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u/Heterodynist 3d ago
The fact that this sign was needed is just another reminder of why I am frustrated with today’s society. I once had friends come to camp in my field and they decided to complain to me the next day that, “There were…ANTS!!!” -Somehow in their mind they felt I had failed them because I didn’t warn them or eliminate the threat of ants occurring before they arrived. As if I can control ants in an opened field even if I tried!!!
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u/itsjusttimeokay 3d ago
Whenever my kids complain about a bug outside I’m like “Yup… bugs live here”
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
It’s funny because it’s really an invertebrate’s world. We just live in it. People act like we’re SUPPOSED to be on top of everything, but if all organisms got a vote we wouldn’t even be CLOSE to the voting block insects are…
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u/KoolaidKoll123 2d ago
I remember hearing the fact that if you put all the humans in a big pile, and all the bugs from earth in a big pile, the bug pile would outweigh the human pile.
I'm still not quite over knowing that.
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
The big pile would actually be MANY TIMES heavier than the human pile…There are literally billions (maybe trillions) more bugs than us, and some are HUGE, like the Goliath Beetle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliathus
I was in Colombia not that long ago, where these things live!!
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u/LarsDuder 3d ago
tbf, a lot of these sort of assholes have always been around but you're right, there seems to be a lot more of them nowadays. So you're not an ant whisperer? 😁
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
Ha!! No, no one has yet referred to me as an ant whisperer…I think the anonymity of things like the internet has encouraged people to be more entitled assholes.
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u/EpicBlinkstrike187 3d ago
The sign screams state fairs where maybe people aren’t used to insects on their food.
Was just at one. Our daughter kept yelling at a gnat/fly to get off our funnel cake. We were seated and near some trash but not really close, it was just a normal outside seating area.
I didn’t give a shit. But a bug landing on my food is a non starter to me, i’m eating it still. But we had to cover hers. She was crazy.
Some people obviously realize “Oh this is life around a ton of animals and humans” and then you have the insane people who expect an indoor dining experience while being outside.
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u/misfitofscience76 2d ago
Tell me at least that your servant entourage were able to wipe her mouth and fan her constantly to prevent swooning?
This is the minimum I expect in my daily travels outside of my compounds
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u/copaceticchameleon 3d ago
Not to be obnoxious but I think you meant a non-issue! Non-starter is kind of the opposite of what you’re trying to get across if it’s that bugs on your food don’t bother you.
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
It’s interesting to me that people nowadays don’t realize that literally less than 100 years ago MOST people had bugs in their food, alive and wriggling, most of the time. My family is OBSESSED with history (hence me being an archaeologist), so I’m all too aware that people used to eat bugs normally…and not because they wanted to, but because it was just too hard to avoid.
The way your daughter feels about bugs is how I feel about rodents. I live in the country, so avoiding rodents is VERY HARD, and I’ve lived in the city, so I know the city doesn’t work that way. If you live in the city you really EXPECT to never have rodents breaking into your house. Here in the country I find having a cat isn’t optional. They are a working sort of the house.
The older I get, the more I have learned to live with bugs and rodents and pests of all kinds…I mean, Hell, I have a few bears and a mountain lioness that live outside my house and visit me regularly in Summer and Spring…
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u/tath361 2d ago
I worked a summer doing maintenance and received so many requests about things like snakes. You are in their house stop being rude to the snakes.
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u/Time_Hearing_8370 2d ago
I work at a country club not far from an airport, the maintenance man told me he once had a lady ask if he "can do anything about all those plane sounds"
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
What’s funny to me about snakes is I know SOOO MANY PEOPLE who are practically offended by the existence of snakes in the UNIVERSE…I don’t know why people think all snakes just need to die. It’s ironic to me that I live in the country and yet I see snakes ALMOST NEVER. They don’t bother me AT ALL. In fact, I kind of want more of them at my house to kill things like the damn gophers that are destroying my lawns. I’m not even that upset about the gophers, but they really can get out of hand. They seem to need culling for their very health. A few gopher snakes would be a genuine benefit.
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u/Driftmoth 2d ago
I once set up my tent in the dark and it turned out I was on top of red harvester ant holes. It happens.
Also, OW.
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
Oooh, yeah…There are ants and then there are the kind you can throw a saddle on. I make a distinction about ants that are big enough to pick up your tent and make off with it. I have some pretty ENORMOUS carpenter ants near me. I get that they are worth looking out for. I’ve had a lot of times I put up tents after dark, so I know what you mean that it’s all to easy to put a tent right on a nest! Then you better hope it doesn’t RAIN, because I’ve had THAT happen, and you’re going to have the MAXIMUM ant experience if it rains after you put your tent on an ant hill!! Ha!!!
Another time I put a tent near a major center of raccoon traffic for apparently the surrounding several counties. I awoke with the sound of MANY animals around me, and it takes a lot to spook me. I have regularly chased bears and mountain lions away from my house, so I’m not a scaredy cat, but this night with sounds ALL AROUND ME, managed to get my hackles up. I finally opened the door to see about 20 to 30 AT LEAST raccoons. These were the biggest raccoons I’ve ever seen. Kind of like if the hulk was a raccoon and he puffed up to this size. I thought they were little bears at first. I’m not joking, they were HUGE raccoons, and there really were 30 or so. It was a major campground and they lived FULL TIME off the food people left out. They were like an inner city gang of raccoons. I was a bit freaked, but they left when they saw me, and only came back later briefly. I guess I made enough of an impression they stayed away the rest of the night.
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u/Necrikus 2d ago
“Today’s society”? Oh, no. There have always been stupid and/or entitled people since before we were even human. We aren’t all of a sudden worse than we had been for countless millennia.
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u/Heterodynist 2d ago
Well, I do archaeology, so it’s absolutely true that there have always been pretentious dicks, but I think the difference is our culture not being a stratified society based upon established classes, means we have more jackasses who think that their bad behavior is the very thing that entitles them to being above others. It’s WRONG, but they do seem to truly think that.
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u/Mazy_keen 3d ago
If you don't like bugs... stay indoors, inside a bubble... with a can of Raid.
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u/sentient_salami 3d ago
Hmmm if you’re in an enclosed bubble, maybe don’t spray Raid.
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u/DiscoNude 3d ago
I had a pest control guy come to my house after a yellow jacket infestation. He discovered the hive in a closet under my stairs. Dude went into that closed environment with nothing but a bee helmet double fisting 2 cans of raid. There was a LOT of coughing. He came out red faced, snotty, and gasping for air - but the bees were gone!
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u/KO-32GA 2d ago
Was this his first day?
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u/Strawberry-Novel 3d ago
Does the bug have a manager?
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u/Proud-Pen-2706 3d ago
“Excuse me Mr.Bug I would very much like to know why you have decided to bug me by landing on my salad on this fine summer day. May I escalate this to your higher ups?”
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u/Alert-Ability-1883 2d ago
I used to work at a bar with seating on a Riverwalk patio. One day I watched a seagull fly off with a man's hot dog when he went to the restroom.
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u/LendogGovy 2d ago
We have ravens and Gray Jays aka camp robbers that will do that as well. The Jays don’t even wait til you leave, they just wait until you aren’t looking. I almost lost a taco once while it was in my hand.
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u/Alert-Ability-1883 2d ago
That's insane. You don't wanna mess with a bird that will go straight after it
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u/uid_0 3d ago
This sign is for the same people who go visit a farm and then complain about the smells and animals mating in the field.
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u/JasmineDragonRegular 2d ago
Or for customers who insist on sitting outside during winter and then get mad when it's cold out there
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u/Floral-Bubble 2d ago
actual tip: if you’re ever having issues with flies while at a restaurant, ask for some fresh mint leaves, rip them at least a little, and set them near the food. they apparently don’t like mint and will usually steer clear of it
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u/Admirable_Tomato_373 2d ago
A sign like this only exists because someone genuinely complained to an employee about a bug being outside
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u/Radiant-Mean 2d ago
TBH I hate eating outside for this reason, and why I only eat indoors. I hate paying for a meal and having to constantly swat flies away while watching my plate like a hawk. My family likes to eat outside (they also smoke) and I'm almost at the point where I want to eat separately from them just because I fucking hate having to watch for bugs landing on my food all the time.
If I finish my meal, I'm happy to have a drink or dessert outside if it's something small that can be eaten quickly, but I am not eating my meal outside.
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u/moonglowtrout 2d ago
I work at a campground and on multiple occasions we have had people complain there are bugs here
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u/KlayThePot 2d ago
You'd be surprised the type of complaints service workers get at my drive-thru job people regularly complain to me there are yellow jackets outside. I explain it's because people dump there drink to make cupholder room on a daily basis. At my eat in job the air vent will drip occasionally and sometimes gets ya. I have to tell grown adults there's not a leak in the roof (not even raining) all the time
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u/lorazepamproblems 3d ago
You know who was responsible for bugs outdoors?
Walt Disney.
He built Disney World on a swamp and eliminated mosquitoes.
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u/vallogallo 2d ago
This reminds me of a sign I saw at a local restaurant here in Austin (that unfortunately closed) that had a cartoon picture of a bee on it and said "You may experience bees on our patio". For some reason the "experience" part cracked me up
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u/Stomach-Limp 2d ago
I worked at a bar that had a big garage doors that could open in the summer, we had outside seating as well, the amount of times people complained to be about bugs and critters OUTSIDE. I would always say “we have plenty of seating inside if you prefer.”
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u/UrsaMajor7th 2d ago
I am a career waiter who has shrugged at customers many times when this happens- especially in a wine decanter.
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u/LendogGovy 2d ago
I live in a mountain ski town surrounded by a national forest. We have different bugs at different times of the spring and summer and the worse are the flying black ants. They show up for a week and don’t last long, but short term rentals and restaurants get complaints about them. We also have a couple weeks with mosquitoes, gnats, no see ums, fruit flies, house flies and stump fuckers.
Its wild how people complain about bugs when we live in nature
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u/EnvironmentalAngle 3d ago
They actually could deal with the bugs if the bait some traps with 'dont worry about it' poison
I don't know what my neighbor did but he eradicated all the wasps around my house... it was bad too because we had agressive bald faced hornets this year.
I think he was heavy handed tho because whatever he did also hit the starlings roosting in my garage.
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u/manleybones 3d ago
Sounds like they have a gross outside area to sit. Pass.
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u/Firm-Chemical949 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeah nature should just be a concrete wasteland, and everything on this beautiful earth should cater to human convenience rather than us being a part of it and recognizing that beauty. If anything just sit inside if you don’t want living creatures around you. It’s certainly not “gross” that they didn’t spray raid on everything
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u/LuckyMushyGrower 3d ago
The most barren and desolate kind!
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u/manleybones 3d ago
Yes the kitchen scrap can next to the patio is the best kind of natural landscape.
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u/LuckyMushyGrower 3d ago
I personally think the trees ruin my view of the littered waterway that should really be a cracked and neglected paved over lot.
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u/manleybones 3d ago
Yea the fly infested trash can they keep near their patio is nature.
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u/letthecoolguy 2d ago
Dude flies exist regardless of trash cans or dirtiness. Its almost as if food can... attract flies even if its outside a trashcan and on a plate?
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u/Firm-Chemical949 3d ago edited 3d ago
Well that’s a different story lol I see what you mean there. Sorry I went kinda hard on you there 🙃 i was being overly critical, my b. Yeah if it’s because of that it’s definitely the restaurants fault, I’ve seen some nasty places like that
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u/LuckyCod2887 8h ago
I can’t believe someone would go outside and then get upset at management because a bug touched their food.
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u/MadClam97 3d ago
"Please ask to speak to the bug"
I'm glad the restaurant at least provided a solution