We’ve all been there: you’re working in the yard or out walking around and you find something you have never seen before in your life. It could be completely normal or off-the-wall strange, but you don’t know, because you don’t know what it is.
We used to have to just shrug and resign ourselves to never knowing, but not now. Now, we have the internet for help.
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This slimy creature was identified as a sea slug called a red angel.
Can I take a moment to appreciate how this person used a shell to hold out the slug? Far too many people just casually pick up stuff on the beach.
With all the news about deadly algae in lakes and rivers, one can be forgiven for recoiling at this thing.
But this just looks weird and gross. It’s actually the rhizome of a water lily that’s come free of the lake bed.
These squiggles appeared in the grime that built up on an old gasoline tank.
They’re the tracks of a very busy snail. It did a better cleaning job than any human worker had managed in a while.
“What are these things?? Found under a hotel bed.” —mrstoness
Don’t worry; they aren’t some sort of spying device.
They’re actually pieces from a Snap Circuits kit that some nerdy kid is really missing right now.
These tiny orange balls kept showing up on conman716’s office desk.
It would drive me mad too. The consensus is that they are balls from a silica gel pack that must have been broken somewhere nearby.
These strange markers were appearing all over town.
And if you weren’t in on the game, then it would be easy to wonder about them.
They are markers for a DIY augmented reality game someone in the neighborhood is playing.
These rubber things would be confusing if you’d never heard of them before.
They are galoshes, which in North America can sometimes also just mean a rubber rain boot, but in this case it means a rubber overshoe meant to protect your fancy footwear from the rain.
“Found this while weeding my garden, feels like styrofoam, looks like a cotton ball. I can see lots of eggs inside of it I think?” —Spellmaniac
It’s the cocoon of a braconid wasp. While the word “wasp” makes a lot of us itch, these guys are good to have around. They prey on garden pests like hornworms.
When you’re magnet fishing, the point is to find things, but sometimes you need help identifying them.
In this case, people recognized it as an old citrus juicer that’s missing a few parts. That’s some serious litter.
Old homes have some unusual features, like this ceramic plate embedded in a pillar.
It’s a chimney flue cover, presumably for a chimney that’s no longer in use. Unfortunately, the black streaking could mean that there’s water getting in.
Someone found these rubbery, brain-like things under the soil in their garden.
Thankfully, unlike the stinkhorn, these can be a nice find. They’re the bulbs of asiatic lilies, so if the gardener is a fan, he can replant them.
This is one of those cases where I’m reminded of how young North American “civilization” is compared to the rest of the world.
This was found by a worker in rural Sicily, and it’s an old strigil. People would use the curved edge to scrape away dirt and sweat before getting into the bath.
Which makes sense when changing the water requires a lot of buckets.
AvisRs wondered why the grass inside the wall of fungi was greener than the rest.
A circle of fungi is often called a fairy ring, and there’s actual science behind why the grass may be literally greener.
Some fungi excrete compounds into the soil that basically act like high quality fertilizer to the plants nearby.
These were found on the Gulf shore.
If you look super carefully, there is a hermit crab in one and another tiny crab in the other.
That’s the hint. These are old barnacle shells that the crabs have repurposed into their homes.
Redditor elocinardnassac wondered what was going on with their neighbors’ lawn.
It looks odd, but is actually normal. The neighbor is trying to reseed patched of dead grass and the sticks will hopefully prevent animals and birds from stealing the seeds before they can grow.
If you’ve never seen a big ceiling vent like this, it would be super confusing.
It’s a “whole house fan” and is a great way to get the hot air out without the extra energy of running your AC. Just open a main floor window and crank the fan. It’ll suck all the hot air outside, leaving you with fresher, cooler air.
This find shows the true power of the internet.
Nautaliski found this item in 1959 and never managed to figure out what it was.
Two hours after posting it to Reddit, it was identified as a brooch depicting Napoleon II.
These balls were found in someone’s water filter.
They were justifiably concerned about what they might be drinking. Thankfully, this is another case of absorption beads escaping their container.
We often just ignore weird little pipes and such that seem to have no purpose — until one starts to drip on you.
This is most likely an overflow drain for the home’s air conditioning. It’s not dangerous, but means that they should probably get an HVAC cleaning.
Redditor shiro2448 bought some birch logs, but a couple began to grow weird black blobs.
It’s a fungus called Daldinia concentrica , or coal fungus, which is inedible but not dangerous. Definitely unsightly, though.
If you’re going to commit a hit and run, don’t leave any evidence behind.
Because someone will recognize this as part of a 2000 Hyundai Accent LC and now your victim just needs to find that exact car with a broken light.
The person who found this wasn’t so much worried about what kind of plant it was, but why it was growing inside.
Sadly, their chimney is probably leaking and if there’s already plant growth, it’s not going to be an easy fix.
“My neighbor found this…it crawls and has claws,” said theonethatyouwant.
Yikes!
Though it disappeared quickly, people think it was a sea star likely dropped by a bird.
This weird metal box was found under a fridge.
It’s not that weird, though. It’s actually a BBQ smoker box that someone must has lost a while ago.
This is actually a pretty cool find.
It was spotted inside a recycling bin cupboard at a school and is basically a DIY sensor set-up that tells someone when the bin is starting to overflow. Which saves a lot of time wasted checking each bin manually.
Someone wondered what this thing on their porch was that occasionally blew hot air.
The questioner is a kid, so it’s okay that they wouldn’t recognize a dryer vent. However, people noted that they should maybe mention the broken part to their parents. You don’t want animals crawling up in there.
“What is this edible seed thing?” asked astrologicalloserrr.
It’s a pine nut, which besides being tasty on its own, is an integral part of a good homemade pesto sauce.
The good news is that this pink stuff isn’t mold. The bad news is that it’s sign of a likely carpenter ant infestation.
Since carpenter ants like moist wood, this could also be a sign of water damage nearby.
Redditor milliegrace found this in their yard.
It’s the camera part of a rearview sensor system. Which made a lot of sense, since milliegrace was recently in a car accident with a deer, so it likely fell off the vehicle later.
Old-timey medical quackery was ridiculous, but at least the devices looked cool.
This was found in a grandparents’ house and is an old UV ray device, which was marketed as a cure-all.
These patches of gunk kept appearing in the same spot.
It’s not mold or anything, but signs that carpenter bees are living nearby. Thankfully, they’re less troubling than carpenter ants, but it’s still a pain to get them out.
Sometimes home gadgets are weirdly specific.
So this is a nut bowl phone holder for people who really like to snack on nuts while watching videos.
You fill the top with nuts, prop your phone in the slots and then the front opening is a place to toss your discarded shells for easy clean up.
SerCiddy found tiny worms dragging around little pods when they moved a bathroom cabinet.
They are plaster bagworms and the case is where they transform into moths. They aren’t dangerous and feed mostly on spider webs.
“What it is? My neighbors gave it to me.” — roma12860
It’s a weird thing to be given by neighbors, but it’s just a shower curtain hook. The beads make it roll back and forth on the curtain rod easily.
Sometimes you’re just curious about a building’s custom clocks.
This was seen in an assisted living facility. The color-coding tells staff how immobile patients should be turned and for how long in order to prevent bedsores from forming.
This wooden disk was found behind some drywall.
Which is a strange place to find a really old checkers piece, but kind of a cool find.
“Wtf is growing in my yard” asked Redditor neuron_fc.
Which is a very fair question that received a lot of off-color jokes in response.
It’s a stinkhorn and it’s very aptly named. You’re going to want nose plugs when you pull that up.
This was stuck to yeslan8’s fence.
It’s a mantis egg sack, which may make you want to burn the whole fence down, but you should leave it. Mantises are good at killing garden pests.
“Found inside the white of an egg. Are these more, future eggs that unfortunately got inside another egg? Did the chicken lose all future eggs? A parasite?”
Yeah, I’d question that too. Thankfully, it’s just excess calcium leftover from the forming of the shell.
