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in them. Never enough to cause a problem by them coming indoors, but enough to occasionally catch a startled rodent face looking up at me as I dump out the next consignment of banana skins and potato peelings. It gives the cats something to chase other

I admit that we don't get up to the allotment as often as we should, but does that mean someone else can harvest the strawberries in our absence? I think not. Apart from the rhubarb, and the perennial potatoes that keep appearing, the strawberries

the upper regions of the compost food-chain, feeding on the clouds of fruit flies, moth flies and other small insects that devour the endless cascade of banana skins and potato peels. I'm not sure what species they are, but I'll keep an eye out to see what

heard of.So I'm quite impressed when I discover that I actually have two other species living in my potato peelings and banana skins: D. immigrans and D. hydei. Both are apparently very common in 'decaying vegetable matter'. I'll remember that when I

. This is probably not one of the soil-dwelling species, and is more likely one of the very many others that breed in dead wood, fallen branches, logs, tree stumps and sodden raised bed timbers. A gentle recycler, rather than a potato fiend.Along with it was a small

of flies emerges.Fruit flies (at least two Drosophila species) feature strongly, which is no surprise given the amount of apple cores, banana skins, melon shells and potato peelings we chuck in each week. Although the adult flies are only 2.5mm long

in the moist soil is a wireworm. I know these are supposed to be notorious garden and agricultural pests, but like so many insects, I can't really treat them as pests unless they reach pest proportions. A few of last year's potatoes had small holes in them