What are your most annoying species?

Nature Talk
42

Starlings and House Sparrows are both invasive in North America, but I suspect the real reason people dislike them so intensely has to do with how many people feed birds, and especially with how many people at least try to have nest boxes for bluebirds.

That means more people actually see the aggressive behavior of these species, and worse, they see it directed at their beloved bluebirds! (People really love bluebirds.) And then they tell each other about it. There are native species that can also be pretty aggressive (even at a bird feeder), but without the negative PR, people mostly donā€™t notice. :woman_shrugging:

Here is a really cool article about a study they did on inter-species competitive behavior at bird feeders. Note that in the little diagram (which only shows the top 13 feeder species), the House Sparrow lands about in the middle, and the tough starling loses rather badly to the Red-bellied Woodpecker.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/when-136-bird-species-show-up-at-a-feeder-which-one-wins/

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43

I recently started seeing golden crowned kinglets around my property and understand what you are talking about. Theyā€™re the hardest bird Iā€™ve ever tried to take photos of.

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44

Mosquitoes
Chiggers
Fire Ants
Ticks

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45

If I had to pick just one of your four, this would be it. They camouflage their nest so well that you canā€™t see it, then expect you not to step on it.

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46

Pyrus calleryana, the Bradford Pear. The smell. The smell. :nauseated_face: And there are so many.

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47

Mine must be the Spanish slug. Even if itā€™s one of my favorite slugs, itā€™s invasive in my village and itā€™s SUPER annoying to always look around not to step on a sticky slug that eats your salad for youā€¦

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48

Most annoying species, aside from the classic invaders, is wineberries. Everytime Iā€™m out there pulling other invasives along with wineberries somehow I get some of the tiny prickly thorny hairs stuck on my gloved hand. They somehow pierce the thick gloves and get stuck in my hand or fingers! Very annoying!

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49

Pure evil. I hate when invasive plants are in the same genus as natives, but just better at life in North America, so they displace native populations.

Wineberries/other brambles
Asian mulberries/American mulberries
Oriental bittersweet/American bittersweet
Himalayan balsam/jewelweed
Norway maple/sugar maple

And so many more!!

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50

Centipedes. Constantly moving, hard to restrain, they biteā€¦need I say more

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51

Burdock is pretty bad. It eats our kinglets sometimes. :(

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