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casualuk·Casual UKbytetris11

Has anyone noticed a rampant increase in these guys?

Just... everywhere.

That noise outside? You bet your arse it's a fox.

That feeling at the back of your neck? A garden spider has definitely set up camp.

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mander.xyz

It's spider season! That's very normal in September/October. At least in the Netherlands but I imagine it's similar in the UK.

I didn't know about Foxes. I very rarely see them.

16

There's always been loads of foxes in the UK and they absolutely do not give a shit about anything new you do.

They're one of the few species that actually increases with urbanisation.

7

The garden spiders, orb weavers I think? do seem more prolific this year! I manage to get wrapped in at least one web every morning!

And the foxes have been digging up my veg beds all summer :( Looks like they tried playing ball with my best pumpkin too!

5

These fucking spiders weave webs right across the path! Every time I put the bins out I get a mouth full of their webs! Someone ought to start a change.org petition to stop them doing this.

5

Not in the UK and not foxes or spiders, but I have seen more packs of coyotes living in a city than I ever did when I lived in a small, semi-rural farm-country town. Had a small pack roaming around my apartment complex the other night. 😳

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feddit.uk

Yeah...it's autumn.

Presumably this isn't your first autumn.

There are lots of spiders because it's spider season. There are always loads of spiders in September and October.

And you're noticing all the foxes because this is their mating season, and they make a horrendous amount of noise when they're mating.

You'll be panicking about all the leaves on the trees dying and falling off, next.

4

All the spiders who normally prefer to be hidden in your walls and floors and ceilings are now searching for each other to make the next generation.

4

I'm just glad not to have had another run-in with giant house spiders. The last one was so big I could feel it crunching from the other end of the broom.

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lemmy.world

Yeah those orange orb spider cunts are everywhere yuk 🤢 I swear those bastards are actually some kind of tiny spybot because they sound like metal if you flick them off their web.

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tetris11reply
feddit.uk

Flick em? My only physical connection to spiders is between a hard flat card and a cup

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lemmy.world

Tbf that was something I was brave enough to do as a kid, but in my 40s they are cleared from a distance with a bamboo cane 😂**

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Echo Dotreply
feddit.uk

I think I read somewhere that if you touch them it can hurt them, which I have no idea if it's true but ever since then I'm always just done cup method.

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Similar with snails: Never pull them off something to avoid hurting them as the sucker detaches.

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lemmy.world

What kind of place do you live, are you in the countryside? Weirdly they are more visible in towns because the ones there DGAF; country foxes are sneaky but I've still seen them a few times.

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I grew up in a village in the countryside and now live right on the edge of a village. But I've also lived in Cardiff and Lancaster and didn't see any there.

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Also, they get hunted if they wander into the wrong part of town country-side.

1

more visible in towns because the ones there DGAF

Can confirm, I live very close to the town centre and every now and then foxes make their mating call right on the street lol

Used to get foxes roam into my patio like every few weeks

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Yeah you don't see them very often, even in the country, last time I can remember seeing one was in the yard of an Amazon warehouse but I'm sure I've seen a few since then

1

This seems insane to me. I see foxes at least every month.

I literally just had a pair yelling their terrifying night music outside my window.

They're common as fucking pigeons in towns and cities.

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thelemmy.club

... wouldn't an increase in both (a steady increase, not just a one-season bump) be a positive signal indicating environment's health/biodiversity?

Sure, both have other externalities (foxes are smart & are getting integrated in human ecosystems, spider population can be upheld by a single species, like an unbalanced amount of mosquitoes + warming climates increase the survivability of both), but it's better to have more of them, right?

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tetris11reply
feddit.uk

I'm not sure. I have the feeling that the increase in foxes is to do with their dens being demolished by construction, so now they sleep under cars.

As for spiders, maybe the same - their woodland homes are destroyed so they take refuge more in gardens?

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thelemmy.club

Oh fuck.
It's so depressing that it must be true & done by humans.

... ty for the clarification :'(

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tetris11reply
feddit.uk

It might not be! It genuinely could be that they've found an abundant food source in the city (our bin men now come only once every 2 weeks instead of every week), and they might be thriving on that.

1

... that's a nice thought.

Imagine integrated nature into cities where humans don't kill/sterilize everything even at a small cost of human safety.

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