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and hoverfly and their larvae. The larvae can eat up to 300 aphids before becoming an adult, so ensuring you have plenty of these in your garden will keep aphid populations in check. You can attract ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies into your garden

, not much helped by examination of dictionaries or spell-checkers. Originally there were hover-flies, snipe-flies, house-flies and blow-flies, which were all flies, and dragonflies and butterflies which were not. Now the hoverfly people use one word along

No, it’s not quite time for hibernation yet. Just a bit of sun in the garden and all kinds of intriguing insects are out again. I thought maybe I’d seen the last of this year’s hoverflies, but a drowsy marmalade fly, Episyrphus balteatus

with chives, they'll provide welcome pollen to adult hoverflies. My hope is that hoverflies are attracted to my garden to breed, laying their eggs on surrounding fruit trees and crops. Eggs hatch into larvae with a good appetite for eating aphids and pests, so

. It was a hoverfly. Myathropa florea is a handsome and distinctive fly, both wasp-like in its colours, and honeybee-like in its size, build and vuvuzela buzz.What was it doing in the drain? It was probably egg laying. This is one of the hoverflies

You can create a wildlife corner in eventhe smallest garden, and it doesn't have to be a patch of unmown grass or a scrambling scrub thicket. A single, large container will suffice, containing plants to attract bees, butterflies, hoverflies

. In severe cases, growth becomes distorted, leaves curl up, the plant weakens and can die.Natural predators, such as birds, earwigs, ladybirds, lacewings, hoverflies, ground beetles, spiders and parasitic wasps are a gardener's best allies. Some

with buzzing insects. I know the village is slightly nearer the equator than still-hibernating East Dulwich, but this was ridiculous.Dozens of honeybees were bobbing about on the flowers, together with their hoverfly mimics, droneflies (Eristalis tenax

flowers work wonders bringing in pollinators like bees, hoverflies and butterflies.Vic has told me to help myself to his sweet peas and I have - very freely! It's far better to keep picking them regularly than let them go to seed as they stop flowering

few days each year. No sign this week.Despite the apparent warm weekend weather, there is a distinctly autumnal feel in the air. Apart from a few hoverflies sunning themselves on the ivy, there is precious little wildlife out. I wonder if it has