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insects (left). They are ichneumons, parasitoid wasps which lay their eggs inside living caterpillars. The hatching grubs then eat the caterpillars alive from the inside. These specimins had chosen a much damper situation under the bark of a pine log

and parasites.For the first few weeks they must forage alone, feeding the first batch of grubs through to maturity. If the queen dies, eaten by a bird, caught by mould, or trodden underfoot as she struggles to get airborne one cool March morning, the colony

was the result of leatherjackets or chafer grubs, which are so abundant and damaging at this time of year. But on closer inspection I noticed that just about every single blade of affected grass was a golden yellow-orange colour and covered with a dense mass

pots and flower beds, keep an eye out for slug and snail eggs, plus leatherjackets (the larvae of crane flies, pictured, left), chafer grubs and vine weevil larvae. Removing these pests now will save you time (and your crops) later, and the birds

-proof I'm told), a very sticky glue card plus a specific phermone capsule. This sex pheromone provides the lure to attract male moths to an untimely end, hopefully before they've done the deed with any female moths. No mating...no eggs...no grubs inside

I don't really do birds. I'm usually too busy peering down at insects on flowers or running across leaves. Or I'm on hands and knees, bum in the air, turning stones over looking for ground beetles or grubbing at plant roots for weevils

the tubers being eaten away by vine weevil grubs. None of my begonias has survived. Next autumn I'll remember to empty out the pots, clean up the tubers, and store them in clean dry compost for winter instead.

in Britain.Unlike the sawfly, which feeds on the leaves, the grubs of the picture-wing fly develop in the small berberry fruits. Having seen bushes weighed down with berries in autumn, I've often wondered why the fly has not been more widely seen. A very

in the garden there.It is the larva of the birch sawfly, Cimbex femoratus. At over 35mm long and a good 6mm in diameter, it rivals many a plump and handsome moth caterpillar in its size. Unlike lepidopteron larvae, though, the Cimbex grub has only the six 'true

starlings feeding on the lawn, not from any food I'd scattered, but simply pecking away searching for worms and grubs. And a blackbird whose youngster fledged from a nest in my ivy this week has also found the lawn a useful source of food.The drought during