I created a weird food chain in my backyard

Nature Talk
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Now, this was kind of weird. Some of you are probably wondering what the title is referring to, you will find out right now.

So, during mid-spring, I had a stack of flower pots in my backyard. One day, it rained, and water filled to the top of the pots. I didn’t really think of dumping it because I was kind of lazy to do it. A few weeks past and I started to notice some green ‘algae-like’ substance growing in there. I was curious to see what would happen next so I left it there for another few weeks. Then, I started noticing mosquito larvae floating around and that was really interesting.

Just in case the water were to dry, I would sprinkle some water in there because it was getting interesting and I wanted to know what would happen next. I would watch the larvae squirm around in the pots and they looked kind of funny. I saw that the larvae were feeding on the green ‘algae-like’ substance that I talked about. That was when I knew that a food chain had begun. After a few days, I saw a woodlouse at the bottom of the water and that didn’t surprise me since I would normally see them everywhere in my area. The following few days after, I saw a Woodlouse Spider had drowned in the pots and it was getting more and more interesting.

After some days, I didn’t see any of the two (Woodlouse and Woodlouse Spider). Maybe they were collected and eaten by some other predator, or maybe the larvae had a great feast on them. I don’t know. Something was going on with the mosquito larvae. I think they were coming into their pupa stage. While digging in my garden, I found an Earthworm so I decided to see what would happen if I placed the Earthworm in the pots, since Earthworms can still live in water. I put 2 or 3 leaves in there for the worm to have.

Many weeks past and the worm and mosquito pupae were doing good. But then, a brown centipede decided to join them and ended up drowning. The mosquito pupae were slowly vanishing (maybe they were becoming adults) and it was getting a bit weird so I decided to empty the pots and washing them clean. I was a bit nervous while lifting the pots because there were a whole lot of specimens living in there. I gently lifted them and slowly poured the water into some moist and loose dirt.

After emptying the pots, I began to wonder. How come I didn’t see the Earthworm? It somehow disappeared some days before I had emptied it out. That was a really crazy experience!

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an earthworm might survive for a few days or even a couple of weeks, but if it’s completely submerged, i think it’ll eventually drown unless you’re putting a lot of oxygen into the water somehow.

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Earthworms drown actually pretty quickly, they’re not made to live in water, they die and then become a pink elongated blob.

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Where do you live? Maybe the answer lies in your environment.

When locking up one night, I accidentally shut the door (ancient, heavy, metal) on a house gecko who chose that moment to try to slip out or in, I know not which. I did not see it until the next morning when I opened the door to step to the gate to meet the newsman and the gecko’s body fell smooshed at my feet.

When I went back inside I meant to get one of the doggie bags to pick the decedent off the doorstep but having had no coffee yet, was quite stupid still and so frankly forgot.

When I remembered an hour or so later, I found that a type of small ants that we have here (we have several types, this is one) had swarmed the body and begun to, well, take it apart. So I left them to it, only checking in now and then. They were done by noon, leaving only his wee skeleton, picked absolutely clean. That the rain washed away mid-afternoon.

Our various ants here are the top of the body disposal ecosystem, I think. I have seen them cart away living bees even. They are scarily efficient, too.

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Wow, I thought they ‘can’ survive in water for long periods of time. Well, sorry earthworm that I accidentally killed not knowing!

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i suspect you didn’t actually kill it. it probably climbed out of the pot when the conditions became too inhospitable.

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Okay, now it’s starting to make more sense. Thanks!

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