MacroMadness

channel image

MacroMadness

MacroMadness

subscribers

I love my new camera! This little beetle got lost and ended up in my apartment. Unfortunately, as in all human apartments, there's untold amounts of textile fabrice, and it got them stuck on its legs. Enjoy watching the little beetle clean itself with utmost care. Insects are awesome!☺

I'm on twitter now! Much more to come!
https://twitter.com/WildAnimalMedia

The visitors our bird house. The camera was barely rolling 30 minutes here. The amount of bird visitors we get is pretty amazing.

Birds in the video:
1st bird is a European great tit, which is moulting. Pretty cool to see.
Then a Eurasian blue tit
A female blackbird
A great spotted woodpecker
Two sparrows
A male blackbird

And yes, this is right next to the cactus from the tick video.

It was a windy day and this little butterfly decided to land on my hand as it braced against the wind. I was lucky to be able to get some shots with the camera in my other hand. I stabilized the footage, though since this was shot free hand without preparaton it's not entirely smooth. Still a pretty great shot all things considered and super cute. You can even see its fur moving.

Most Heteropa insects are plant eaters, though a few also feed on other insects. I recently came across one that was feeding on what looks like a shriveled up caterpillar or maybe some larva.
Heteropa are known for being agricultural pests. They poke / drill little holes in fruit and then drink the juice, which leads to the fruit rotting eventually. This one does the same thing with its prey. This was the first time I saw it in real life, and I hope you enjoy this gross little look at the insect world.

Random shots of a slow worm at the end.

Filmed with a Sony Alpha S7III

I found this old video (hence the video quality) of my cat Chiara chasing after her favorite toy ever: a rubber band.
With cats, the simplest things can bring the most joy. You don't need expensive items. A simple rubber band or a cardboard box will be more than enough to keep them entertained for weeks.

This may look like a bee... but it's not.
It's a Eristalis Tenax, a fly that camouflages as a bee to ward off predators.
It's one of the most interesting insects I've seen so far.
It's one of a handful of migratory insects. When the temperatures drop, it crosses the alps towards warmer climates. During its migration, it uses wind to its advantage. It will fly low in headwind but soar high and allow itself to be carried by tailwind. Swarms have been observed at up to 2000m above sea level.
They have even been found in the Himalayas.
As cool as they are, they are also incredibly tough and even dangerous.
Researchers have found them to survive for 3 days after decapitation (not sure what kind of research purpose that served).
More importantly, their eggs and larva are able to survive human stomach acid. Consuming their eggs in contaminated foods can result in myiasis. Untreated, this can be fatal. On that note, do yourself a favor and don't do a google image search for myiasis. Just don't.

Instead, enjoy these pretty images of one of the coolest insects in Europe.

Also, as you may have noticed, I have a new camera. Yay!

This is a Devil's Coach Horse, or Ocypus olens, a fast moving, frightful looking beetle that raises its abdomen much like a scorpion when it feels threatened. It can't actually sting, but that doesn't stop it from pretending. It does have a powerful bite though.
As with many black animals, humans had a history of treating them badly.
In central Europe it was claimed this beetle was in league with the devil, and British folklore claims that a beetle has eaten the core of Eve's apple (even though this beetle hunts worms and insects, not fruit), and that a person who crushes such beetle is forgiven seven sins.
This is probably why in all my years this is the first time I ever came across one.

It was sitting in the middle of a dirt road used by cyclists, which is why I used the little stick to goad it to safety.

German:
Dies ist ein Schwarzer #Moderkäfer ein flinker kleiner Käfer, der auf den ersten Blick an ein Spinnentier wie einen Skorpion erinnert. Er richtet bei Gefahr seinen Hinterleib auf und droht damit, obwohl er keinen Stachel hat und somit nicht stechen kann. Er kann aber durchaus feste zubeißen. Er ernährt sich räuberisch von Würmern, Motten und anderen Insekten.

Wie so oft mit schwarzen Tieren, wurden sie früher oft zur Zielscheibe sinnlosen Aberglaubens. So sagte man dem Moderkäfer nacht mit dem Teufel im Bunde zu sein, und in Britannien hieß es, er hätte von Eva's Apfel gespeist, und wer einen Moderkäfer erschlägt, dem werden 7 Sünden vergeben.

My best friend has gone from me. She was already very frail. She had been adopted by neighbors after I had to temporarily move into an apartment after a surgery. At 19, I didn't want to burden her with a move and loss of her territory.
Sadly she was poisoned. Probably ate a mouse that had ingested rat poison.
The vet made a mistake by not injecting Vitamin K immediately, and she never fully recovered.
This footage was from the last times I saw her.

Goodbye my little friend.

My cat Chiara maintains good hygiene. She always makes sure there is no smell. Good kitty!

I had to stick my hand into an ant hill again. Because... reasons. But I got some pretty cool shots of their mandibles and even the underside of their mouth as they probed my skin for weak spots.
Fearless little critters.

This is not my cat, but another #fat #cat from the neighborhood. This one just loves rolling around on the sidewalk stones. Unfortunately, he also rolls around on the street a lot. Luckily, he does appear to be alert to noises.

He's quite friendly. No ticks in this video, which is nice for a change. Though I do have one more tick video coming this year.

My cat approached me with a request for justice. So I made her problem disappear. I tested 3 types of acid on ticks and ended up feeling like a mobster. In the spirit of the godfather: "If you are my friend, they will fear you".

There are less #ticks this year than usual, which I'm quite happy about. I like to believe I'm winning my war against them, though likely the long cold winter had something to do with it, too.
My #cat still gets bitten though, and a proper course of action is taken.
I found some leftover fireworks in the basement, so I thought I'd put them to good use.

Sit back, relax and enjoy another tick going bye bye

There are less #ticks this year than usual, which I'm quite happy about. I like to believe I'm winning my war against them, though likely the long cold winter had something to do with it, too.
My #cat still gets bitten though, and a proper course of action is taken.
I found some leftover fireworks in the basement, so I thought I'd put them to good use.

Sit back, relax and enjoy another tick going bye bye

A long, descriptive video title, but that's basically what happens here. I fed a bunch of ticks to my venus flytrap, including some who were just mating. A venus flytrap fuses shut with immense pressure after time, and it actually crushed some of the ticks to the point that blood oozed out of the trap.
Venus flytraps can't digest mammal meat or blood though (I tried that already with a piece of raw meat), and the traps at the end of the arms end up dying. But not before they sucked all the nutrients they can use out of the ticks I had given them.
The ticks ended up preserved, flat and completely mummified, frozen in their mating act. What a way to go.

Did you see the chainsaw video already? There are quite a few more outrageous tick videos coming :)

It's #tick season again, and the little pests prey upon my almost 20 year old #cat as she frolics in the grass. Naturally, this calls for creative disposal methods. And while a *spoiler* might not be the most sanitary method, it made for a fun little horror short film. Enjoy! Plenty more mayhem to come.

Credits: Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong (Cover) and a few cues from Resident Evil Village.

And spiked on a cactus

It's a Zombie!

Ants eating dead Mouse

Ants attacking my hand

SHOW MORE

Created 3 years, 4 months ago.

20 videos

Category Pets & Wildlife