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to flower and in turn feed the hoverflies .My bug boxes are another example. Small enough to fit almost anywhere, I've attached a couple to my pergola, a place I walk by each day so can keep en eye on things. There are plenty available to buy, but I prefer

. It's always fascinating to see what they can find and so rewarding to be able to tell them how many legs a woodlouse has (14) or how a hoverfly larva skewers an aphid then sucks out its guts. The more gruesome, the better.Unfortunately this year

bees, bluebottles and hoverflies, but the overwhelming majority of visitors are wasps. Both of the common species are here, Vespula vulgaris and V. germanica and most of them are males. It takes me a couple of minutes to work this out; it’s something

. It is the voracious appetite of the large larva that has given the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, its bad reputation. Not only does it eat aphids, it also eats other insects, including other ladybird larvae and also lacewing and hoverfly larvae feeding

. On Sunday, our ivy was abuzz with bees, wasps, hoverflies and other insects, but when this fast-food source is gone, they will still need the most basic of their primary needs - shelter. Animals coming to 'visit' flowers, or bird tables, or fat balls, is all

, lacewings and hoverflies shelter next winter.Even if I had a brown bin to put my tree in I wouldn't use it now. I try to deal with all my biodegradable rubbish at home and I've never thrown anything out that won't break down eventually. My garden is 4m

and brown males. And one of the large spotted Melecta species was resting, just out of clear sight, at the very top of the hedge. They seem to favour the higher leaves, leaving the lower ones for hoverflies and blow-flies. I’m wondering if there is a

blues, and speckled woods.The hoverflies have appeared in earnest, and bumbles, wasps and solitary bees are everywhere. There is an audible hum, usually only heard in June. They are all squabbling over the raspberry flowers. Pond-skaters are frolicking

flower and patches of bare wall, I think about the ivy growing on the canal down the road. It's just coming into flower now, and is buzzing with the last of this year's hoverflies, bees and butterflies. Ivy would be a great choice for my garden - it

- all of which are rich in nectar, and are particularly attractive to hoverflies and lacewings whose larvae, in turn, eat aphids.Stinging nettles are essential food for the caterpillars of butterflies such as red admirals, tortoiseshells and peacocks