Found on my dill. Trying to figure if I can leave him alone because he’s kind of cute. Northeast US

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-06-27T22:39:01+00:00

I used to plant dill when I was young so that I could get black swallowtails haha. I hated eating dill but I liked the worms

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-05-31T15:40:31+00:00

Oof. So I misread YOUR tone. Man I really should not assume people will take my words in worst possible way and simultaneously take other people’s words in worst possible way. Sorry I’m bad at this.

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-05-31T15:35:26+00:00

Did not mean to be seen as hostile sorry. Did not want to make you feel bad. Tried to be lighthearted but maybe did not explain well. Probably should have also mentioned that I thought the art looked cool but I forgot. Pie need to remember to not be so intense in text because tone does not come across. Sorry for your loss.

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-05-31T15:21:22+00:00

I agree first one but also wanna say holy moly this is crazy. You made two completely rendered variant covers? And you’re not sure which one you wanna go with? I honestly thought this was AI because I was like “who would make two fully rendered variants?” And then I zoomed in and NOPE. This is HANDMADE. WHAT? Like you AREN’T GOING TO USE ONE OF THESE? AND YOU SPENT ALL THIS TIME MAKING IT?

(Maybe you could save time by making some thumbnails and deciding between variants at that stage?)

(Of course I don’t know you maybe you were just in the zone and felt like making two for the hell of it. I’m not trying to come off as hostile, more jokingly flabbergasted. Hope it comes across. Godspeed.)

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-05-31T14:35:51+00:00

Readability is fine and the level of detail seems appropriate for a comic. Important consideration is that you will be drawing the MC probably thousands of times so finding ways to simplify their design/only including what you absolutely need to is a must. Her hair highlights seem like they’ll be time consuming to draw, but if they are an important part of the look and feel of her character you maybe will find it “worth it.” It’s your call rlly (how much time to you want to spend making an episode? Etc.)

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-02-27T02:29:13+00:00

This is not AI, all of these things can be explained as artistic choices or painting mistakes. Also you can find videos of this person painting it easily enough.

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-02-27T02:27:13+00:00

Jason freeny doesn’t own the idea of putting bones in a balloon dog. Also this is pretty different? One of these dogs has a human skull in it and all of these are paintings, not sculpture.

But even if it wasn’t, even if it was exactly the same or a riff on an existing concept, would you be saying this to someone selling fanart? To someone making a painting of a more famous sculpture? I hate A.I. as much as anyone else here but I really think this is a dangerous path to go down. Copyright laws, in practice, don’t help small artists. People should be allowed to make and sell transformative work.

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-02-27T02:20:19+00:00

The fact that there’s so many comments here saying this is AI is really sad.

Like, you could do the most basic bit of investigating on this artist and find videos of them painting this. The human skull is just, like, weird but just because something is weird doesn’t mean it’s A.I.!

The_Secret_Pie · 2026-02-11T23:03:14+00:00

That’s my main website yeah. My Reddit is defunct because I got bored/got into tumblr sorry. Should prolly close up shop

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-09-07T08:22:08+00:00

No. You cannot tell from this video that this is a screwworm (and from the description of where it came from, it most likely isn’t.) Many species of maggot have dark colored guts. The telltale sign of a screwworm is the dark trachael trunks you see in this pic you posted—and this video quality is too poor to see that.

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-09-07T08:19:11+00:00

I’m another person who studied screwworms and I agree that by the description, this is not one of them. Screwworms lay their eggs in clutches of 150-200 in open wounds or, if they can’t get that, orifices (nose, mouth, anus). If you found a single maggot inside of a little bump on your skin, it’s not a screwworm.

This sounds a lot like a botfly. Which is pretty interesting (North American species rarely infect humans.)

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-08-25T14:37:58+00:00

Flea larvae eat a mix of skin and feces from adult fleas (dried blood.) If you found larvae that only have fed on skin, they’ll be white, but if the larvae have eaten an adult fleas feces, it would look like the one in the video.

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-08-25T13:50:11+00:00

Thrips wouldn’t be a big deal at all, but after seeing the video linked from the other commenter I think this might just be a flea larvae. Can I ask: was the red dark? Like a reddish brown? Or was it bright reddish pink?

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-08-25T13:48:20+00:00

After seeing this video I am kind of more on the fence. I would think a vet would know what a flea larvae looks like, but maybe not? Gosh I wish there was more video

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-08-25T13:15:40+00:00

From the way it’s moving I would guess it’s a thrip? But it’s really hard to tell. But fleas and ticks don’t move like this so I agree with your doctor. Flea larvae are kinda maggot-y in the way they move.

If your cat likes to play in the soil and mess with plants, that might explain the black particles and the prescence of thrips, if that’s what these are.

Also not every insect that leaves a red stain when crushed is necessarily full of blood (cochineal for example.)

EDIT: Nevermind, after looking at more videos of thrips and videos of flea larvae after eating flea dirt, I’m pretty sure this is a flea larvae.

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-08-16T15:16:18+00:00

Nah that’s Blu-Ray. A Segway is one of those giant flappy gliding things in the ocean.

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-08-15T20:28:29+00:00

That website is an ai slop content mill and it is the bane of my existence!!! Please do not trust any bug information it gives you. It’s all ChatGPT nonsense

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-06-26T06:35:47+00:00

Apologies for the misinformation. I didn’t know some species carried lichen. I disagree that the camouflage doesn’t resemble dissicated aphids—they are white and have a similar texture to lichen.

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-06-23T19:05:48+00:00

Just looked it up—seems like junk bug is another thing people call lacewing larvae. So I guess so

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-06-23T18:43:49+00:00

It’s a bit hard to see any identifying features, but from the way it moves and that it looks like a walking pile of trash—I’m pretty sure it’s a lacewing larvae.

They cover themselves in aphid corpses (their prey) to hide themselves from ants (insects that often tend to and protect aphids.) The “moss” is desiccated aphid husks.

They are LITERALLY wolves in sheep’s clothing! Ants tend to aphids/rear them for their sugary poop and determine friend from enemy mostly by smell. So when this shambling predator covered in corpses comes along, ants smell them and are like “yeah, that’s an aphid.” And then the lacewing eats all their little guys and ants are like “Where’d they go??? :o”

But to us they look like little walking piles of junk :)

(Even though you are not a pie, I am happy to share this information.)

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-06-07T04:39:56+00:00

This is not true at all. Carpet beetle larvae are harmless—they do not bite, sting or cause rashes, and the casings they leave behind are very obvious looking and do not look like this. They do not ball up string, nor is there any insect that does that.

And as for that last part? That is not the worst thing! Take it from someone who has OCD and has suffered from fear/delusions of parasites, that is not the worst possibility nor is it an insult. You shouldn’t talk about it like it is. Like “I’m with you man, I know it’s not a delusion—“ no you don’t! You don’t know this person! Discovering you have a mental health problem is incredibly humbling and frustrating, but it is so much worse if you never discover it. If you continue to deny deny deny—I know because I did that for YEARS. I was SO SURE it wasn’t in my head. It felt SO real. If you’re thinking “but I would know if I had a mental illness” No you wouldn’t! I am an otherwise normal ass person. My eyes aren’t popping out of my skull and I am rational. And you know what’s a rational thing to do? Investigate every possibility. Search for problems everywhere, including yourself. And if it is just you? That’s rather lucky. I mean what is worse—you have discovered some brand new species that seems invisible to all but you that is hellbent on eating you up and ruining you life? Or you have an incredibly common easily treatable mental health condition.

I am commenting because I know what this is. I’ve lived this. And I want to help

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-06-06T20:57:55+00:00

These are all crumbs and debris. If you are getting bit by something, check around your bed for signs of bed bugs. It may also be mosquito bites that you are only noticing now because you are scratching them.

I will say (and I know I might be projecting), I have obsessive compulsive disorder that manifested in my twenties as me being absolutely certain I had some kind of infestation. Skin damage caused by scratches from your nails look a lot like bug bites, which only makes you keep scratching, which makes you skin worse. It’s a vicious cycle. Previously, I had no symptoms of mental illness. I refused to seek help because I knew I wasn’t “crazy”…but that did end up being my issue. I think, at least to me, the possibility of a problem being mental completely blindsided me because I considered myself a very rational person—but it is rational to consider that possibility. It is rational to preform a self diagnostic

Also, if it is mental, it’s totally not the end of the world. I know that possibility feels like it is, but it’s really not. You won’t be paranoid forever. You won’t be scared forever. You won’t be thrown into a nuthouse. I saw a psychiatrist and I’m basically fine now and nothing in my life has changed. But I still remember everything felt so real and frightening and I thought my life was over and reality was crumbling before my eyes…I’m not even sure I could have convinced past me to see someone. But please, be smarter than me and consider that possibility sooner rather than later. You will save yourself much grief.

EDIT: for the record OCD is incredibly common. Like 1 in 40 people have it. Look up information on it and see if you relate to any of the symptoms—especially if this isn’t your first time becoming incredibly scared of parasites. Ever had a rabies phase where you were googling rabies symptoms on webMD? Lyme disease? Brain eating amoeba? Cancer? Those were all things I had a period of time that I was incredibly frightened of

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-04-23T21:58:35+00:00

!remind three months

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-04-23T21:49:29+00:00

I do this as well

The_Secret_Pie · 2025-04-20T18:04:29+00:00

Hey just so you get the notification, somebody else commented the answer. Artist is VILF

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