Gillybby

My grandmother lives on the North Coast of NSW in Australia, and every holiday season we travel to visit her. This year we travelled north for a few days to see family, and when we arrive back at her home we were greeted by thousands of tiny black ants all over the house. We've been trying to figure out exact where they're coming and going, but there's so many trails of them all through the house it's impossible to figure out.

Almost every single ant is carrying an egg, I'd say at least 80% of the ants are carrying them, and in the living room just above the fireplace there's a giant pile of eggs built up out in the open. We've put out ant-traps but they don't seem to be taking to them very well. Because it's still the holiday period we're not sure if we'll be able to get in contact with an exterminator for a while.

Why are these ants behaving like this and what can we do in the mean time to help get rid of the bastards?

I live in a housing complex with hundreds of other people. We have two garbage disposal areas that are supposed to be emptied fortnightly.

However, the bin closest to my unit is currently overflowing with garbage bags and has been ignored for the last 3 garbage collections. The other garbage bin has been emptied without fail on time every time, but the other one has been left to its own devices. It's growing... quite large.

My landlord doesn't own the block of houses, only my unit in particular, so he's not responsible.

Do I contact the council? The waste disposal company? Do I try and find who owns the block of land and contact them?

I have a friend on facebook who for the last few days has been documenting her struggles with a virus that she blames on her 17-year old daughter. When I quipped that I thought "Generation Y knew how to avoid viruses on the internet nowadays", she responded "this one comes in on youtube, games, songs, various facebook things amongst other normal browsing sites. It goes past all the anti-virus programs." and linked me to exterminate-itDOTcom/malpedia/remove-js

(Which doesn't back up anything she said...)

Now, something doesn't seem right here. I'm not an expert of computer viruses, but a virus coming in on day-to-day browsing on sites such as youtube and facebook, that gets past all anti-virus software just doesn't make sense to me. But she remains firm on her understanding that it just appeared and there was nothing they could do.

Can anyone a little more versed on viruses clear this up for me?

My partner and I recently moved to a new apartment and are finding the hot water... Less than hot. It gets warm, but that's about it. We don't touch the cold water tap in the shower and don't have very relaxing showers as a result.

I looked at the thermostat for our water heater and its set to 80 degrees Celsius, which is the maximum temperature. If this is 80 degrees, 80 degree water isn't very hot. Does it sound like our heater is heating to 80? Are people able to happily stand under 80 degree water? Do we just have a low-temperature heater?

So, long story short, for some reason no matter what I open, my firefox window is always on top. If I open another window, it always pops up underneath. I first noticed it when I tried to open my banking window and I managed to open 12 of them before I realised what was happening. I've been looking everywhere trying to figure out where to change this "always on top" issue, but I can't find anything.

I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but I think it's something my partner did while they were on my laptop earlier. But they don't know either.

Can anyone help?

I was wondering if there was a program available that tally's the downloads your computer uses?

For example, a shared internet connection with a cap after a certain download limit, being able to know the exact amount of data you've personally downloaded off your individual machine?

I'm an Australian Citizen, and have recently taken to having a green thumb. I have found a website that supplied a plethora of brilliant and varied flower seeds, and am very enthusiastic to order a bunch for myself.

However, I know that Australian can be a bit... overzealous when it comes to this kind of thing coming in from overseas.

Will I be able to order these seeds from overseas? Will I have any problems concerning their import?

Will it simply just take a little longer than average?

I'm an Australian Citizen, and have recently taken to having a green thumb. I have found a website that supplied a plethora of brilliant and varied flower seeds, and am very enthusiastic to order a bunch for myself.

However, I know that Australian can be a bit... overzealous when it comes to this kind of thing coming in from overseas.

Will I be able to order these seeds from overseas? Will I have any problems concerning their import?

Will it simply just take a little longer than average?

My boyfriend currently plays soccer once a week, and the bottom of his feet are getting insane blisters from it. Gigantic, thick chunks of flesh are being pulled off his feet and it only gets worse every night he plays. It's usually on his big toe, and on the ball of his foot underneath his big toe.

Today, a record chunk of flesh came off his foot, and he decided that he really shouldn't play soccer again this week in order to let his feet heal.

However, the captain of the soccer team is a tight-****, and hates excuses (except if he's the affected party). If my boyfriend says he can't play because of blisters, he'll never hear the end of it.

What does my boyfriend risk by continuing to play with large, peeling blisters?

Is there a better way to prevent the blisters from worsening? He's tried to wrap them, but the wraps just peel away during the game and do nothing.

We've had our female spiny stick insect Ernie for a few months now, she was staying with a friend for a while but we've recently got her back. She wasn't very well looked after with the friend, given older leaves and wasn't cleaned. At all.

But since we've had her back she's been wonderful and eating and growing a lot.

The last few days I've noticed her becoming more and more pale. Tonight, she's starting to go kind of white...

Does anyone know why a spiny stick insect would become extremely pale? Is she moulting?

I recently moved into a house with a front yard and a backyard for the first time ( I lived on campus for the first few years out of home) and my biggest excitement was the prospect of being able to get into the gardens (The previous owners just left dirt, they couldn't be bothered).

Now I'm a bit of an amatuer here, my mother had a pretty green thumb but it's not like I followed her around and helped, but I did get a passion for things that grow from her. I was more like a casual observer, and I realise it probably would have been better to get more involved. Things like tree roots, collapsing soil and cement bound plants are up the top on my issues list.

I'm looking for a sort of online community I can join where I can swap tips and have conversations with others and ask for advice, this place needs a bit of an overhaul!

Can anyone suggest me a website/community that's good for helping aspiring gardeners?

A few weeks ago we moved into a new house, which has 3 olive trees out in the front garden.

Personally I don't like the idea of three olive trees out the front, but I'll deal with it.

A few days ago I noticed some spotting on the leaves which I later identified as Peacock spot.

One of my housemates is excited about the prospect of being able to harvest the olives and so forth, but I want to make sure she gets a good harvest by being able to treat and maintain the tree's health.

I've tried to research treatments for peacock spot, but all I can find it technical websites for people in the industry of owning olive-groves, and so their treatments are a bunch of jargon to me and I don't understand what I need to do or purchase.

I live in Australia and it's currently the last month of spring, heading into summer in december. The trees have just passed the peak of blooming.

Can anyone advise me (or point me in the right direction!) on what/when/how to treat peacock spot? I read somewhere that it's important to time the treatment right at a certain time of year, but I got confused :( I also read somethign about copper and insecticide, but that also confused me!

Please help <3

Today I was given a tour of a local preschool, and a tree caught my eye. I took a quick snapshot of it.

At first I thought it might be a crabapple, but the crabapple blossom really doesn't do these blossoms justice. They were huge and absolutely beautiful.

The picture: http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e23/Pyrokin/IMG_...

A closeup: http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e23/Pyrokin/IMG_...

Can anybody recognise it?

I'm sorry I don't have any better photos, it was a bit of a snap and run.

About a two months or so ago, I bought myself a mini-tomato growing kit and set it up.

The seedlings grew fast and looked to be the picture of health. I waited until they had their first true leaves and then replanted the excess seedlings, keeping the two biggest and strongest looking seedlings in the main pot. My mother and I watered them with some seasol to help them adapt.

After a few days I noticed them looking a bit sickly. Their leaves had started to pale and I started to worry. I looked up the issue and all I could think of was perhaps over-watering (I had been told to make sure the top of the soil was never dry) so I stopped watering so often. So far, no improvement. This weekend I went away, and when I came back I had noticed that it's getting worse. Leaves are now browning and shrivelling and the healthier leaves are starting to look wilted.

I can't think of what's going wrong, when I google it, nothing can really pinpoint the issue. It could literally be anything. I try and give them all the sun of the day and take them in at night (I live on campus and can't trust people not to destroy them in a drunken rampage). The pot has several large holes in the bottom for drainage (but oddly enough I've never seen any water drain out) and I can't see any signs of disease.

You can see a picture of them here: http://tinypic.com/r/2a4o07r/6

Can anyone help?

We have a recessive pied budgie that we bought off a breeder in 2007. Because of the pied colouring, we've never been able to tell for certain whether it's a male or female. He's got a very light purple/pink ceres, we've assumed he's a male for now.

The last week or two we've noticed he's been acting a bit odd.

He tends to sit on the perch fluffed up and looking around a lot, instead of jumping about like he usually does. He's also been eating less, he's still eating, but just not as much as he used to.

My mother also observed that he makes short squeaks of distress, as though his foot is caught in something, but when we look he's not in any distress at all.

Last night when we tried to put a covering over the cage for bedtime, he started flapping around the cage like he didn't know where his perches were, and we had to leave it uncovered for him.

Otherwise he's pretty usual, chirping and playing with his toys- except for when he's fluffed up on the perch and looking around.

I've given him a lookover, he doesn't seem to be displaying any physical signs of sickness like weepy eyes, dirty feathers, scales, swelling, etc.

He was moulting, but it's pretty much all over now.

Can anyone help?

I'm 21 years old and for the last several weeks or so, I've noticed that I've been getting frequent heartburn. At least once a day, lasting hours at a time.

Now before these last few weeks, I very rarely experienced heartburn. I'd get it maybe once or twice a year. Nothing has really changed in these last few weeks, my diet hasn't changed and I haven't gained or lost any siginificant weight. I'm a little overweight but not by much, I'm not stressed, quiet relaxed actually.

Does anyone have any idea what a cause for sudden onset of frequent heartburn could be?

So for as long as I can remember, I've always had a predisposition for runny/stuffy noses. When cold and flu season comes around, I very rarely get a sore throat, but will always without fail get a stuffy/runny nose. And so will my mother, and my grandmother. Both my mother and my grandmother are also prone to sinus-infections, and while I haven't had that yet I feel like it's on the cards for as I get older. I also get some hayfever, but I'm the first of my family to get it as bad as I do.

At any given point, any day, any hour, any season, I could probably stand to blow my nose.

I feel like my nose is very sensitive, I had my septum pierced about a year ago and when the piercer put the needle through, I started snorting, coughing, and sneezing uncontrollably. The piercer said he'd never seen anything like it before.

I first noticed it when I started staying at friends houses. I our house, we'd literally have a box of tissues in every room. Kitchen, living room, study, bedrooms, laundry, etc. When I stayed at a friends, I'd have to ask where the tissues were, and they'd usually say something along the lines of "Oh, uh.... hangon, I have to ask my mother." I'd be totally surprised, how do you not know where the tissues are? What happens when you need to blow your nose? They'd usually say that they never really have to. Sometimes they didn't even have any!

It's not like it's disabling at all, it just makes me feel weird.

I'm about to finish my final week of a moneth-long practical experience at a Childcare center.

During my stay here, the staff have been beyond helpful and supportive, the room-leader of the preschool room I've been in has been particularly wonderful. There are so many people I'm going to miss and want to say thankyou to for being there to make my stay enjoyable.

I want to buy a few of the staff thankyou gifts, but right now my brain is going about as far as a box of chocolate, which to me just seems really cliche and thoughtless. My only other thought for the room-leader is that I re-bind books to be blank inside and I could give her one of those.

But as for everyone else, all I can think of is chocolate and a thankyou card :(

Can anyone suggest any other gift idea?

So I'm pretty new to sea monkies, and so far I've been able to raise about 5 to adulthood with a lot of casualties on the way. There's a new batch of around two dozen babies now though, and now I really want to step up my game.

Problem is, in my area right now it's the middle of winter, and winter here is really icy. The way my current room works is that - Blinds open = Sunlight, Blinds closed = Warmth.The cold seeps through the glass, the atmosphere behind my blinds is about half of the rest of my room, and the closer you get to the blinds the colder it is. I usually put the sea monkeys on my window sill in the corner if I know the day is going to be really sunny, but lately all I've been able to do is turn my desk-light on for them and put them near the exhaust of my laptop to warm them. No, this is not excessive. It's ******* COLD here.

So my question is, what should I choose? Shoudl I give them sunlight and risk them being too cold, or should I keep them warm but without natural sunlight?

Last night, my boyfriend was on my laptop when I heard him yell out "What have I done!"

I look over his shoulder to find that facebook has gone tiny, the font, the icons, everything.

I shrug it off and tell him he's probably hit a button that zooms out on the browser.

I wake up this morning to try and fix it, but I can't figure out what's happened. No other website has a tiny screen, when I zoom in, only certain parts of facebook get bigger. It's not the font size. The rest of my computer is fine. It's literally just facebook.

I tried googling the problem but all I get is a bunch of people saying "That's just how facebook is now", but these answers are dated 2008-2010, so I hardly think the changes only JUST got to me! And it's stupidly small. Like, size 8 Times New Roman small.

Can anyone help? :(