Microscope – My Neurospicy Soup

Adult Thrip Under Microscope

April 15, 2025April 15, 2025AnnaLeave a comment

I. Hate. Thrips. I ended up chucking half of my plant collection, fortunately a lot of them were duplicates, because I was overwhelmed treating that many plants. Especially because I was dealing with autistic burnout. It truly was a full infestation. I’ve now got the hang of it though, and can recognize the thrip damage and treat them before they get too comfortable.

This thrip below I found on my zebra Haworthia succulent and caught on a piece of tape. It got stuck in a pipette for almost 30 minutes while I was trying to get it on the slide without wrecking it. It doesn’t look like much zoomed out, and it would have helped if I had noticed my camera wasn’t focused.

An adult thrip under a microscope, you can see the whole body of the insect.

I think I smooshed it a a little bit by accident, it looked like a lot of air bubbles were coming out.

Eventually, I’d like to make some drawings and paintings of insects like this, be able to label the different parts, and maybe even identify the species.

Planted Aquarium Microorganisms #2

April 3, 2025April 15, 2025AnnaLeave a comment

These photos are from Jan. 18. 2025. This is still from my pre-proper equipment (aka actual microscope slides and covers) phase.

I’m wondering if these 2 photos are of a Stenostomum? When I was watching it, it looked like it was trying to tear itself into two pieces.

I think these next four might be of Vorticella.

Any help or suggestions identifying things is much appreciated!

Planted Aquarium Microorganisms

April 2, 2025August 7, 2025AnnaLeave a comment

I have had a 1 gallon, a 3 gallon, and finally a 10 gallon aquarium. It’s fascinating how microorganisms seem to spawn from thin air. I’m slowly looking at water samples and trying to identify and document all the types I find. I don’t have the best setup for microscopic photography; I’m just holding my phone up best I can. Some of these are also screenshots from slow-motion videos, because some of these critters move fast!

These photos are from November-December of 2024, when I didn’t have proper microscope slides or covers yet. I just put water samples on any clear plastic thing that would fit under the lens.