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. This is the usual time I see stag beetles flying, and how lucky I feel to use that word 'usual'. For me, stag beetles are a regular event, every year. But I wonder for how much longer.Here in south-east London, stag beetles are garden insects. They also occur

, replacing it with paving or gravel, are denying insects and birds an opportunity to come into their gardens to feed. And personally, wildlife is always welcome in my garden.

raspberries which are affected, but also blackberries , logan berries and other hybrid berries  that are at risk. But whatever the crop, only spray at dusk to minimize the risk of damage to bees and other beneficial and pollinating insects.

on the broad leaves, Fallopia is more or less sterile when it comes to wildlife. But this may be about to change. I notice that there are rumours of importing a small but pretty Japanese insect, the psyllid bug Aphalara idatori, to try and control the knotweed

these beautiful insects with a warm welcome it's buddleia. And the butterflies have flown in from far and wide from what I can see. On warm days, the buddleja has acted as a local refuelling station, providing a rich source of nectar to keep these busy butterflies

down to the presence or absence of a few black hairs amongst the orange on the thorax and abdomen. This requires some means of restraining the insect and a magnifying glass at least.They also talk of B. muscorum having a denser, more even pelt than its

and dragonflies, with many flying well into October and November, but without that sudden change to wetter weather at the end of September, many late-season insects (and fungi) fail to thrive.This happened a few years ago, when August dry crept into September

fragrance must be essential to the survival of these plants, attracting pollinating insects, for instance.One of most fragrant garden plants is the evergreen shrub, choisya, the Mexican orange blossom. Choisya 'Aztec Pearl' is one of my favourites, with a

nymphs (or sometimes naiads in North America), and they must be amongst the ugliest insects to be found.Unlike their elegant, brightly coloured, glittering adult stages, dragonfly nymphs are stout and drab - perfectly adapted to life in the gloomy murk

(3-4mm) narrow woodworm weevil, Euophryum confine. There seems to be no common English name for this insect, other than ‘wood weevil’, even though it is one of the commonest domestic woodworms in the country. Perhaps this is because it was only found