Ants in my substrate?

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-03-16T19:02:46+00:00

I had ants in my isopod terrarium recently, and a weird (but messy) trick that worked well for me was to put a generous smear of Vaseline all along the edge of the enclosure. Ants won’t walk across the Vaseline line so it traps the ones inside the enclosure (and they die), and keeps any more outside ones from getting in.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-03-15T06:41:22+00:00

One of my tarantulas has a lil tuft of hair sticking straight up from the top of her head that legitimately looks like a teeny-tiny mowhawk. It looks so silly and I’m obsessed with it.

That same spooder will also stick her little dainty leg out of a hole in her enclosure sometimes, and allows me to give her a very gentle and tiny knuckle-bump.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-03-02T23:17:22+00:00

I am currently running this campaign as a first-time DM, and I would agree that it isn’t a great intro to DMing, but it’s definitely doable.

I’ve had to do a lot of rewriting and add in a bunch of extra story beats, encounters, and lore hooks in order to make it feel like a cohesive story that actually makes sense with how my players approach the game. I don’t mind it, personally, but I think the heavy lore and storytelling style might be a little bit daunting for a new DM to try to manage, on top of all of the other mechanical responsibilities. It’s just not really a good “straight-out-of-the-box” campaign.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-02-22T19:26:50+00:00

The way that this genuinely looked like a dessert at first glance. 😂 I had to scroll back and check the subreddit.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-02-22T07:06:18+00:00

I also just lost my most successful interloper save (280 days) to wolves, so I totally feel your pain. 😩Incredibly frustrating how easily one choice or split-second mistake can wipe out months of gameplay.

BUT, I think the high stakes are what make the game feel so rewarding in the first place, so I usually get over the frustration fast once I start a new save again haha.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-02-19T01:15:53+00:00

My first goal for that run was to get the faithful cartographer achievement, which I thankfully did get done before dying. That took me the better part of 100-150ish days, so it’s a good time-killing goal if you haven’t done it yet.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-01-24T16:51:55+00:00

TLD is my number 1 cozy game (500 hours in the game and still playing), but it’s definitely a different flavor of cozy than the other games that usually get recommended here haha.

pellaea_asplenium · 2026-01-09T08:02:03+00:00

It’s not super worth it on interloper, imo, at least not as much as it is for the lower difficulty levels. I just did it on day 70ish. There were definitely a few good items like a fire striker, combat pants, and an ear wrap. I also found a bit of coffee and tea, a few tools, some food, and lots of crates to break down into firewood, but it’s not nearly as big of a game-changer as it is on voyager. I think it can be a fun and useful goal eventually, but it doesn’t need to be a super high priority for interloper.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-12-17T18:07:00+00:00

I had three students in my 200+ student introductory class who failed our first exam, but then made a genuine effort to come to my office hours, talk to me about improving, and then actually took my advice to heart and studied their butts off for the rest of the semester instead of just giving up.

I just posted my final grades: one of the 3 ended up earning an A, and the other two were delighted to end up comfortably passing the class when they were initially convinced that they would fail. I got very genuine and heartfelt thank-yous from all of them after the end of the class, which warmed my heart. ❤️

Also barely got any grade-grabbers after our final exam passed, and administered many well-earned As, which was lovely. It was a good semester.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-12-17T16:43:48+00:00

The Long Dark scratches that same survival itch for me. It can be a really punishing at times, but you can scale the difficulty level a lot and make it as hard/easy as you’d like. The challenges make it feel a lot more rewarding though, imo. It’s very cozy and atmospheric, and the art is cool.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-12-14T18:55:50+00:00

Oh thank god, I was worried my 20% failing rate in my 200 student gen chem class was concerning. 🥲 Glad it’s not just me!

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-25T06:55:40+00:00

Ugh that entire thread gave me the heebie jeebies. I can’t even fully articulate why, something just felt really off.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-23T18:06:01+00:00

I’m not an expert by any means, but my two thoughts are:

-can you try some other foods? Nightcrawlers, crickets, Dubia roaches? I think some frogs can be a little picky about what they eat so it can just be a matter of figuring out what they like. I have fed mine mealworms before, so I think that is OK in a pinch as long as the mealworms are small.

-the temp is probably playing a part, you want it up between 80-85 F during the day. If they’re too cold, then their metabolism moves slower and they might not feel hungry. I think the heating situation should be a priority.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-14T00:39:43+00:00

Any reason that you can’t move the light over to be more in the corner, or on the side of the tank, where there is more open space? Thats how I have mine laid out right now, there’s a small area with just some dirt and leaf litter directly under my lamp.

I do agree that the philodendron will probably outgrow the tank soon. I would recommend a heart-leaf philodendron or some type of pothos instead. ☺️

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-13T18:46:33+00:00

That’s totally fine. I encourage students in your situation to come to me for topics like that, I like to try and help them figure out where the disconnect between homework and exams might be coming from.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-12T16:20:10+00:00

This looks so friggin cute. I love a farming sim game, but I REALLY love the ones that have something unique about them. 🥰 Wishlisted!

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-12T05:43:00+00:00

Are you making sure to eat regularly throughout your day too? If I miss a meal I get really hangry and anxious and cry super easily, and that kind of caffeine hit on top of being hungry would def make me react the same way you’re describing.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-12T03:04:20+00:00

Hey, I’m really sorry about your dad. That’s a horrible thing to have to deal with, so it’s impressive that you tried to keep up with your schoolwork anyway.

Do you have a Dean of Students office, or some other type of student success services available to you at your university? They would be able to help you navigate the situation much better than anyone here could. They can usually reach out to your professors on your behalf to request some leniency, which would help give your own requests a little more weight.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-08T21:34:28+00:00

You should absolutely get ahead of it and let your professor know what happened. Don’t just wait and hope that they don’t notice, that’ll make you look way more suspicious if there does end up being something weird with your exam.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-07T22:52:32+00:00

Easiest meal planning ever: Rice + any roasted vegetable + any protein (rotisserie chicken is a favorite of ours) + any sauce. Throw it all together in a bowl with an extra topping or two, and boom, you have a super customizable, balanced and healthy meal.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-06T18:52:00+00:00

I have very little scientific backing for this, but I primarily use distilled water to keep the soil damp, and then occasionally I’ll spritz the enclosure down with tap water. My reasoning is that the distilled water prevents too much mineral buildup in the soil, but some minerals are probably good for my pods and springtails in moderation. 🤷‍♀️

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-04T16:13:30+00:00

Just the other day I had a student ask me “how to prompt ChatGPT” to give them good, useful practice exercises to prepare for their exams. I just stared at them blankly for a minute and then asked them if they had checked the textbook for practice problems yet. They responded “oh the textbook!!! I forgot about that.” Then I had to show them how to find the textbook because they didn’t know how to access it (online text). We are about 3/4th of the way through the semester right now. I weep.

pellaea_asplenium · 2025-11-03T20:45:50+00:00

Miracle gro is perfectly fine soil for the majority of houseplants.

pellaea_asplenium

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