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Gardening

Lack of insects in my garden

(33 Posts)
Gin Mon 27-May-24 11:52:03

I have a phyladelphus in my garden, covered in orange blossom smelling flowers. Every year it has be a-buzz with bees but this year I have seen none at all. Sitting on my bench as I do whenever it is warm, I cannot see or hear any insects, have not seen a butterfly or a ladybird and I am out in the garden every day ( when it isn’t raining!). I live in a small village in the countryside so it is very worrying. What is going to pollinate the crops? My apple trees were covered in blossom but I can see few apples forming. Even my robin has not been seen this spring, it is vey depressing.

karmalady Mon 27-May-24 19:52:06

My garden in s somerset is full of insects including ladybirds and hover flies. I made the garden for insects and they love it. No lawn but other ground cover

Desdemona Mon 27-May-24 20:08:01

I used to pull up Herb Robert but leave it now when I realised how popular it is with bees. It is a bit of a stinky plant though!

Notagranyet24 Mon 27-May-24 21:00:20

I'm in the south west. Alarmingly few insects. We have an azalea heavily in flower and we have quite a few bees on that and on the foxgloves and a few other shrubs but there are few other insects of any kind. I saw a couple of dead bees immediately after one of those awful downpours we have now.

There is a street lamp outside of our house which has one or two moths but nothing like the horde there would once have been. We would normally have a number of swifts and swallows by now but I saw just 2 swallows on a wire today.

I think we all know the climate is changing, I worry about pollination too.

Dinahmo Mon 27-May-24 21:13:36

Our car windscreen has been a lot cleaner recently. More so in previous years

Cumbrianmale56 Mon 27-May-24 21:21:12

We've had a very wet March and April and the weather didn't really warm up until two weeks ago. There are some big fat bumblebees around and the occasional wasp lookig for somewhere to nest, but no butterflies or dragonflies yet.

Jaxjacky Mon 27-May-24 22:18:00

South Hampshire, I’ve seen ladybirds, bees and bumblebees, a few small moths, two bats at dusk.

sassysaysso Tue 28-May-24 09:47:45

AreWeThereYet

sassysayso We get fox cubs too when it's sunny. Adult brought three last year to play in the longer grass at the bottom of the garden. Haven't seen them this year but have had an adult walking through, so maybe when it gets a bit warmer/drier they'll come out.

I did see one adult fox in my garden until it ran away when it saw me. Not in a very good condition, possibly mange and very little tail. Made me sad