Where are the insects?

[Hedjwitch]

A lot of chat on social media as people comment on the lack of insect life this year in their gardens. I have noticed it in mine certainly despite it being well stocked with insect friendly plants and habitats. The cold wet spring has played its part but is it part of a terrifying general decline? How are things in your area?

Things are awful here. I'm in the process of redesigning my garden - removing things like concrete paths and patio installed by the property developers - and am turning as much as I can over to being a managed wildlife area but I fear it's too late. People have prioritised a driveway over gardens, and fancy sized and shaped food over healthy sustainability for too long and we're seeing the after effects now.
We've got less small birds around here too. Plenty of magpies and crows but no tits or robins.

Plenty of bees, wasps, flies of various types, but I’ve seen hardly any butterflies. Usually in spring we have lots of holly blue butterflies and then then again in September but this year I only saw two.
The usual sawfly larvae are munching their way through the Solomons seal plants and there are plenty of aphids about. Haven’t seen as many ladybirds this year.
We have a large garden, trees, hedges, lots of different plants and flowers plus three small ponds so we seem to do quite well for wildlife.

The insects are in east London, and so are the sparrows and bats. I have never seen so many actually - the weather seems to be suiting them.

We have a couple of regular robins in the garden and a crazed ladybird flew directly into my eye the other day

the lack of insects is noticeable though. There’s land by us (river trust I think) that is full of nettles and usually there are loads of butterfly’s dotting about but I haven’t seen many yet. I’m not really up on butterfly cycles though so maybe it’s a bit too early? I’ve also noticed that the lavender bushes usually buzzing with bees aren’t particularly buzzy at the moment.

My garden has all the insects, perhaps its stolen them from everywhere else! Its an unkempt, overgrown, insect playground. Also lots of birds and squirrels (both of which are living in my roof), the occasional pheasant wanders through from time to time. Haven't seen any hares lately but do get them running through the garden but more at other times of year than right now.

I've been wondering the same thing. I've lots of slugs but few ladybirds, butterflies, bees or other insects, despite my fairly untidy, insecticide-free garden. I think the cool weather has a lot to do with it. I do worry about the effect this has on small birds and bats.

I’ve been thinking the same. Our playing field is covered in clover flowers, it has areas around the sides of long grass and wild flowers. Yet, on our morning dog walks this last week (over an hour each morning over there) I have only seen 2 bees. There’s been no hover flies, butterflies, no grasshopper noises. It’s eerily quiet and weird.

(edited to say this is in Staffordshire, on the edge of the National Forest)

Lots here and one of our best years for young birds. We do have a lot of natural habitat though.

We've got no bees. Have a huge lavender hedge and it normaly actually buzzes, nothing this year.

I think they are all in my flat :) We seem to have a lot of flying things coming in recently, possibly because we back out onto open fields.

I've noticed this too. I've seen lots of ladybirds but not much else. I did see bees earlier on, like in early May but they all seem to have disappeared! I don't think I've seen a single butterfly this year.

I have noticed this too, it’s very concerning 😔

We're in the East Midlands. Loads of sparrows and flies but no bees or butterflies and we have the usual buddleia etc. Generally our flowers have loads of butterflies in hot weather because we're semi-rural.

I'm hoping we'll see more once we get a longer run of hot weather.

That's what pesticides do. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/uk-fails-ban-pesticides-outlawed-use-in-eu

Hopefully the new government will avoid being lobbied by chemical firms.

I’m semi rural. Lots of fields and gardens.
Hardly any insects this year albeit my garden is insect friendly.
Small birds are rare, apart from a breeding pair of blackbirds. Pigeons and rooks come for food on my shed roof but that’s about it.

Very worrying.

Lots of flies here - keep coming in my kitchen 😡 but definitely a lack of bees, butterflies, grass hoppers etc... My lavender bushes shoukd be buzzing like crazy now - but nothing! I think the weather has definitely played a part, we didn't have a spring here.

Shitloads in SE Cornwall. I'm chasing flies out the house all day. There are plenty of bees, bugs and flying beasties in the 6ft high grass and weeds the council haven't cut once in 2024.

Sadly I've seen very few bats this year and we usually have lots of them, and I've not seen any June/May bugs - the tree out front is usually buzzing loudly with them when they appear.

Absolutely dozens of hedgehogs - they seem to be thriving.

They're all in my fecking living room.

We planted a wildflower meadow in our garden for spring. It's beautiful, I love seeing all the bees and butterflies and birds, I hate having to constantly carefully transport said bees and butterflies (and occasionally birds) back out into the garden where they belong.

But more seriously, outside my own little pocket of buggy heaven, there do seem to be far less of them this year.

S Yorks

hunsreds of sparrows having a party in my hedge. Make a right racket. Tits and robins and wrens

Loads of bees and ladybirds and flies. Not seen a butterfly yet.

Squirrel that sits on DD’s bedroom window sill very much in evidence as are the bats that hang out above her window.

Badgers including a baby that roam around at night.

Maybe they’re all here?

Not many around here in SW Devon - the number and variety of bees in my insect friendly garden has dropped dramatically in the last 3 years. Car windscreens still relatively clean after trips through parts of Cornwall that were a buggy nightmare in the 1980s.

Very few here, have been thinking the same thing About 5 butterflies in total. In SE

SE. This year I have jasmine, potted olive trees (currently in blossom for some reason), lobelia and violas on my balcony but have only seen a small handful of pollinators. I used to get a lot of hoverflies which I love, but I've only seen a couple visit this year, and a wasp or two. I've seen a few butterflies out and about. The bees like the jasmine but unfortunately it seems to have stopped flowering for the moment.

Plenty of sodding wooly aphids on the olive trees though, and the other day I was hit by a flesh fly

Rural North Yorkshire.
Awful - not seen a single butterfly and very few bees - my purple sage is usually alive and humming with them. Pear and damson crop failed. Lots of slugs and birds though - don't know what they are eating (apart from my currants and berries!) - fatballs are getting stripped as soon as we put them out. Swifts and swallows, wagtails, blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, wrens, warblers etc

W Mids - not many bees or insects in general this year. I'm sure the cold damp weather has affected things as a lot of my plants aren't doing well either. I think we are in for a very bad harvest this year.

It’s the unseasonably early warm snap followed by a cold spring / early summer

People are getting a bit daft about it. We get a year like this every so often, yes the general decline in insect population due to the shit state of the environment is exacerbating it’s impact to so some extent but the end is not suddenly nigh