Little balls of dirt everywhere

[Gaz]

Hello Sanitas

 

This one arrived on my kitchen window within the last hour or so.  Was obviously wet when it landed as it slid a bit:

 

 

I śaw a couple of small holes in the garden while weeding yesterday, which made me wonder.  Will go check my garage walls to see if there's anything obvious.

 

Gaz

 

 

 

[mac11irl]

this makes me sad. 

 

i want them to be from space

 

[Gaz]

2 hours ago, mac11irl said:

this makes me sad. 

 

i want them to be from space

 

Don't worry Mac, these carbon based earthlings are to be humoured as they need to rationalise things according to their knowledge and understanding, and put things in boxes organised in nice little rows.  Hence blaming insects as being a logical and hard to prove/disprove theory.  When you and I both know the cosmos contains a great many wonders that we'll never truly understand.  However, the notion that the Perseid meteors are actually held together with common 4:1 mortar, and the intergalactic waspsies are bringing it here to lob at our cars, does seem a bit far fetched to me 😇

 

G

 

[MuddyLumps]

Hello, I also don’t own a Skoda but have been finding these lumps on my car… Could this be caused by wasps building a nest?

[Gaz]

14 hours ago, MuddyLumps said:

Hello, I also don’t own a Skoda but have been finding these lumps on my car… Could this be caused by wasps building a nest?

 

Hello MuddyLumps 

 

I think it's still open season as to their actual origin.  They're not made of wood mulch, so it isn't the wood wasps making papier mache type nests, but I think there's a possibility it's burrowing insects removing spoil.  I think we can discount Swallows and Martins.

 

They're still arriving here.  Interestingly one arrived right in front of me yesterday afternoon after I'd gotten a small folding table out of the garage.  Within a few minutes there was one on the table, thankfully just missing my pint of beer.  Saw it arrive, didn't see who put it there 

 

Gaz

 

[MrRedSquirrel]

1 hour ago, Gaz said:

 

Hello MuddyLumps 

 

I think it's still open season as to their actual origin.  They're not made of wood mulch, so it isn't the wood wasps making papier mache type nests, but I think there's a possibility it's burrowing insects removing spoil.  I think we can discount Swallows and Martins.

 

They're still arriving here.  Interestingly one arrived right in front of me yesterday afternoon after I'd gotten a small folding table out of the garage.  Within a few minutes there was one on the table, thankfully just missing my pint of beer.  Saw it arrive, didn't see who put it there 

 

Gaz

 

It wasn’t me, honest. Never even saw the glass of beer.

[Gaz]

Well well, here's an interesting update (for me at least).

 

I was sat outside in my garden, just finished a book, and one of these little balls landed on my T-shirt.  I picked it up and felt it.  It was damp, not wet, and quite malleable.  Temperature today is 24c and humidity 55%.  There's a gentle breeze.

 

It's definitely not soil from the area, as it's the wrong colour.  It's very unlikely to be mortar as it's nowhere near as coarse as sand, and lighter in colour (notwithstanding I don't know the consistency of digested sand).

 

I smudged it on the arm of the garden chair:

 

 

And watched it dry:

 

 

And rubbing it some more, noticed it doesn't feel granular at all.  It in fact rubs away to virtually nothing:

 

 

 

 

Looking at it really closely, I'm wondering if it's pollen?  It doesn't look like pollen that's carried by bees in their 'saddlebags', but it could possibly be poo containing a significant proportion of pollen.

 

Was this a close encounter of the third kind I've just experienced?

 

Gaz

 

 

EDIT: Well I'm blowed....:

 

Edited 1 September, 2022 by Gaz

[varooom]

At least your alien encounter didn't end with the common AN AL probe

[Gaz]

Yay, it's that time of year again, two days later than last year though; bit tardy:

 

 

Gaz

[UrgyMcKnispel]

 

Never seen this in northern Germany, must be something that's not keen to reach the mainland^^

[@Lee]

On 14/07/2023 at 17:12, UrgyMcKnispel said:

 

Never seen this in northern Germany, must be something that's not keen to reach the mainland^^

Wo I'm Norden Deutschlands? 

Ich bin im SH/ HH 

Edited 15 July, 2023 by @Lee

[UrgyMcKnispel]

11 hours ago, @Lee said:

Wo I'm Norden Deutschlands? 

Ich bin im SH/ HH 

 

Ich auch - Halstenbek^^

[Gaz]

Arrived while I was stood next to my car a few minutes ago:

 

 

I should have yelled, but didn’t think to.

 

I’m now sat next to my car with a coffee ☕️- still not obsessing about it 🙄

 

G

[Gaz]

And still they come - three overnight or this morning:

 

 

My neighbour across the road has a garden stool that fell apart as he was moving it this morning.  It fell apart as it had been burrowed into, and consumed, by what he thinks are carpenter bees.  I'm still thinking it's more soil than wood pulp.

 

G

 

[UrgyMcKnispel]

So this is really honey bee poop?

[Aspman]

Cooincidentally I saw a bee poop mid flight just the other day. It was bumbling along and skoot, out dropped a (white) droplet, looked like a seagull sh~tting in minature.

[Gaz]

20 minutes ago, UrgyMcKnispel said:

So this is really honey bee poop?

 

Don't think so.  There's pollen (potentially pollen poo'd) which I've seen and rubbed away as it's very soft.  But the little balls of dirt, although similar, are not as yellow as the pollen and are more granular/abrasive in texture.

 

G

[Aspman]

My boy informed me this morning that there is a Saharan dust cloud heading our way. Preamble to that?

[PetrolDave]

Just now, Aspman said:

My boy informed me this morning that there is a Saharan dust cloud heading our way. Preamble to that?

That happened on Wednesday night, all the cars on the estate where I live were covered in small sand particles when we woke on Thursday morning.

[@Lee]

1 hour ago, UrgyMcKnispel said:

So this is really honey bee poop?

Hummel Hummel scheisse

[mac11irl]

quick google...

https://www.thepestinformer.com/pest-guides/carpenter-bees/carpenter-bee-droppings/

 

capenter bee poop is yellow, but liquid apparently and capable of damaging paint due to acidity.

 

 

[Gaz]

42 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

…, but liquid apparently ….

Yeah, insects only have one vent, so excreted waste is going to be a soupy splat rather than a LBOD.

 

G

[BillVega]

Gaz,

 

I can't tell you how relieved I am to find this thread and I just had to sign up to reply!

 

I have a Jaguar and I love car detailing. These little balls of dirt and my neighbours extensive building work have made my car cleaning a living nightmare!

 

I've been driving my family up the wall with this... and they just dismiss me saying it's the building work! I knew it wasn't and being the OCD type needed answers. I knew they were coming from above so thought it was dirt on the roof from the building work.

 

Like a nutter.. i took my hose all the way up to my loft extension and sprayed my entire slate roof down from the velux windows as I could see these balls on the roof and thus assumed they were rolling down and falling on the car.

 

But then they returned!! No logical explanation, I turned to google and found this thread.

 

My conclusions are the balls are indeed from bees/wasps. The brighter yellow stuff people have mentioned is pollen/bee poo. The dusty stuff is from the sahara.

 

I don't recall ever having this issue before, so this is the first year for me. When doea it usually end for you?  

[BillVega]

After further digging, could it be artillery fungus? A fungus that shoots balls of dirt/ clay! I do have a ridge tile with moss on it, maybe its in that and wpuld explain why my neighbours car is covered as it's directly under it. I am now going to have to see if its on other cars in my area.. like a nut job.. I'm off to investigate lol 

 

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/ever-notice-clay-spots-on-your-car-or-home-here-s-what-it-is-and-what-to-do-/996003925/

[BillVega]

Nope, it's on everyone's cars here so not artillery fungus.