPLY THE ##ROLLING PIN
#ROLLING PIN DEPLOYING
[удалено]
Chicken ataaaaaaaack!!!
They might look harmless But they'll kick your non-chicken ass Go chicken go-oh-o-oh-oh-o!
Now go, now fl-ah-Ah-ah-ah-Ah-ah-yy You own the sk-ah-Ah-ah-ah-Ah-ah-yy. . .
[Squelching noises]
Squish squish squish
Making pizza are we?
You have a once in a lifetime opportunity to kill hundreds of them in one move instead of struggling to kill them one by one as they swarm your face.
I consider myself to be a lover of nature but yeah, first thought was flamethrower those bitey bastards!
Nuke ‘em Rico!
I’m doing my part!
The only *good* bug is a *dead* bug.
IM FROM THIS GUYS GARDEN, AND I SAY KILL EM ALL!!
You apes wanna live forever?
Would you like to know more?
Come on you apes, do you wanna live forever?!
*click, click* I would like to know more.
*joins kids in stomping bugs while lady laughs hysterically in the background*
Service guarantees citizenship.
I'm from Buenos Aires and I say Kill Em All!
God damn bugs whacked us Johnny 😫
The only good bug is a dead bug! Rico ruff necks!
A friend of mine had a giant wood pile for firewood. After being in the same spot for a couple years it was time to clean it out and up and get all the what was then, mulch/dirt/compost up from the bottom of the pile. As we started scraping and shoveling we realized that we were separating families, some thrown in fire some thrown in woods. We had become death, destroyer of worlds. A whole ecosystem, an entire world gone in an hour as though it was never there. Edit: we were both tripping balls on a tab of acid each. I feel like that’s pertinent information to more accurately picture our mindset and remorse.
And it was all just a Saturday for you.
For you, the day Oakenbeam graced your woodpile was the most important day of your life. But for him, it was Tuesday.
Easy there M. Bison
Ah yes , "the woodpile". I've spent the last three Saturdays fighting back Shelob and her spawns. Each log I move results in a bigger spider than the last one skittering at me all gas no brakes. Saturdays have not been fun lately.
My aunt had some acres in the country and of course had some abandoned cars out in the fields or near the workshop. We’ll one day she asked me and my cousin to deal with a wasp situation. Now, wasp killer is flammable, and being 10-13 year olds of course took the opportunity to create a flamethrower. Do you know what’s scarier than a wasp attacking you? Do you think it’s a lot of wasps? No, it’s flaming wasps… we gave them super powers.
What's scarier than a lot of flaming wasps attacking you? A lot of flaming wasps attacking you while your bloody stump of a hand can't grasp any doorknobs or anything to get away because a can of bug spray exploded in your hand. And now you're just laying on the ground, writhing in agony as dozens of flaming wasps sting you to death and slowly set you on fire as you scream for blissful death, attempting to drag yourself away with your one good hand as you bleed out through the other. Don't try to turn things into flamethrowers kids.
I’ve always expected aliens to regard us in the same way we regard situations like this. Horrifying but makes a lot of sense.
Same exact feeling here. I'll save almost any bug in the house and leave outdoor insects alone, but these inspired sadistic thoughts.
Our real dilemma here is whether to use hair spray and a lighter or the more wholesome approach and use a magnifying glass instead.
Rolling pin?
I just wanna say y’all are sick for liking this soo much and that’s why I peruse Reddit.
I rarely advocate for genocide, but you make a good point.
r/nocontext
go on lad, do the post!
https://reddit.com/r/nocontext/comments/13j73de/i_rarely_advocate_for_genocide_but_you_make_a/
Gnat facts! So I have this buddy and whenever we go hiking or hang out at the creek he always gets the gnat cloud floating over his head. They just follow him like a halo! We figured he must have super insect powers and looked into it. They fuckin! Those floating gnat clouds are gnat orgies! So his head just smells like super sexy to gnats and they really liked fucking over his head. He is an artist and has long unwashed hair so idk… Gnat facts!
[удалено]
Who are you and why do you know so much about gnats
[удалено]
Thanks for the gnat facts bro!
[удалено]
Break out the flamethrower!
I don't even know how to defeat that many... You need an extra extra large shoe
Imagine tryna stomp them out but you’re not stomping fast enough and some of them cling on to your shoe and slither into your sock
Let's not imagine that please
Perhaps a bicycle would be better?
Ahh, ye olde rolling shoe
1 chicken will get the job done. 🐔
Lighter fluid and a match
Adaptive strategy? “Don’t mind us - we’re just a very dangerous snek! Absolute danger we noodle…we eat bird for breakfast!”
Imagine a hawk thinking there is easy snake breakfast, nope, just dirty maggots between your toes. I’d imagine they pick their feet up and look under them like they stepped in dog shit.
🤣🤣🤣 I was thinking more of smaller birds that might snack on individual larvae but yes, this too!
It is an adaptive strategy. But it is not about looking like a more dangerous animal. It is about traveling faster and more efficiently. Imagine there is a bottom row of caterpillars walking on the ground at a certain speed. Above them, there is another row travelling at the same speed. But since they are walking on the backs of the ones below, they are moving much faster, like a moving sidewalk. Add a few more rows above and the tops ones are really zooming compared to the ground ones. The ones on the bottom row, when they end up in the back just climb to the top and zoom back to the front. As a unit like that they can travel much faster than their fastest individual.
You just explained fluid mechanics, more specifically, viscosity
also boundary layers!
So now the question is- Is he a bug nerd who accidentally became a physicist? Or is he a physicist who people shall now mistake for a maggot expert?
If you had been my physics teacher, I wouldn't have dropped out
Swarming is an adaptive strategy. A predator may get thousands of them, but eventually it will get full and hundreds will survive.
The ones ontop move twice as fast, but yeah maybe also danger noodle camo
And then you killed it with fire, right?
Gnat so fast
You shall gnat pass!
GANDALF NOOOOO
Flies, you fools!
Just wait till they get tossed in the larva in Mount Doom.
Gnatdalf
[удалено]
I was just thinking "How important are gnat larvae to the ecosystem and how would burning this specific stampede of them with fire harm it?"
There are enough out there that killing this many won’t do a damn bit of good.
Maybe not, but we do our part out of a sense of duty. Burn them.
Just before the video ended he should've started playing Fortunate Son
I’m no mathematician but that’s a fair bit more than “hundreds”.
It’s also, to be very precise, “hundreds”.
https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-garden/gardening-garden-tools/torches/propane-torch-91033.html
I like to imagine from their perspective they are charging full steam ahead screaming and hollering war cries and from your view they are barely moving. Edit: Thanks for the silver, friend! Edit 2: I really appreciate the gold! Thank you!
While the birds chirp pleasantly.
Them birds are chirping hungrily. Larvae breakfast buffet.
Thats actually why they have evolved to move like this, to appear like a snake to deter smaller birds!
This seems entirely plausible
I do larvae me a good ole buffet - Those birds
Is this an evolutionary trait to keep them safe from the birds? They look like a big snake when in formation like this and not like easy pickins
Supposedly the larvae move in collectives like this to move faster/save energy by rolling over each other. But they also end up imitating a snake, kind of. I wonder if that's effective at detering birds. Kind of surprised there aren't any birds chowing down on this.
It is like in movies where there is a perspective of something small having an epic fight and then it shows the garden which is barely moving.
Ant Man train fight scene. One of my favs
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
I love that scene! CROOOWHHHOOOOOOOSSHHHHHH "I AIN'T QUITTING YOU!!!" ^sssssssssssssss
Makes me think of that Adventure Time episode where Finn and Jake are worms lol
https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/G%27Gugvuntts
Real life Mononoke-hime
Exactly what I had to think of. It's a demon looking for a new host. 😂
Reminded me more of the Ohm herds from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
No, that’s a perfectly sculpted eyebrow making it’s way to your garden.
Grab some rope and make em crawl in a circle
Death spiral
I’ve never understood why some insect larvae do this to seem bigger and more of a threat, they’re just making themselves a bigger target for the flamethrower.
This is apparently a much more efficient way to move too
I have heard they do gain some momentum from it but I always wondered if that would be worth the risk of a smart crow figuring out it’s a bug buffet, it seems to have worked for a lot of bugs for a long time so I guess they know what they’re doing.
I think part of it is to seem like one bigger creature, and to utilize safty in numbers for those smart enough to see past the ruze. Sure some of them may die, but that's a sacrifice they're willing to make.
I’m just surprised how well it works due to the intelligence of some birds. I see how from above it would really look like a snake and to anything at eye level with it you’d probably just run away in disgust. I know I wouldn’t feel great about 1000 burgers lunging towards me.
Yeah, having 1000 burgers wiggling towards me woul be pretty terrifying. There's a lot of pretty interesting survival strategies that work suprisingly well.
True, I suppose the risk of drying out is greater though
Fortunately evolution hasn't accounted for flamethrowers yet. For all of the bird brains, which is their main predator afaik It works just fine.
Flamethrowers are not around for as long as the birds are. Evolution is slow! Unless you speed it up by applying flamethrower selective pressure. But I am afraid of what gnats will come up with as a defense against flamethrowers.
Kill!
Borg slug
Where are the chickens and birds to eat them
Another reason to get a pet Giant Anteater.
People will really see this and still say that the average citizen shouldn’t own a flamethrower smh
Isn't this the one type of larvae who usually lives on oaks and causes a lot of respiratory issues each spring? Google translator said something about gnat being mosquitos but these certainly are no mosquitos - nor their larvae?
You are referring to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak\_processionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_processionary). We have them here, and when found, they close down the paths in the woods around them to protect the people.
"We are the swarm!"
What alien planet do we fucking live on
I would 100 try to use sticks and make an ouroboros out of that
Snort that line!
Can of lynx and your mom's hash lighter. Problem solved.
Bleach.
I've used isopropyl alcohol on insects before and it immediately makes them stop, and about 5 mins later they're dead.
5 min is probably SO LONG for an insect
Gnats (these insects) have a lifespan of about 7 days, and 5 minutes is around 0.05 percent of 7 days. The average human lifespan is about 72 years, and 0.05 percent of that is around 13 days. So yeah it is probably a long time for them lol
Convooooy
Bet you did gnat expect that
gnaturally
"We are snek. Very skary. We eat you. Don eet us!"
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World War II as a tactical weapon against fortifications