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It boggles my mind to consider how many millions of tonnes of horticultural material must be shipped around the globe each year. And with the plants and soil come the insects. We are lucky in the UK in that we have a relatively cool temperate

of those from the local Chinese takeaway; I also use them for 'show and tell' sessions. They've found a 'lizardy' thing whilst digging up the end of the garden, and wonder what it is.Inside the chow mein box, curled up in some soil is a tiny newtlet

I think we have foxes living under our garden shed. I first noticed the scratching in the soil a week or so ago. It didn't look like very much excavation had occured and the hole didn't appear to go very far. But now we have more earth-moving going

in Britain in 1937, and not properly identified until 1948. It's a native of New Zealand, and likely arrived in wooden casks, packing cases or other imported wood. Unlike the usual domestic ‘woodworm’ beetles, it will not attack sound timber, but only feeds

some previous owner has thoughtfully laid a path or hidden some building debris. If I get through the crushed brick, a further 10 cm down I meet solid London clay. With a frozen crust, I thought I'd have a task before me.The ground was not as hard as I

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

later in the year.Next we filled in the area around the fibreglass with topsoil, logs, rocks and pot shards to give the pond edges texture, sheltering crevices and support. We landscaped the soil between the liner and sleeper frame, and filled the pond

and the local pet-shop owner happy.But could he have been responsible for the latest corpse? A swift! Unlike the usually trophies, it was not presented just outside the back door, nor left half eaten in the kitchen. It was dumped, half buried, in the soil of one

is heavy London clay about 30-50 cm down, and nothing like the well-drained calcareous or sandy soil indicated by the textbooks. But I know, from personal experience, that local gardens are often full of rubble, and as well as improving the drainage, much

of woodlice, and a pleasing variety of worms, but the most numerous invertebrates were centipedes. These were the long thin, many- and short-legged Haplophilus (or similar) species. They have lots of short legs for pushing through the soil, a bit like