111–120 of 125 posts
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The best thing to do about wasps involves a vacuum cleaner.
Went on a wasp jihad as a teenager. Waited til dusk, hit all the nests with bug spray, used a stick to knock'em into coffee cans, added gasoline and torched'em up. Oddly satisfying.
> History is full of such attempts, almost always gone wrong, to modify the presence or the activities of single species. This kind of cascading side effects can actually work out. The best example is the reintroduction of the wolf in Yellowstone [1], but similar effects have also been observed in Germany [2]. Another "key species", at least here in Europe, is the beaver [3], because its creation of wetlands aside of…
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A wild cat would have parasites, a few still healing wounds, one eye and one of it's legs has bones did not heal quite straight. This is a cat that "naturally" hunts mice and birds. Compare that to a suburbian cat which is healthy, well fed and it's biggest health risk is obesity
That's my porch cat, Sable. She just showed up one day and made herself at home. Real sweet cat. I've taken her to the vet a few times for bad wounds. Was on the porch the other night and saw her take a 15 foot dump out of a tree with a rat ( big one too). She landed on top and made short work of the rat. She's an excellent ratter.
Inside cats are pets. Outside cats are pests.
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This. Domestic cats are some of the most specialized killing machines in nature. Everything is raw murder machine. Massive muscle to weight ratio, optimized for extreme agility. 30mph top speed blows the doors off nearly anything it may encounter in nature. Tail allows for balance while running. Able to jump multiple times its own height. Able to fall a multiple of it's jump height. 20 built-in claws also act as tool…
>Cats (big and small) are best predator. And yet it is illegal for humans to hunt lions, but not for lions to hunt human (though unwise in the extreme).
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That's my porch cat, Sable. She just showed up one day and made herself at home. Real sweet cat. I've taken her to the vet a few times for bad wounds. Was on the porch the other night and saw her take a 15 foot dump out of a tree with a rat ( big one too). She landed on top and made short work of the rat. She's an excellent ratter.
I hope you meant jump.
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Bumblebees always seemed pretty docile in my experience. Come to think of it, I can't recall ever being stung by an actual bee. Asshole wasps are another story.
I have to stand up for the poor, misunderstood wasp ;) First of, most kinds of wasps are not especially aggressive, for example consider the hornet or any of the solitaries. The ones you are probably thinking of when you say "asshole wasps" are the Common Wasp, the German Wasp and the Yellowjacket, which are all social nest builders. They are also very well adapted to human habitats, so we often occupy the same space…
Are modern cats even that good at killing rats anymore? Haven't we mostly bred cats that have very rarely even seen a rat their entire life?
I wouldn't say my cats are smart but you can definitely see they are natural born killers. Everything they set their eyes on dies. Flies, spiders, you name it. Nothing is too quick for them. I keep my cats indoors (we take them in to the garden from time to time under supervision) for a variety of reasons one of them being fluffy cute little murders who kill birds and such just for sport... There are also birds which…
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I'm sort of laughing at the concept that we feel it strange that cats don't want to kill rats because of the size of the rats rather than the conversation leaning towards what are we doing that have caused rats to become so large.
In middle eastern cities I rarely see rats. But I see a lot of free roaming cats. In western cities I see rats but no cats. I suppose we’ve made our choice.
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Yes. There's plenty of rodents in urban and suburban areas, but above all, cats have an inborn instinct to murder small critters for fun, and don't need to be taught that. Rodents are their strong preference, but if bored, they will go after bugs, small birds, lizards... or engage in relentless "murder practice" using pieces of paper or cloth. This is very different than with dogs, which often have to be trained for…
The strength of those instincts does vary from cat to cat though. I have two cats, and one is a cold blooded killer that'll attack anything that moves, including my toes. The other will just sniff spiders and cuddles rabbits and hamsters. It did once chase a small mouse, but once it had it cornered, it didn't do anything.
(Domestic rabbits have surprisingly big egos.)