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be compromised by the combined herbivore stress of millions of tiny grubs munching away at the leaves, but we managed a good harvest from the park last September.I also noticed the litter strewn around the park. Now, this isn't local yobs leaving their beer cans

it beside its smaller relative: the lesser stag beetle, Dorcus parallelipipedus. Like the 'true' stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, it has grubs that feed in fallen logs, but it reaches adulthood in only one or two years, rather than three to seven. Neither sex

fighting back. The eggs hatch and the ichneumon grubs then eat the insect alive, from the inside. Although they are amongst the most important of biological control agents, they are incredibly poorly studied; the few identification guides are highly

everywhere. A few years ago I cleared out the small window boxes of the dead and dying plants that were clearly not doing very well. All I found, instead of roots, were lots of these small (7-8mm) creamy white maggots — vine weevil grubs.The adult weevils

home there. Don't straighten the log pile or alphabetise the flower pots; don't deadhead all the seed capsules or cut back all the wilting leaves; don't fell all the dead wood or grub up the old stump. Instead, leave straggly bits of long grass, leave

the small golfball-sized embryo nest with its 15-20 cells in a single paper comb. After she has laid her first 15-20 eggs in these, she must forage for caterpillars, flies, aphids and other insects to feed to the grubs that hatch.This is a vulnerable time

was put up nearby, a few days before the demolition. Until then, I doubt many people had noticed the hornets going about their daily activity of bringing back dead insects to feed to their grubs.I don’t know whether it was panic from the public