4 ms·

"Foraging in the wild" there is practically no wild left in Germany. Some wolves came back and our politicians decided to issure hunting licenses for them... N

"Foraging in the wild" there is practically no wild left in Germany. Some wolves came back and our politicians decided to issure hunting licenses for them... Not many points left for not feeding except for the transmission of deseases. That said, I've got a mealworm farm, and some bugs infiltrated it, so I'm putting those larvae out for the bird, but only one bird comes.

badpun 7y ago
There are close to no birds at all around where you live in? Is this a city location or more rural? Either way, I cannot phantom it really.
- aszantu 7y ago
  there are some birds here, but mostly european sparrows, they don't fly high from the hedges, some black birds and ravens and the little yellow/grey bird that comes to me
nanomonkey 7y ago
> I've got a mealworm farm Tell me more! This sounds interesting.
- aszantu 7y ago
  order some mealworms online, put them in a bucket with oatmeal,throw in kittchen scraps -> perfect pet, never dies off unless you drown 'em. U can use them to enrich your standard meal with protein, they have a great ratio protein/fat and you can make keto treats out of them or use them to make treats for the dog. U can use them to feed your local fish, birds, hedgehogs, mice, rats. They can be used to recycle certain types of plastic, and their composition doesn't change much. They usually don't like it moist(desert insects), but somehow they got in my terrarium and are thiving there. I keep them around as another food source for times of starvation (kinda paranoid about crisis). Fastest way of killing them is by drowning, they'll move forever in a microwave or frying pan. They'll eat anything that contains moisture, preferably protein. I've fed them roadkill, eggshells(they scrape the inside of the shell and make it pretty brittle), other insects, all kinds of veggies, a few of them die when there's pesticides on the food - a good way to test your local veggies for them. The only thing they won't touch is a cookie from McDonalds. If even the bugs avoid that we shouldn't prolly be eating that. The larvae and pupae are edible, the bugs are yummy to birds, but I wouldn't try one, they smell bad when stressed. The bugs can fly and will if there's over population or not enough food. Bugs love protein as well, but seem to be doing fine just with cardboard and occasional water spraying.
  - nanomonkey 7y ago
    Thanks! I have chickens, a small garden and two tanks growing spirulina, so I'm similarly geared towards turning my waste streams into sources of food and fuel. I was planning on getting some black soldier fly larvae to feed to the chickens, I may just try out meal worms instead as they are easier for me to source.
    - aszantu 7y ago
      I wouldn't bother, just build Worm buckets where Flies can lay their eggs, larvae crawl out and feed the chickens
forgotmypw3 7y ago
This is why I strongly disagree with the "don't feed 'wild' animals" movement at all. The animals are losing their regular sources of food because we're taking them away. Insect populations are way down, and this affects everyone upwards. Feeding animals (appropriate food) can help people establish a relationship with animals, which has been something people have done since before history. It will bring you closer to nature and make you more environmentally conscious.
LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
Wulves are dangerous- not to a healthy human adult, walking around in the summer. But to the elderly, the young and the weak who are out in nature alone. And sorry, the environmentalist word is currently at a discount in the countryside, after the whole beaver debacle. Guess, its not a problem if you are completely detached from nature in a city, but those who dwell outside have to live with those reality detached programs.
jjtheblunt 7y ago
Why (the hell) would politicians issue hunting licenses, though it happens, with the same questions, here in north america? I never understood the explicit support of non-food-related hunting.
- BiosElement 7y ago
  Easy, population control. Specifically with wolves and other hunting/pack animals, but really any imbalances can lead to major problems. Get enough of them and they'll consume the local wildlife and either starve or start looking for food in cities. Even animals that are fairly harmless such as Deer can be a threat though through wondering into roads. While I'm no fan of 'sport' hunting, it does serve a purpose since we've already removed most of the big threats these animals would naturally face.
- steve_adams_86 7y ago
  The idea is (in the cases I've researched it) that it supports dwindling populations of the wolves' prey. In some cases it actually makes sense, but not for any good reasons, so to speak. It's a bandaid solution. It's sort of like a top down solution to a regrettable ecological problem. It's like when someone writes some terrible code and you write an external solution to one of the problems their code causes. Only in this case, instead of us doing a full rewrite, we need to leave nature alone and rewrite itself. Our intervening by culling predators is not sustainable because we can't properly calculate the effects and it has damaged predator populations so severely. We also didn't anticipate for example how diseased and disgusting deer would get without proper, natural, regular culling by their predators. So yeah there are 'reasons' for doing it, but none of them are holistically wise choices for their respective ecosystems.

badpun 7y ago

There are close to no birds at all around where you live in? Is this a city location or more rural? Either way, I cannot phantom it really.

aszantu 7y ago
there are some birds here, but mostly european sparrows, they don't fly high from the hedges, some black birds and ravens and the little yellow/grey bird that comes to me

nanomonkey 7y ago

> I've got a mealworm farm Tell me more! This sounds interesting.

aszantu 7y ago
order some mealworms online, put them in a bucket with oatmeal,throw in kittchen scraps -> perfect pet, never dies off unless you drown 'em. U can use them to enrich your standard meal with protein, they have a great ratio protein/fat and you can make keto treats out of them or use them to make treats for the dog. U can use them to feed your local fish, birds, hedgehogs, mice, rats. They can be used to recycle certain types of plastic, and their composition doesn't change much. They usually don't like it moist(desert insects), but somehow they got in my terrarium and are thiving there. I keep them around as another food source for times of starvation (kinda paranoid about crisis). Fastest way of killing them is by drowning, they'll move forever in a microwave or frying pan. They'll eat anything that contains moisture, preferably protein. I've fed them roadkill, eggshells(they scrape the inside of the shell and make it pretty brittle), other insects, all kinds of veggies, a few of them die when there's pesticides on the food - a good way to test your local veggies for them. The only thing they won't touch is a cookie from McDonalds. If even the bugs avoid that we shouldn't prolly be eating that. The larvae and pupae are edible, the bugs are yummy to birds, but I wouldn't try one, they smell bad when stressed. The bugs can fly and will if there's over population or not enough food. Bugs love protein as well, but seem to be doing fine just with cardboard and occasional water spraying.
- nanomonkey 7y ago
  Thanks! I have chickens, a small garden and two tanks growing spirulina, so I'm similarly geared towards turning my waste streams into sources of food and fuel. I was planning on getting some black soldier fly larvae to feed to the chickens, I may just try out meal worms instead as they are easier for me to source.
  - aszantu 7y ago
    I wouldn't bother, just build Worm buckets where Flies can lay their eggs, larvae crawl out and feed the chickens

forgotmypw3 7y ago

This is why I strongly disagree with the "don't feed 'wild' animals" movement at all. The animals are losing their regular sources of food because we're taking them away. Insect populations are way down, and this affects everyone upwards. Feeding animals (appropriate food) can help people establish a relationship with animals, which has been something people have done since before history. It will bring you closer to nature and make you more environmentally conscious.

LifeLiverTransp 7y ago

Wulves are dangerous- not to a healthy human adult, walking around in the summer. But to the elderly, the young and the weak who are out in nature alone. And sorry, the environmentalist word is currently at a discount in the countryside, after the whole beaver debacle. Guess, its not a problem if you are completely detached from nature in a city, but those who dwell outside have to live with those reality detached programs.

jjtheblunt 7y ago

Why (the hell) would politicians issue hunting licenses, though it happens, with the same questions, here in north america? I never understood the explicit support of non-food-related hunting.

BiosElement 7y ago
Easy, population control. Specifically with wolves and other hunting/pack animals, but really any imbalances can lead to major problems. Get enough of them and they'll consume the local wildlife and either starve or start looking for food in cities. Even animals that are fairly harmless such as Deer can be a threat though through wondering into roads. While I'm no fan of 'sport' hunting, it does serve a purpose since we've already removed most of the big threats these animals would naturally face.
steve_adams_86 7y ago
The idea is (in the cases I've researched it) that it supports dwindling populations of the wolves' prey. In some cases it actually makes sense, but not for any good reasons, so to speak. It's a bandaid solution. It's sort of like a top down solution to a regrettable ecological problem. It's like when someone writes some terrible code and you write an external solution to one of the problems their code causes. Only in this case, instead of us doing a full rewrite, we need to leave nature alone and rewrite itself. Our intervening by culling predators is not sustainable because we can't properly calculate the effects and it has damaged predator populations so severely. We also didn't anticipate for example how diseased and disgusting deer would get without proper, natural, regular culling by their predators. So yeah there are 'reasons' for doing it, but none of them are holistically wise choices for their respective ecosystems.