There have been a few bursts of wasp or hornet activity since I made this thread. They always sputter in about 2-3 days. The frogs are so keyed in to them now, they don’t have a chance when they go to grab some water for the nest. I thought for sure I’d have to go around the house wasp nest hunting… but as of the last several weeks there is nothing.
This is the best bug control we have ever had.
I’ll see your frops and raise you bats. Tonight I was amazed to see swarms of bats outside my house. The wife and I were on the porch and we were surprised to see a large number of bats flying around. Several of them flew right over our heads. I’m pretty sure that they were scooping up any flying insect, specifically mosquitoes. In fact, I did not experience any bites all night. The wife was kind of afraid of them. But all I could think was, thanks bats. Great job.
Bats can carry rabies so I would be careful around them.
Oh god I have been waiting years for this, plus I ripped and uploaded this god damn song myself to make this retroactively possible
Frops hunt the wasps, cats (caps??) hunt the bats.
Edit: The claim in the link I used above (bats.org.uk) – that “cat attacks are one of the most common causes of bat casualties” – is questionable now, sorry. I should have sourced that.
They say the most common causes of bat deaths are wind turbines, cat attacks, white-nose syndrome and roads (??), while other sites I quickly surveyed tend to claim the most common causes of bat deaths are owls, hawks, snakes and raccoons. O my Kitties, this servant has apparently slighted you and I submit to your judgement.
I still think it is amazing that a cat can catch a bat. I guess in my mind I never envision a bat landing like a bird does. :)
BTW, this is my favoritist thread in Everything Else category.
Casps. It’s clearly casps.
I was out on the porch tonite and I heard the following sound: Read it. Read it. Read it and gimme. Read it and gimme. Read it. Read it and gimme. Is that a frog? Or Am I hallucinating my days in a shitty office job?
Both?
I wouldn’t worry unless it starts asking for some wasps to munch on.
Probably a squirrel treefrog. Anyways, a lot of frogs sound like they’re saying something but these have always been the most convincing to me. Something about when there’s a million of them all going at once makes a big difference.
https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/Frogquiz/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.lookup&CFID=29042728&CFTOKEN=4a54ab72141ff9da-2B0ACDBA-B78E-76AA-0FD066FAF9ECE2E1
Can’t seem to link one call directly so you’ll have to use the dropdown.
Rich - i loves the bats! They are so awesome. Little miracle mosquito eaters that seem to good to be real. We need to get bat boxes to try and attract some. I saw them once flying through our street lights picking off mosquitos and moths. They didn’t stay long enough and I was sad to see them fly away.
Yeah, bats can carry rabies, but so can pretty much any small or medium size mammal. (actually any mammal, but there are a lot more of the small ones) Bats do have higher incidence if rabies, but… if you don’t get bitten you are fine, if you are bitten, get a rabies shot.
OMG you guys, the latest Planet Earth episode is Frops v Wasps.
Is this streaming anywhere? You are serious right cause I’ve been looking all over for it LOL
This is the coolest frog dad ever!
Watch out Wasps!
(I believe this is a snippet from the show @Ginger_Yellow was talking about)
The sound effects are KILLING me.
Maybe? I mean, it’s the right animals and behaviour, but the footage and script is definitely not what I watched. Either they’ve drastically recut it for the American version or it’s a different show.
There’s a brief clip here, which misses out the coolest behaviour, the tadpoles’ own defence mechanism. You may need a VPN to watch it though.