Subtle changes in your area...

[Ol' Dirty]

In most of the world, changes are occuring in flora, fauna, terrain and climate. What are some changes going on in your area?

For me in the Northeastern United States, there is one thing that really stands out in my mind: ladybugs. They used to be cute bugs out in my preschool only ten years ago. Now, they're everywhere. There have been thousands of ladybugs on the walls and ceiling of my bedroom. Take a ladybug on your hand and try to scare it. Smell the orange stuff coming out of it. Multiply that a thousand fold, and you have my house and vacuum cleaner.

What about ya'll?

[MarxSchmarx]

I'm kind of a transplant, but here are some changes we've noticed.

First, (edible) fish are harder to catch :( But I guess that's true the world over.

Second, I wish we had a problem with ladybugs. Instead, we have a problem with silverfish in my house. I guess it's better than roaches, but still, these things are disgusting as hell. We also have been having massive beetles around our neighborhood for some bizarre reason in the late summer.

And finally, I guess it's for the better, but since they built a few preserves some of the wintering species like certain mallards and butterflies/moths have come back. They've rebuilt an abandoned mine to make it a wildlife sanctuary, and now we see some aquatic birds like herons and ibises even in our ditches where before we never saw anything but rats.

In the flora department, I've noticed more eucalypti around where I live. They grow like F-ing weeds. They're pretty nice when they're young, so I guess people put up with them. Still... There are also apparently real problems with algal blooms near where I live. The worst I've had is my fishing lures being caught in that crap, but I'm told by acquaintances who work in the parks that it's getting worse and they are stumped as to how to control it.

[Invincible Summer]

Haven't really noticed anything about flora/fauna, but this winter, it's been goddamned cold! And the whole month of Nov/Dec was snowing like it was Norway or something... this city is supposed to be a sub-tropical/Mediterranean climate and we had maybe 4 ft of snow in total.

Maybe not that much to some people, but for here, that's ridiculous, considering we usually get maybe 1 foot every other year at most.

[OneNamedNameLess]

Last year it snowed in April which I'm sure is pretty unusual.

During the past two summers I have barely noticed any wasps or bees flying around:confused:

Flooding has also been more frequent around the UK.

[piet11111]

well for the first time in many years we had actual ice to skate on this winter but during WW2 we had real winters nothing like what we have these days.

and i think we have much more mosquito's then we used to perhaps because of the crap winters not killing them off.

[mikelepore]

I live in the Hudson Valley of New York. I have a neighbor who is strongly involved with ecosystems and taxonomy and so forth. He's all upset about a little green weed that grows in the woods around here. This is a very rural area where every person in this town owns a minimum of six wooded acres. He requested and obtained my permission to walk around my yard and pick out every one of these little plants that he finds. He says this little weed is "invasive", and it somehow snuck into the New York, Connecticut, New Jersey area, and it "doesn't belong" around here. It's a little green weed about two centimeters tall. It looks similar to a baby fern to me. He goes through the woods, picks out these plants, and fills trash bags with them. He marks the areas that were already searched by sticking little red flags into the ground. I don't know what the hell he's talking about. I'm an engineering and physics guy, and I know little about biology. I don't know what an "invasive" plant is, or why he's worried about it.

[piet11111]

I live in the Hudson Valley of New York. I have a neighbor who is strongly involved with ecosystems and taxonomy and so forth. He's all upset about a little green weed that grows in the woods around here. This is a very rural area where every person in this town owns a minimum of six wooded acres. He requested and obtained my permission to walk around my yard and pick out every one of these little plants that he finds. He says this little weed is "invasive", and it somehow snuck into the New York, Connecticut, New Jersey area, and it "doesn't belong" around here. It's a little green weed about two centimeters tall. It looks similar to a baby fern to me. He goes through the woods, picks out these plants, and fills trash bags with them. He marks the areas that were already searched by sticking little red flags into the ground. I don't know what the hell he's talking about. I'm an engineering and physics guy, and I know little about biology. I don't know what an "invasive" plant is, or why he's worried about it.

well there are plants that never used to grow at certain places and sometimes they are much better suited to that environment and will push the more vulnerable plants to extinction in the area.

[#FF0000]

Up in Northeast PA, we've been having an absurd amount of straight-up ice storms. Rarely ever snow. Just near-freezing water and ice.

[welshred]

daffodils in flower at christmas time when usually they are out in march. this winter here has been one of the coldest I can remember!

[Jazzratt]

this winter here has been one of the coldest I can remember!


If you're in Britain that's probably because last year was amongst the coldest and wettest since 1914 (when records began, apparently). I fucking hate the cold.


So yeah, the snow in April last year is a change and not the good kind. But generally I've not noticed much.

[Mindtoaster]

In most of the world, changes are occuring in flora, fauna, terrain and climate. What are some changes going on in your area?

For me in the Northeastern United States, there is one thing that really stands out in my mind: ladybugs. They used to be cute bugs out in my preschool only ten years ago. Now, they're everywhere. There have been thousands of ladybugs on the walls and ceiling of my bedroom. Take a ladybug on your hand and try to scare it. Smell the orange stuff coming out of it. Multiply that a thousand fold, and you have my house and vacuum cleaner.

What about ya'll?

The changes in my area were hardly subtle. We had a day of massive snow about a month ago.

How often do you hear of snowstorms in an area made up of sup-tropical wetlands? its also set to snow again this friday

[Rascolnikova]

I don't know what an "invasive" plant is, or why he's worried about it.

Introduced species can really fuck up a local ecosystem when they do better there than the natives.

Here in the intermountain west of the US, for example, we have tamarisk or salt ceder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarix), which looks like it belongs--but it takes massive amounts of water, which it's good at getting. Thomas Jefferson introduced it because its pretty.


We've had a couple of insane winters here, as well, though it's hard to say what normal is. . . this year and last year, tons of snow, and before that completely mild at least one year. As far as plant life, all I've noticed is that my apricot tree (which typically would freeze every other year or so) has produced for the last four years straight, even with the crazy winters.