u/ladyfeste

So we're moving to a new rental in the same neighborhood but far enough from the current rental that I am leaving behind the colony of red paper wasps I've spent eight years befriending and gaining the trust of multiple generations. I give them water and toss out vegetable scraps for them! They come to see me! They see what I'm doing and check me out when I come outside and chase foreign wasps away from me and sometimes perch on my shirt to bathe!! We're friends!!

I was legit sad about this as a huge bug fan. BUT!! In visits to the new house I'm delighted to report a large colony of umbrella paper wasps!! The bad news is they're all desperately trying to build their nest in my side door frame!! Ladies I'm so glad to have you here we're going to be best friends, but I live with my wife and sister and my sister is NOT a bug fan. She can't even look at my pet bugs, except my mantis. She WILL panic and flail and get herself mega stung. How do I convince my new besties to park it in the back yard where my lazy sister will never go and we can hang out?

I've been working on this for more than a month!! A couple of progress pics included, plus gecko tax. My gecko is currently in a very boring enclosure without much coverage because when we got him he needed a smaller enclosure and we knew we were going to move in a few months. The goal was to give him a completely tricked out enclosure when it was moving time. And give me something to work on during moving process because moving freaks me out.

I made my own dirt blend (plain topsoil, eco earth, horticultural charcoal, orchid bark, pumice, sphagnum, a couple handfuls of earthworm castings, play sand) partly bc I also have three snakes I'm gonna need to move and need to make substrate for them too. The plants are a marble pothos, philodendron evian, baby tears, raindrop peperomia, lemon button fern, African violet, pink fittonia, and three air plants that will be attached with floral wire to the background. One moist hide, one dry hide, each with a cork ledge that can hold a food cup. It'll be a few weeks before we're ready to move Little Foot over so just letting plants acclimate til then!

Ladies PLEASE

Gecko! Mansion!