Can I admit something here? I pretty much avoid my basement.
Like, it’s barely a basement anyway, what with it’s 6-foot ceiling and the fact it’s legally a “storage space” because of that height issue. Still, I will put off going down to change an air filter in the furnace for a lot longer than is necessary.
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I’m not a fan of weird bugs and stuff, so I avoid the chance of encountering them. And yet, I find the r/whatisthisthing subreddit, which is full of weird and gross things, to be super interesting.
If I saw this in the night sky, I’d be curious too.
It was seen above Lynchburg, TN. Most likely, it’s just a drone with fancy lights on it.
We’ve kind of reached an era where every “UFO” has a 99.9999% change of being a drone.
It’s hard to see the scale in this pic, but the creature is about a meter long.
That’s 3.28 in feet and super weird.
It’s a spotted ratfish which sounds as unappetizing as it’s reported to be. The flavor is described as “bland with an unpleasant aftertaste.” Yuck.
This case of old medical devices is pretty cool.
I hope whoever gave them to the thrift store made sure they were properly sanitized, because those tools are for “trephination,” which is a fancy word for drilling into or removing part of a person’s skull.
If I found this inside my doorknob, I’d probably replace the whole damn door.
I know that it’s just an extremely rotten rubber gasket and not some gross growth, but it definitely looks disgusting.
Poorly maintained backyard ponds are full of weird things.
So when these weird jelly sacks were found by new homeowners, Reddit was the right place to go for answers. Most likely, they’re bunches of salamander eggs.
The Reddit user called this a “death spike cylinder” which is pretty on point.
But unless you’re a recyclable plastic, you’re probably safe. Trommels are used to break down and sort rocks when mining or waste at garbage and recycling centers.
The spikes tear open plastic bags to that the contents can be sorted.
Sometimes you come across a curious pile of debris when out for a hike.
It’s parts from the body of an old VW Beetle. Most likely it’s from around the 1960s, based on the shape of the parts and the style of the door handles.
Lots of weird things are found on hikes.
Most of the time, you’re safe as long as you don’t try to eat it. Really, I probably wouldn’t touch it, either, but that’s because I’m a wimp.
This is cladonia deformis , a form of lichen.
This is also not a UFO.
Not a drone, either. Black smoke rings like this are often caused by diesel engines when they start up. It could also be from a transformer explosion.
Three bags of these…things were found in a basement.
They’re described as smelling earthy and are moist to the touch. Ew.
Most likely, they’re rotten chestnuts, inexplicably left in this basement for years.
Always be suspicious of weird stuff growing from a toilet.
In this case, it’s just the wax ring being squeezed out due to the toilet settling. So not health risks, but the owner might want to watch out for future leaks.
A1experry wondered what this “weird wishbone looking thing” is.
It was kind of incredible how quickly someone was able to answer. It’s not a wishbone, but rather an anatomical model of a clitoris. Now I’m wondering where they found it lying around.
These weird tracks are also (probably) not aliens.
There’s no real way to verify the track’s origins, but the best theory is that they were made by a cardboard box being blown across the snow by the wind.
Personally, I wouldn’t have collected this thing, but apparently their kids wanted to know what is is.
It’s a form of rat-tail maggot, the larvae of many hoverfly species.
Hoverflies are often mistaken for bumblebees, which is actually the point. They’ve evolved to mimic that look to deter predators who may be afraid of a bee’s stinger.
“Squirming” is an awful descriptive word. Almost as bad as “moist.”
This isn’t a weird snake thing, but rather the shed tail of a California Alligator Lizard. So still king of gross, but otherwise harmless.
These weird slots were underneath the windows in an old converted hotel.
They’re called “trickle vents” and were meant to allow some fresh air inside without opening the entire window.
At first, there were only three of these pods on the Redditor’s ceiling. Now there are a dozen.
Good news: not an alien invasion. Bad news: you’ve got a moth problem.
Casemaking Moths eat things like cloths and books, using that material to make their larvae sacks. You’ll need to do a thorough cleaning…or get a cat.
No one wants to find a “mucus/jello”-like substance floating on their freezer vodka.
This is probably a good example of why a plastic McDonald’s cup isn’t the best way to store things in the freezer. Most likely, the growth is due to contamination of some sort.
Whatever you do, don’t drink it.
Yeah, I’d question this if I found it in an apartment I just moved into.
It’s just a banksia seed pod, though. It’s meant to be used as a natural essential oils diffuser, which is neat, but it still looks really weird.
This is such a strange thing to come across in an airport.
It makes sense when you learn that it was seen in the Dominican Republic in February, though. It’s decoration for the El Carnaval de la Vega which is held every February to celebrate Dominican independence.
This creature was found on a beach in Australia and is a good example of what not to touch.
There’s a general rule where the brighter or more colorful a sea creature is, the more dangerous it is to touch.
In the case of this Blue Dragon Sea Slug it can give you a pretty painful sting.
You may have immediately known these were Greek letters.
But imagine if you weren’t familiar with them and then came across the weird symbols in an already sketchy mountain Airbnb? Yeah, I’d probably nope out too.
Yep, that’s definitely a voodoo doll.
Complete with graveyard dirt and pics of the people its meant to affect. On a more positive note, the white pins symbolize things like good health and protection from rumors, so this is a nice voodoo doll.
