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There's a spider the size of a gardening glove in my compost bin. It obviously gets a good living in there, feeding on the flies, woodlice, beetles and earwigs, the remains of which can be vaguely guessed in its untidy sheet of a web. I wouldn

Moving some bricks around the shed yesterday revealed one of my favourite spiders. With a narrow reddish-pink body 25 mm long and long rather slender legs, there is no mistaking the 'woodlouse' spider, Dysdera crocata. It makes no web, but hunts

marble or polished granite.But, as ever, it is the wasps that are making more than their fair share of the humming. And it is also they that are being killed. There are several spider webs amongst the ivy flowers, and some rather fat-looking and obviously

which of the 14 UK species they might be, I can tell the sex easily. The males (a specimen is pictured above) have huge palps, the long feelers (almost like short extra legs) near the head, that look like they are wearing boxing gloves.Like all spiders

wilderness.The evening air is alive with the sewing machine whirr of grasshoppers and bush-crickets, and the distant piping of field crickets sweeps in from far-off grassy knolls and rocky outcrops. And in the morning we are engulfed in wildlife

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

The orb webs of the garden spider, Araneus diadematus are much in evidence as the nights get cooler, especially in the morning when their dew- or rain-covered tracery is revealed all over the bushes.It's fascinating to watch them being created first

A recent Which? Gardening report revealed that many shop-bought wildlife homes are not worth buying. The trial included hedgehog homes, bug boxes and bumblebee nesters, and concluded that only solitary bee hotels proved successful, especially home

, as it takes to the wing, hearing it buzz off far into the deepening dusk.For the squeamish out there, all I can do is reiterate the proposal made by the 17th century physician, Cheyne, who said something along the lines of: God made horse dung smell so sweet

I've been reminiscing. Putting together a slide show for some school children I came across a batch of photos I'd taken this time 17 years ago. Just before Christmas 1991, I was in Florida for brother-in-law's wedding. Ever seen Steel Magnolias? I