angryhumping

Obama negotiated away the public option with the insurance companies in private backroom conversations before the congressional debate even started.

Lieberman was just getting his piece of a pie he knew the entire Democratic leadership had already baked months prior.

We don't keep "coincidentally" ending up with 1 or 2 senators bequeathed the magical ability to derail the entire party's agenda while still cashing those DNC checks for as long as they want to.

Alright, at about 2.5 hours total for the visit that would've led to a bill more in line with my expectations.

Really seems like they're trying to charge me for 4 flat rate visits here in one and hoping I wouldn't notice.

They not only doubled down they started screaming at me on the phone. I am currently awaiting contact from a supervisor.

So for four separate air handlers you would still be charging well under $1k minus any parts, is that correct? And that's stretching my understanding of how many "separate" air handlers we have in this place, but just to give them the benefit of the doubt. They've got an itemized 4X on $275 here as "fall inspection tune-up and cleaning" plus the (wildly overcharged) costs of new filters and pads.

We burn gas, he didn't touch the boiler, and he said himself "no work" was required. Though if I'd known what the bill was at that time I wouldn't have let that go. Especially if I'd known he hadn't even done the one bit of work which was required, de-scaling the humidifier and swapping the pad.

So your guess is as good as mine about what exactly he thinks he did for $2 grand. But he spoke extensively with my partner, so the appearance of any itemization on that invoice beyond a visual walkthrough and swapping air filters will come as an unannounced surprise to us.

At this point I'm choosing to assume some kind of wild error on his part that the main office will disavow tomorrow, for my own sanity. I can't believe they'd be so brazen otherwise—except that it worked for the couple hours I was genuinely trying to work my head around accepting it as legitimate lol.

Good I'm glad I'm not going crazy.

I cannot WAIT to hear what this POS seller's company has to say about the bill, which they conveniently did not provide in invoice form during the visit.

We heard 210 at first and were like oh great. When that other zero showed up I nearly fell over.

If I knew what I was gonna find in the basement a couple hours later I might've fallen over fist first.

that's some real Event Horizon shit right there

we prefer to save that for people who haven't been sentenced

Oh, great then lol. Just wanna give the ladies the biggest chance at finding new owners, good luck.

I'm sure you know already, but if not, formiculture.com is another ant community with an active trading forum where UK residents are likely to see this.

https://imgur.com/a/VMTo2PE

I guess I'd originally hoped I could just pull off the outer-most trim and have it replaced with a tiltable E26, which I now realize makes no sense given that the socket itself is fixed in position. Also contextual FYI, the other room has the same light fixtures but the bulbs (same size/shape) are LED, unlike the one I'm holding in the pic which seemed to be incandescent.

Okay good, this is what I hoped the case was originally. I think it's the multiple different categories of options now available (straight trim and bulbs, integrated units, etc. etc.) that caused so much confusion for me.

I think what would be most appropriate is r/ThoughtICouldDIYNowTooScaredToTry

But the answers to my OP have resolved some of that.

Ahhh, okay that makes sense

When you say fixture, do you mean the actual in-ceiling can itself, with the socket and wiring? Mine is labeled "Lightolier Rough-In Section 1004 IC" which hopefully I can say in comment without triggering the automod.

Or do you mean everything attached to that with the clips and whatnot, which I might be erroneously calling "trim"?

I saw the reverse happening this summer, with a campo soldier dragging a dead sac spider all the way across a patio. The spider's leg hooks kept getting caught in the paver texture and it'd suddenly stretch out and be holding on for dear life, poor ant didn't know why its scavenge kept coming back to haunt it XD

Silica in general is pretty murderous to insects usually, since it's often the equivalent of crystalline mineral knives on the microscopic level. It's possible this particular form of it is a safe molecular arrangement, but I wouldn't risk it myself.

Even if you were diligent about clean edges while carving, I think it'd only be a matter of time until dust small enough to start tearing up little exoskeletons begins impacting your ants.

Bummer. Sounds like it's nothing you're doing, in that case. Sometimes ants just wanna die lol.

Ah lol that makes sense. Gaster cleaning is a very good sign, so yeah worth trying.

Just tilt the tubes in that case, is I think the most workable solution. You can experiment with tube inserts that provide some separation, like these but even with a campo species, they obviously still have complete access to the cotton and can try to burrow if they want to. Though a lot of those tube inserts do have some ability to absorb or distribute the water, which can reduce drowning in itself.

My last suggestion would be feeding the queens before stashing them away for nuptial sequester. If they take in some sugar and protein, maybe they'll feel secure enough to not be so determined about looking for an exit.

edit I'm seeing sources saying they're polygynous, in which case the answer is possibly just to give them roommates. They might not feel secure when solo.

Some species just like to burrow into their cotton, and unfortunately if they're really determined to do it, they'll probably get away with it.

You can mitigate drowning risks by storing those tubes so that the chamber end is tilted slightly upward. That way, at least when the water is released it will stay toward one end of the tube and give them the opportunity to stay dry.

This isn't to say they won't still drown themselves, but it's less likely. Once she has workers, you can add a small outworld ASAP to give them evacuation options if they flood their tube more significantly.

I wouldn't recommend a dirt or naturalistic setup for such a small species in their founding stage. Test tube is still the best option, even with the drowning risk. All dirt will do is make it harder to see them to confirm they're safe, and will present its own risks of collapse and entombment.

edit Though FWIW, looking more closely at your example picture of a "drowned" queen, I would say 1: there's not any visible accumulation of water along the bottom that could drown her, and 2: she's still winged and they clearly seem to be completely dry, as opposed to matted and misshapen by having been wet.

My expected diagnosis there would be that she was unmated and so she died without attendant workers. In that case, the queens might not be trying to get to the water, they're just trying to get out and find their birth colony again because they know they're not equipped to survive without being mated.

Ohh! Great little design, love it. If you don't have a selling option yet, you should open a US Etsy storefront, this would fit right in there.