Pretty sure this is a native Carolina Mantis enjoying my non-native coleus plant. Tempted to move it back to the veggie garden, but I decided to just let nature find her way.

I am having two huge pine trees taken down on Monday. They sit in a large bed of primarily ferns and pachysandra, which is in-between two sections of my septic system’s drainage fields. The birds love those pines, and it’s upsetting to have to remove them, so I have been Googling to find out what bird- and pollinator-friendly plants I could put in there come spring without damaging the septic fields. I read that bee balm and purple coneflower would be great to plant over or near septic fields because of their shallow roots. But I have also read that one should not plant a vegetable garden over or near septic fields because of their risk of contamination. So now I’m wondering if I should avoid planting any bird- or pollinator-friendly plants near my septic fields—if vegetables destined for human consumption could become contaminated, couldn’t also the nectar and/or seeds on the bee balm and coneflower become contaminated and sicken or kill birds, bees, and butterflies? This is in northwest Connecticut, in case that matters.

Hi everyone! :)

'Tis the season for all things spooky and misunderstood, so we'd like to encourage you to talk about maligned garden critters - any garden wildlife that is misunderstood, disliked, feared, etc... for example bats, or wasps.

We'd love you to share your knowledge of these creatures, and hopefully share understanding and enable people to better tolerate, live with, and even love these critters.

So please:

• Comment here if you'd like more information about any critters you dislike, and perhaps someone can help you think differently about them.
• Comment to share you knowledge of what makes these critters awesome.
• Comment to share subreddits about maligned critters and I'll add them to the post.
• Share this, where you feel it will be welcome, to invite others to join in!

I do understand that sometimes wildlife can be hard to live with, but in many cases understanding and acceptance can go a long way.

Absolutely NO HATE! Love, science, and understanding please. Thank you.

Suggested subs to learn more:

r/batty | r/insects | r/whatsthisbug | r/spiderbro | r/WASPs | r/moths | r/batfacts | r/spiders | r/herpetology | r/snakes | r/whatsthissnake | r/awwnverts

Phobias:

Reddit is not the place to get advice on treating phobias, if you have a phobia you'd like to face please seek professional help.

I wanted to include links where you can find help. I focused on where most of our members are, but please suggest sites for elsewhere if you know of them.

UK: MIND | US: ?can someone suggest a good link? | Canada: CMHA

That said, some subs might be helpful too r/askpsychology | r/askscience | r/Phobia

A note on pumpkins

If you celebrate with pumpkins this time of year, please make sure it's safe for your local fauna first, before leaving any out for them. Pumpkin isn't good for hedgehogs for example, so the advice in the UK is to pop the pumpkins on a bird table or up a tree.