40d Talk:Vermin

List request

Can someone put a list of all the vermin, and their uses if caught? And a picture? --DDouble 21:55, 11 November 2007 (EST)

What would be the use of the picture? --Eagle of Fire 00:24, 12 November 2007 (EST)

Just to clarify in case the first poster didn't know, vermin all use the same image. --Shades 09:13, 12 November 2007 (EST)

Not quite. Lungfish vermin, for instance, use a fish-like symbol, worms use a tilde, etc. However, most do use the simple "large dot" graphic. --JT 16:30, 18 November 2007 (EST)

I just listed them all, with most pertinent information. Hope you like. Now someone should go list all the extracts. --Turgid Bolk 02:08, 26 November 2007 (EST)

un tameable vermin

Fire snakes when caught in an animal trap had a value of 1. I was unable to tame them and the announcement "needs tameable small creature item" appeared. --Kingzilla 14:18, 23 January 2008 (EST)

In addition to that, they keep disappearing from cages and small animal traps on me. --Squirrelloid 16:28, 12 December 2008 (EST)

You need the Dungeon Master to tame as they are PET_EXOTIC. I also have the suspicion they are burning their way out of wooden traps every so often, but can't prove it. I think they burned a barrel once, leaving the contents behind. --Jellyfishgreen 08:01, 14 January 2009 (EST)

Had Dungeon Master. I trapped one in an animal trap, then moved it into a cage with a lot of other animals. Saw that it was there. Did some other things and when I looked again it was no longer in the cage, but the cage was most definitely still there. (Cage was also metal, but its continued existence on its own sort of ruled out the possibility that it burned). They were making a mess of my metal bar bins by turning them to ash, which was why I was trapping them in the first place. --Squirrelloid 10:31, 14 January 2009 (EST)

If I had to guess, it's possible that a dwarf decided to eat it. I've caught my dwarves eating vermin out of my cages, sometimes, even if they aren't starving. Some dwarves just like to eat weird things, I suppose. It seems odd that a dwarf would eat something that can set things on fire, but I've never seen anything to indicate that they can't. --Xennith 7:34, 27 February 2009 (PST)

Creating vermin habitat

I know you can make vermin show up to your base (try a tundra biome with an aquifer - if the stuff belowground stays liquid you can have toads hopping around in the snow :S. Also, I dug out some open cliffside dwellings in a random jungle map, and 5 min later about 50 or so bats turn up singing Meatloaf, and causing miasma hell for my dwarves after they were (mostly) dispatched by my two cats :(. Can anyone else replicate these (or other) situations to confirm my hypothesis? --Frostedfire 04:21, 19 February 2008 (EST)

Apparently vermin (and everything else?) spawn by biome. So, if you dig into a cave biome, you'll get bats. I dug next to a chasm and suddenly cave spiders spawn in my tunnel. Anydwarf 22:37, 6 May 2008 (EDT)

I started a fortress in the freezing tundra, no life there except my dwarves, wild musk-oxen, wild elk and the inhabitants of the magma-pipe. But as soon as I pumped some water into a cave one level beneath the surface, turtles started to spawn near the self-made underground pool. So apparently even a self-made pool of water is sufficient for pool-vermin (toads and turtles) to make them spawn. --Doub 16:02, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

Tameable?

There should be a list of -- or mark on -- tameable vermin.

At the very least, there should be a mention that only some can be tamed.

Currently, I know rats can be tamed, while fire snakes and two-legged rhino lizards cannot.

I have a tame fire snake. I'm pretty sure all non-fish vermin creatures are tameable. Bouchart 19:36, 5 March 2008 (EST)

fire snakes and rhino lizards can be tamed, they are just [PET_EXOTIC]. not all non-fish vermin can be tamed(flies cant for example), and some fish vermin can be(turtles). -Chariot 20:22, 5 March 2008 (EST)

Is there a way to get my dwarves to stop eating the fluffy wamblers before I can tame them? Apparently they taste like meat and saltwater taffy had a baby. Or something. (Maybe I just have to be pretty quick on handing my DM the task) Anydwarf 22:37, 6 May 2008 (EDT)

Not without a lot of micro-management. Even being quick to assign the task isn't enough, the dwarves will just snatch it right out of his hand. However, if you follow your trapper around as he's searching, and immediately forbid the vermin when he catches it (note: the vermin, not the trap), that'll prevent your dwarves from eating it. This works because eating requires the vermin itself to be unforbidden, but taming only requires that the animal trap is available. --Morlark 19:31, 21 June 2008 (EDT)

Corpse patrol

alright I guess this is just a winge...

is there any order to set (or anything else I can do) to get my dwarves to clean up vermin corpses without me manually marking them for dumping?

I guess I'm looking for an order: Autodump vermin corpses or something. I know if I kd each corpse then it gets dumped pretty quick, but especially once my population goes up I'd like to not worry so much about miasma in the dining room.GarrieIrons 08:23, 21 June 2008 (EDT)

AFAIK dead vermin will be automatically placed in a refuse stockpile, so long as 'Dwarves gather refuse' is selected in the refuse options menu (or) --Raumkraut 19:15, 21 June 2008 (EDT)

This seems to be what is happening now that I actually have some peasants wandering around on cleaning/food hauling/refuse hauling only... so it sounds like vermin corpses are a lesser priority for picking up for refuse haulers then items marked for dumping are.GarrieIrons 07:27, 22 June 2008 (EDT)

repopulation

The turtle article states:

Like most fish, they can be harvested too aggressively, and become depleted until the next repopulating of vermin

I added the bold bit... when does repopulating of vermin occur? Randomly? At spring (on a date) or during thaw (if there is one?) or differently by biome?GarrieIrons 01:06, 9 July 2008 (EDT)

Vermin respawn on season changes, along with refuse erasure and limb-mending, if I remember correctly. May be wrong, though. Iituem 21:37, 5 Aug 2008 (GMT)

Flies...

Is there anyway to kill flies?

I second this question! :) Is there anyway to kill these things? Ehertlein 16:34, 5 August 2008 (EDT)

Cats can kill them. HeWhoIsPale 16:13, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

Rats

According to my animal and vermin list when I access cages, I have a "Live Rat" somewhere in my fortress that I don't recall ever catching. I've tried to install it into a placed "vermin cage" but it never shows up. I've asked my Trainer to tame it, but the task cancels itself and the rat never surfaces. Has some dwarf been carrying around a rat in his pockets for the last three years and refuses to give it up? --FJH 15:49, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you walled it in? ;) --Höhlenschreck 23:46, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Or, more likely, its already tame? Try assigning it to a built cage? --Höhlenschreck 23:47, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

It's not tame, or it would be listed as tame instead of live. It is likely inside a backpack being worn by one of your dwarves. One of my soldiers has something like 15 live vermin in his backpack. --Wyriel

Oh, and you probably can assign it to a cage and it will probably also get there very briefly. At least with tame vermin this is a possibility -- one dwarf will snatch the other guy's pet, cage it, and then the owner will get a 'reclaim pet' task or some such. Giant waste of dwarf time. --Wyriel

Already tamed

I was checking my animal screen and I noticed I had a tamed lizard. I have not trained any animals or even built a kennel nor have I built any small animal traps. Does anybody know how that may have happened.--Cerol The Elf Hunter 21:47, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

The elves. It was the Elves.--Zchris13 00:06, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

isn't it always the elves? ;) --Höhlenschreck 00:05, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Specifically, you probably bought a cage from the Elves, which looked empty, but had a vermin creature in it. During trading, if you view the cage, it will list the contents, including any vermin in it.
—0x517A5D 03:50, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Your probably right I have seized and destroyed many elvin caravans lately --Cerol The Elf Hunter 02:24, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

On just that topic

There was a discussion on Talk:Gray_squirrel about just what/which vermin elves bring. This might be incorporated as a table on the respective vermin pages and/or here, but first we need more insight - is there smth in the raws or do we just make a list from experience? I say the second cos it means we have legitimate reason to take down as many elven caravans as we like ;) Ideas? --Höhlenschreck 10:39, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

The elves can probably either bring all creatures, or all creatures from their biomes. I recall a post in the forum mentioning the elves bringing some kind of demon. I don't know if that particular game was modded. I have never heard that they brought demon rats... --Nahno 13:40, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Error message: Name (Cat) (Tame) Cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Too injured

Is this message worth mentioning in the article? It seems that just before killing Vermin, Cats are thinking about putting the vermin in some sort of stockpile. V 0.28.181.40d if that matters. Garrie 11:27, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Cat_cancels_Store_Item_in_Stockpile:_Too_injured --Koltom 16:23, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Accosting vermin vs hateable vermin

Currently, the phrasing above the table suggests that only hateable vermin (vermin dwarves can have a negative preference for in their profiles) "accost" dwarves, giving them the bad thought. Is this true, or are only dwarves that have that negative preference affected by those specific vermin in this way? Do blood gnats and knuckle worms not accost? (And are they not hateable?) Trying to remember, and don't have time atm to do "vermin research" - the distinction should be made correct, either way.--Albedo 20:46, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

only [VERMIN_HATEABLE] can be detested. Detested --> accosted. This applies only to dwarves who actually have that "preference". accosted -->unhappy thought. Blood gnats and knuckle worms do not accost. They may annoy, like flies do. --Koltom 20:28, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Vermin and wagons

Is it possible for "penetrating" vermin (ie, rhino lizards) to get at your food barrels while the food is still on the embark wagon (or, more accurately, in buildings in general)? It's probably worth adding something, either here or on the Wagon page, to clarify. --3 18:51, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Eating trapped vermin

It had been stated in the article that dwarves will eat live vermin as exotic cuisine "if their preferences swing that way", though I just had a Tanner walk over to an animal trap containing a live bat (past over a hundred barrels of meat and berries), carry the bat to my dining hall, and eat it raw, and her preferences indicate that "She absolutely detests bats". Oddly enough, she doesn't seem to have gotten a negative thought from it, only that she dined in a legendary dining hall. I think this pretty much throws the whole "preferences" idea out the window - the only factor is proximity, so keeping your vermin in a remote area of your fortress will keep them safe unless another dwarf in the area happens to get hungry at the wrong time. --Quietust 04:20, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

A recent incident has revealed that dwarves can be extremely fond of eating live vermin, even claiming them for meals when they wouldn't do so otherwise. I just had one of my marksdwarves claim a live large roach and place it in his backpack, even though he's already carrying 2 rations. --Quietust 05:01, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Vermin Pit

Recently, I managed to trap a large number of cave spiders, and wanted to make a pit from which I could let them roam, then harvest their silk. They can apparently bypass hatches, so is there any method of allowing dwarf access, but preventing vermin from escaping? My cats keep eating them, sadly.

Nope, not possible. As long as they aren't in a cage, they can go anywhere. --Quietust 18:06, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Truly tame?

If you release a tamed cave spider, will it continue to bite dwarves? Or are vermin like other animals (in that they won't attack your dwarves unless they did before they were tamed)? --Digdugdwarf