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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

tiny) garden.The garden isn't perfect and I've a long way to go, but I've documented my success by the variety of garden visitors I've gained since the transformation: blue tits and great tits, bumblebees, butterflies, moths, slugs, snails and leaf

. Like long-tailed tits, goldcrests eat insects and spiders, but specialise in tiny morsels such as moth eggs. Their beaks are designed to pick out insects from between pine needles. In really cold winters they will occasionally come to garden feeders, so keep

viewer. The idea was that sunlight during the day would power a small light at night to attract nocturnal moths to settle to be examined the next day. Unfortunately the light was so feeble it never attracted a single insect. I had better luck leaving

, and certainly there have been some moth-eaten examples limping through South London streets. But now I wonder whether all the recent garden make-overs in my area have seen them off.When we moved here 10 years ago, a pleasing number of neighbouring gardens

, to give it its full name, is a beautiful bird - sleek, handsome, well-groomed, elegant, silky (Bombyx, after which it takes its scientific name, is the silk moth). It is also a rare visitor to Britain.A native of higher latitudes, it only visits us when

After last week's excitement about the ladybird party on the BBC allotment, I was delighted to learn that the UK Ladybird Survey had a stand at this year’s Gardeners' World Live.There’s always a few wildlife charities at the show and each year I

at the edge of the water in total darkness with bats swirling around me.Like so much of our wildlife, bats are having a hard time. This is mostly due to the widespread use of pesticides in agriculture. British bats feed exclusively on insects, so spraying

an important role in the lifecycle of bumblebees. Many species of bumblebee nest in old mouse holes. It's thought that they’re attracted by the smell, and the strong whiff of mouse could even deter wax moths from finding and laying eggs inside the nest. So I

Within days, two scientific reports on Britain’s wildlife have made national news headlines because of their dire prognoses. The State of the UK’s Birds 2012, produced by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology