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months hidden in hibernation in some dry secluded spot, the queens, with a store of sperm from autumn matings, venture out to an uncertain spring weather pattern, which is as unpredictable as any of the many other dangers they face from predators, disease

chrysanthemums.It is pretty straightforward to grow your own ornamental cabbages although they suffer from the same predators as normal brassicas. Seeds should be sown in springtime.They should last in containers for much of the winter - although if the pigeons

what it was, so I'd look to the sky for answers, hoping I'd see a cuckoo swoop down and spit on the plants. It was only a few years ago that I learned about the froghopper nymph, which protects itself from predators and dehydration in a coating of froth

at the bottom of lakes, ponds and streams. I'd always imagined them as patient sit-and-wait pouncing predators. They have a bizarre hinged jaw mechanism, with the claw-like biting mouthparts perched on the end of an extending articulated proboscis, like an extra

millipedes. But, just like the longer-legged species, they are predators of other small invertebrates.There were hundreds of them. The rotting timber was obviously the ideal site to shelter in. When they set off, they have a lovely fluid motion, and seem

-east London, 25 years ago, and discovered so many urban foxes here, I often wondered whether they posed a threat to our cats. It did not take me long to work out that foxes, like most predators, are cowards, and despite the obvious size difference, they would

Great post - love all things composting. Compost heap is a thriving eco-system of bacteria, fungi and worms decomposing waste and other predators moving in to eat them up (spiders)Read with interest that you are only getting compost infrequently (10

, the birds have been gathering grass, moss and dead leaves for the last fortnight, sneaking them through a gap above the shed door and constructing their nest within. The gap is too small for any marauding predators, and Chris, my mother-in-law, has vowed

. In severe cases, growth becomes distorted, leaves curl up, the plant weakens and can die.Natural predators, such as birds, earwigs, ladybirds, lacewings, hoverflies, ground beetles, spiders and parasitic wasps are a gardener's best allies. Some

than predators. We also get a lot of crows, and it is these, I think, that keep dropping chicken bones in the gutters. I recently saw crow-hate taking to an extreme. A dead one is now strung up by its feet on one of the neighbouring allotments. I