"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:59:30 +0100, Moonraker
wrote:



Well there are wasps here, feeding on the few apples that I have, some
of which have dropped, are rotting a providing a feast for wasps.

TBH, I have yet to notice a wasp around here. But then I haven't seen
a bee for ages, nor a ladybird. Indeed, insects all seem to have
emigrated apart from hoverflies in abundance and the odd butterfly.
This is despite the fact that I have lots of supposedly nectar-rich
stuff in bloom at last and enough Himalayan balsam flowering on the
other side of fence to feed an army.

I've had no black-, white- or greenfly this year at all. Usually
nasturtiums and cardoons get the black ones, the roses the green ones
and the greenhouse the white ones but nothing. And I've been looking
hard! Surprisingly few flies around too which means all the spiders
now spinning webs all over the garden are going to be hungry.

Only lily beetles bucked the trend!

It's clearly been a bad year for insects. I just hope that things get
back to normal next year. Yes, I'd even welcome some aphids in the
hope of enticing ladybirds again.

At least the birds haven't moved out and are as hungry as ever.

On the plus side, the last Nemaslug treatment seems to have done more
than the previous ones as I haven't found a slug on an evening search
for a week, just lots of snails who co-operate by climbing to the top
of everything where they're easy to find. But then again, the
hedgehogs have stopped visiting as well, presumably due to lack of
slugs.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

Saw my one and only Peacock Butterfly on my Buddlia today !

Bill - half way between the wet and dry bits of Swansea bay