Muck & Grass (Zone 9a)
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burningwellies.bsky.social
Muck & Grass (Zone 9a)
@burningwellies.bsky.social
93 followers 68 following 140 posts
Bonkers about #slugs #bugs #hens & #compost. Poor relationship with fake lawns, slug pellets, fascists, & God. Selective mute with no detectable sense of humour. Proofreading skills? None.
Pics: me/my crap phone
#GrowFood #Insects #SoilHealth #Pollinators
Posts Replies Media Videos
burningwellies.bsky.social
More fly sex 😊
A close up of two green bottle flies, mating on a corn chamomile flower - white petals with a yellow flower head. It's a bright sunny day & the light is catching the female, giving her a shiny ultra marine blue hue. Their eyes are a beautiful ruby colour.
April 23, 2025 at 3:28 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Love from, Bristol, UK xx
April 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Forgot the #alttext

#UKSpiders #FlowerCrabSpider #FleshFlies #Sarcophagidae #Diptera #CrapPhotography
Not very good pic of a flesh fly in the grip of a flower crab spider. The spider has changed her colour to match the yellow of the dandelion they’re both on. Just like their namesake, crab spiders can run sideways using their super strong forelegs. Flower crab spiders also have the extra special ability of being able to change colour to blend in with the flower head they’re using as ‘bait’. Flesh flies are incredibly beneficial insects. Adults are excellent accidental pollinators because they’re not fussy when searching out nectar to feed on. They might not be able to carry as much pollen as bees, but they make up for their lack of hairs by their sheer number. Let’s hope it never becomes the case, but one day we might be relying on flies to pollinate our crops. Flesh flies are also detritivores, both adults & larvae are attracted to & consume rotting organic matter, helping return nutrients the soil. I’m writing this on my phone without my specs - apologies if it reads like nonsense
April 21, 2025 at 8:56 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
This pic was not intentional. I thought the fly looked a bit distressed as I passed, so I took a pic to find out why.

#Misumenavatia (I think). Super special - they can change colour at will.

#UKSpiders #CrabSpider #FlowerSpider
April 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
First common banded hoverfly (male), of the year.

So excited! 😆

#BeneficialInsects #Pollinattors #Syrphusribesii
April 20, 2025 at 11:32 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
I probably should’ve mentioned that, ‘I love #dandelions’ is my 2nd most frequently used post-it note during #spring. The 1st being, ‘WTF do you think you’re doing with that slug? Put it back, right now’

#Ants are brilliant accidental #pollinators, & not too shabby at #soil regeneration, either.
An overhead view of a dandelion plant. A fully open dandelion is in the centre. It’s a deep lush yellow & is surrounded by green leaves & buds. There is a black ant barely visible amongst the individual flowers that make up a dandelion flower head. Dandelion’s are an important early food source for ants & other beneficial insects. They feed on the nectar & the seed heads A single black ant feeding on dandelion nectar. The dandelion fills the frame.
April 13, 2025 at 6:31 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Get better soon, keeper of crows x
April 9, 2025 at 6:18 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Hello, little lovely.

#GermanWasp #Vespulagermanica #Insects #Springtime #Wasps
April 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Careful as you tread. The girls are still waking up.

#BeeKind #Bumblebee #LoveNature #Pollinators #Insects #CrapPhotography
A bumblebee hidden in low lying green undergrowth Close up of the same bumblebee as she emerged. She’s sitting on a green leaf Same as pic 2 but from above. She warming herself in the sun. The sunlight is making her wings sparkle
April 6, 2025 at 10:17 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Love #dandelions. My absolute favourite #wildflower.

#Pollinators #FoodForBees
April 6, 2025 at 10:03 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
First #ladybird of the year.

I had to move both of the apple trees from the old hen yard, about a month ago. I didn’t think they’d go for it, but here they are.
Close up of a seven spot ladybird on an apple bud. Head on view of a seven spot ladybird on a newly emerged apple tree leaf.
March 29, 2025 at 2:06 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
I don't know if you're aware, but your account & your comment on the DailySpark have been labelled 'Terf' by Bsky, & hidden behind a content warning.

Sorry for poking my nose in, but I hate bullies regardless of who they are. Here's the screenshot, just in case you want to appeal the decision.
March 29, 2025 at 7:03 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Love #horseradish. Aside from the roots, the leaves are great for #composting (& eating), which is just as well, because it seems I’m now an accidental horseradish farmer.

#GrowFood #Allotments
A pile of horseradish root covered in soil. There are some new shoots attached which look like green, spiked crowns. There’s green grass in the foreground & my garden fork is pushed into the freshly dug soil at the top left of the picture.
March 24, 2025 at 3:41 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Love fennel in the garden. Its flat, umbrella like flowers are highly attractive to #pollinators & other beneficial insects, including flies & wasps, who are not just brilliant #pollinators themselves, but also aid #pestcontrol & #composting.

#BeneficialInsects #Fennel #FoodForBees #Nature #Gardens
an out of focus close up of Lucilia, the green bottle fly, feeding on her favourite yellow fennel flower. She has beautiful terracotta coloured eyes, & a bit of a squint. It's sunny.
March 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
How I arrived on Bluesky
A garden slug, peeping over a wooden step. It has an orange head with black/blue tentacles. The angle makes its face look like a sealion's. Arion ater is commonly known as the Black Slug, though the colour varies from black to orange. It's omnivorous, preferring rotting vegetation to living plant matter. Arions are excellent composters if they have a good source of their preferred food stuffs.
February 14, 2025 at 4:06 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Snail eggs, I think.

The first two pics are of the same clutch of slug eggs, about a week apart. There's a neonate on the right of the second pic. The last pic is of a couple of dislodged snail eggs (I put them back).
Slug eggs laid in the drainage hole of a flower pot. They are whitish, opaque & not quite spherical (lemon-shaped - round but with two pointy ends). Click on the next pic for a description of them hatching about a week later. BTW, did you know, most slugs are detritivores & beneficial to your garden? Please don't kill them or use slug pellets. Thank you! Hatching slug eggs at the base of a terracotta flower pot. There's a neonate (slug newborn), centre right of the picture. Slug eggs don't have a hard shell like birds. The neonates 'absorb' the egg 'sac' as they emerge. It's a very cute process, their tentacles emerge first so for a few minutes they look like the space hoppers, people of my age used to bounce around on when we were kids. The next pic is of two snail eggs. Two white snail eggs in compost. I accidentally disturbed a small clutch of snail eggs which had been buried in what looks like (because I can't remember & it's out of focus), my greenhouse carrot seedlings. I put them back. They hatched & ate my strawberries, but I didn't mind.
February 5, 2025 at 6:52 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Note To Self: so, change of plan this year. No farting around with needy veg, no experimental crops, no growing onions from seed because it's scoop my own eyeballs out boring...& absolutely no nasturtium seed collecting. They do not taste like capers - they taste god-awful.
Small garden snail nestling in a rain soaked orange nasturtium flowers. It's a bit out of focus.
January 25, 2025 at 3:05 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
❗❗Highly toxic #ethyleneglycol, the main ingredient in #Antifreeze, tastes sweet, & is highly attractive to pets & wildlife such as #foxes, #hedgehogs & #birds. #Carrion feeders & #predators are also at risk of secondary poisoning. Please lock away your chemicals, & clear up spillages. 🦊🦔🐈‍🐶🐁🐀🦅🐓🦡🌱💚
December 7, 2024 at 4:58 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
"I said, 'Check the weather', not 'Bring a feather'!"

#Nature #Slugs #Invertebrates #Arionvulgaris
Two terrestrial slugs (Arion Vulgaris), mating on soil with sparse grass. They have encircled on another, & are exchanging sperm packages. One slug has a hen's feather stuck to it.
December 7, 2024 at 10:20 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
It’s #WorldSoilDay, people!

#SaveSoil #SixInches
December 5, 2024 at 12:13 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Apologies I forgot the alt text. Here it is again this time with the description.
Orange coloured Irish cellar slug with grey tentacles on a black gloved hand. Please let me know if I need to improve my descriptions.
November 30, 2024 at 1:19 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Irish Yellow #Slug (#Limacus maculatus). Otherwise known as the Green Cellar Slug. Introduced species to the UK. NOT a pest. This species is #detritivore - they only eat decaying matter & so are beneficial to maintaining a #healthysoil. Excellent #compost makers.

#Nature #KnowYourSlugs #GrowFood
November 30, 2024 at 1:15 PM
burningwellies.bsky.social
Spot the #slug neonate! This was a couple of years ago. I'm having to relearn a lot since accidentally bashing my own head in, but the file says, 'Arion distinctus?'.

Goes without saying that I wish I was who I was, but I am who I am, now - a slug person with a new copy of #Limacology for Dummies.
Translucent slug eggs clustered around a drainage hole of a large terracotta flowerpot. Several are hatching, with the upper tentacles emerging first. Possibly Arion distinctus.
November 30, 2024 at 7:43 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
I will get going soon. It's been a couple of years since I stopped posting Twitter, so I'm a bit out of practise, & a bit suffering from posting fright. Here are a couple of out of focus bottoms to look at whilst I sort myself out.

#Flies #CrapPhotography
November 21, 2024 at 8:21 AM
burningwellies.bsky.social
I found an old tin
November 19, 2024 at 9:37 AM