Garden Minibeasts

Making a Solitary Bee Motel

 

Unlike the social honey bees and bumble bees that live in communities most bees live solitary lives. There are more than 200 species of solitary bees found in Britain. Some solitary bees nest in holes in the ground and others in hollow stems or holes in wood. This bee motel was one of several made from an ash tree log.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making a Bug Hotel

Or more accurately a bug pyramid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slugs - enemy number 1?

 

Are all slugs bad news in the garden or on the plot?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snails

 

Slugs with mobile homes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Common Earthworm

 

Drainage improvers? In the sort of weather that we have been having earthworms will have their work cut out this year!

 

 

 

 

The Garden Spider

 

On a frosty or dewy morning our gardens are often decorated by lacy spiders webs. These webs are the work of garden spiders. As the name suggests these are commonly found in gardens as well as parks and woodland areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bees in Decline?

 

There has been much in the news recently about fears that the bee population is in serious decline. Bee keepers comment that hives often resemble the Marie Celeste. Lord Rooker a minister from DEFRA has been reported as saying that the honey bee may become extinct within the next ten years.

 

 

 

 

 

The Wasp

 

August is a time when many fruits are ready for the picking. This year it seems that the wasps have managed to home in on the ripe fruits before we have meaning fruits have to be gathered with extreme caution!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When is a Wasp not a Wasp?

 

When it's a hoverfly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ladybirds - under threat?

 

Our native ladybirds are under threat from foreign invaders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underground Colonies of Garden Ants

 

Weeding in one of the beds at the allotment I inadvertently uncovered part of an ants' nest. The anys sprang into action!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flying Flowers or cabbage Pest?

 

So are all butterflies bad news on the plot?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whitefly in my coffee

 

These tiny moth like creatures arrive in their thousands every year and they seem to be everywhere!

 

(Not sure that wildlife is exactly the correct term for whitefly but they have to go somewhere!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aphid

 

A society without males