YES! truly a bane. I hate them.
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most annoying:
- biting flies
- mosquitoes
- ticks
they can make my time in nature annoying and we have plenty of all of these where I live.
also, something gets at my ankles that I donāt think are any of those above three as I wear socks and long pants when Iām out observing. I never realize Iām bitten till I find myself scratching hours later and, no matter how tenderly I treat the bites, they fester, get inflamed and itch like crazy. I still have a red spot on my ankle from a bite I got back in June. I never hear of anyone in my else complaining about these kinds of bites so I suspect itās something Iām particularly reactive to.
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Iām surprised you find red-breasted nuthatches annoying. The only thing I find annoying about red-breasted nuthatches is the fact that they are challenging to attract since they only really show up at feeders when food is scarce for them.
In fact, itās hard for me not to be envious when the most common āpestā bird at someone elseās feeder is rare at my own feeders.
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Welcome to the forum @NorthwoodsNature!
The main reason I think Red-breasted nuthatches can be annoying is because they will cahse other birds away from the feeders. Even when thereās plenty of food and the other birds are not likely to compete for the food.
Iāve never had a problem with house sparrows, and itās not because Iām deterring them or because they havenāt found my feeders yet.
They simply donāt come around all that often, and when they do they only come around in small numbers.
Maybe people are killing them in my town.
There sure is no shortage of starlings, though.
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What birds do they dominate? The only birds Iāve ever seen them dominate are chickadees, which are much more common than the nuthatches anyway.
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Mainly they just dominate chickadees.
The chickadees have been kind of scarce this year and when they do come around the nuthatches chase them away.
Well, thatās surprising.
Black-capped chickadees are probably the most common bird at our feeders. Red-breasted nuthatches are possibly the most scarce, since Iāve only seen one.
Chickadees are dominated by every bird but that doesnāt seem to stop them from being the most familiar species at our feeders.
Where do you live?
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I live in Alaska. Anchor Point, to be precise.
Red-breasted nuthatches are the most common birds at our feeders. In fact, some days I rarely see them leave the feeder.
Black capped chickadees are certainly more common than nuthatches, but they have an abundance in my area.
Well, thatās something.
They call where we live the ānorthwoodsā in northern New England, but itās much further south than where you live. That must explain why the red-breasted nuthatches are so aggressive up there. Food is always pretty scarce that far north in the winter months.
The most common nuthatch at our feeders is the white-breasted nuthatch, which doesnāt even live that far north. They arenāt aggressive at all.
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for animals definitely Nezara viridula - Southern Green Shield Bug: turns tomato-harvest to zero within 3 years
for plants its Fallopia japonica and its hybrids: changing our floodplain landscape completely
Containment practically impossibleā¦
there HAS to have been someone whoās mentioned Armenian Blackberry already, right? (edit: yes)
One time I was on a hike, and by that point in my hike, my socks had kinda loosened and slipped down. So there was a gap of bare skin between my sock and the end of my jeans. A blackberry vine caught me right there! I didnāt notice it at first, but when I took another step forwards, it got pulled across that skin and it lacerated my ankles, it hurt like hell for a while.
Annoying? Yes.
Invasive? Yes.
Unwanted? Yes.
Good for mushrooms? Eh.
Do blackberries taste good at least? No.
-10/10 species rating.
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One of my most annoying and hated in my neck of the woods is the kudzu. Invasive Japanese plant. I hate it. Extremely hostile.
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Yo, that like Pearl Harbor.
Japanese strike back. 
Ugh. Iāve heard about that, and from what I hear, it makes the bittersweet I fight up here in Maine look like a paper doll.
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Banana Passionfruit. Spreads like wildfire, puts out flowers after like 18 months, if not less, and the birds love it and crap them everywhere across the landscape. I spend maybe 10-20% of my work year directly dealing with this one species, if not more!
To add to that, people see them as a food source (even though theyāre pretty rubbish), and so get upset when theyāre pointed out as a weed, and despite it being illegal to do so, regularly distribute plants! Some even intentionally spread the seeds if they hear people have been targeting them for eradication.
Iāve seen the vines 20m up massive trees, utterly smothering them and even pulling them over. Iāve seen hectares of land that are a carpet of these vines, with absolutely nothing growing through.
Someone please please please find the emerald ash borer of banana passionfruits, and release it in my area.
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See here, German built He-111 in Japanese service seen dropping bombs with kudzu seeds over the U.S. I found evidence. Kudzu is weapon.
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Gosh, canāt you report these **** heads to the authorities? Idk you could get away with spreading illegal plants thay much. Sounds really bad. Iāve never heard of this plant before.
Weak and easy to defeat.
Yes, I understand now. How did you know? I deleted it.
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