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What's the point of having a compost heap unless it's to breed fruit flies. That's the way my entomologist's mind works. During the summer great clouds of them billowed up every time I dumped the kitchen waste. They got in my eyes and hair

of caterpillar droppings in the chewed-out core.I can imagine this might be very tiresome for the apple farmer, and not very pleasant on the tongue when biting into a nice juicy fruit. It bothers me less, because our apples are not actually very tasty. I

though they are tiny compared to the spiders, each burst leaves 20 or 30 struggling in the webs and they are quickly wrapped up by the spiders to eat later. It does mean that we get quite a few of the flies coming indoors to pester the fruit bowl. I

150 years. It feeds on the fruits, using its stylet mouthparts to suck out the juices, in autumn moving to the berries of yew, which also grows profusely on the chalk downs.However, during the 1990s Gonocerus was found, first, at Bookham Common

small critters come to warm themselves. And what's this? The compost bin has started to leak fruit flies; the perfect snack for a hungry spider.

see several places where I imagined gangly arms had been thrust through to pilfer our fruit. Humph. Oh well. I re-pegged the nets, did a bit of disgruntled tidying and left.The next week we were back. A glorious day, birds singing, clouds puffing

the upper regions of the compost food-chain, feeding on the clouds of fruit flies, moth flies and other small insects that devour the endless cascade of banana skins and potato peels. I'm not sure what species they are, but I'll keep an eye out to see what

Abbey and published by Routledge in 1909. Abbey was obviously a practical man, he divides cats into two classes - ornamental and useful. He quickly glosses over the ornamentals, more or less dismissing them as docile, tractable and maybe even good

academic. Having heard about this invader, which probably arrived about 10 years ago in imported horticultural material, this was the first time I had seen it in south-east London.My interest in this bush was first roused a few years ago when I found a

oblivious of the loud whizzes and bangs that keep the cats huddled in a dark corner indoors somewhere. But the cats have cottoned on to this and the moment the explosions stopped, 10.13 in East Dulwich, the black one was out of the cat flap like a shot