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According to the old adage: a swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon. So what is a swarm of bees in April worth? No, I couldn't think of a rhyme either.It can't happen very often, so I was very

There's something buzzing round the grape hyacinths. It's a fat, furry brown bee and it's being very animated. I love these insects and get a real buzz myself seeing them each year, because they're one of the true heralds of spring. Anthophora

The south-facing fence of our garden is covered all over with ivy, and the leaves are prime basking territory for all manner of insects. This last week, the solitary bees have started to reappear in droves. There are very many species all looking a

garden. No bees. A shame, poppy pollen can be a striking jet black.PS - Whilst we were planting up the container, we were careful not to trample the mole hills nearby. I had thought they could have made something of an added wildlife interest

are already limited to far northerly localities and some are specialist montane rarities. It does not take many degrees temperature increase before these already high-altitude bees are at the top of a mountain, and have nowhere else to go, except

the bathroom light on each night.The notion of bug boxes came back to me recently when I had a quick look through the 'my garden' section of the RSPB's Homes for Wildlife web pages. Under 'homes for insects' it suggests installing or building one. Well, I

as tubby as the bees it resembles, it makes up for it by carrying off a diverse array of colour-ways, mimicking a variety of bumble species.Some specimens are almost all black, or with just the tail brownish red (just like the red-tailed bumble), some have

-roller caterpillar. No sign of them yet, but I'll expect them later.I can still see the results of leafcutter bee activity from last year. One was nesting in a redundant overflow pipe from the old bathroom and I regularly saw it with its green leaf curl cargo bobbing

On holiday in northern France last week I was struck by the similarities in the landscape, but very subtle differences in the wildlife.With its gently rolling hills, hedges, grazing meadows, small woods, narrow lanes and winding streams, I could

-like-bugs-any-bugs-at-all sort of detached scientific curiosity. There is a bit of that. But mostly, it is because if we have a good year for wasps, we also have a good year for so many other insects. It’s all tied in to their seasonal emergence behaviour.Unlike bees, which can