Search - Articles

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

It's cold, there's snow on the ground, and all is quiet in the garden. But I've just been outside feeding the wildlife. In my case that does not mean putting up nut-filled bird feeders or hanging fat balls, it means tipping the kitchen waste

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

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