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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to want to talk about butter-

78 replies

NinjaInFluffyPJs · 16/06/2019 15:45

-flies!
Where are they? I usually get a lot in my garden but this year there wasn't a single butterfly yet, few bees only and number of bumblbees. My garden is usually heaving with all of these.
What the hell are people spraying around? I might bloody just buy some.

And aphids are EVERYBLOODYWHERE including plants they are not supposed to eat normally.
Wth😑 And just 1 frog so far. Usually I have at least 4.

Come and moan with me about the lack of bugs and other creatures.

OP posts:
Marilynmansonsthermos · 16/06/2019 21:24

Had a few butterflies here and even a stag beetle. However me and dh were talking.. we both remember when you went on a drive on a motorway years ago, the windscreen would be covered in dead bugs and you just don't get that anymore?

marcopront · 16/06/2019 21:37

@NinjaInFluffyPJs
It is. It was in my local shopping centre in Mumbai. It was made as an advert for a TV programme and after a few days was cut up and given to temples.

NinjaInFluffyPJs · 17/06/2019 08:19

Ok. So I now suspect someone around here spraying pesticides. Just watched confused looking elephant moth trying to fly around and ending up just sitting on the lawn every few meters😑
First time I saw the beauty, but kniw they are around because we had LOADS of caterpillars last year. They are a reason a encourage a certain kind of weed.

OP posts:
NinjaInFluffyPJs · 17/06/2019 08:19

@marcopront that's pretty awesome.

OP posts:
ZigZagIntoTheBlue · 17/06/2019 12:33

I must have all the wasps and several butterflies, I've seen loads!

Oysterbabe · 17/06/2019 17:27

Just saw this on my way back from the park.

AIBU to want to talk about butter-
Siameasy · 17/06/2019 21:14

I’ve seen a lot of dead bumbles recently. We’ve taken one indoors to look at with a magnifying thing my DD has.
Beautiful picture Oyster. Wonderful creatures.

DanielRicciardosSmile · 17/06/2019 21:20

I've seen quite a lot of butterflies over the last couple of months - maybe it's the shrubs in the gardens I walk past.

goose1964 · 17/06/2019 21:22

I've seen one or two, literally. I saw a hornet the other day, I checked online to check it wasn't an unusual wasp

cardibach · 17/06/2019 21:24

I’ve had loads of wasps for ages. Always do. Have I got defective wasps who can’t tell the time/read the calendar? And yes, they are wasps, because I have bees too and know the difference.

ghostyslovesheets · 17/06/2019 21:32

Lots of bees and ladybirds here and a beautiful Cinnabar moth today (had to rescue it from my cocking cat)

Lazysundays18 · 17/06/2019 21:35

Soo many aphids here!

Ohyesiam · 17/06/2019 21:35

I walked through a field yesterday ad there were thistles covered in black aphids, which I’ve never seen before

Siameasy · 17/06/2019 21:36

What’s with blooming horse flies pretending to be bees?!?

Oysterbabe · 17/06/2019 21:36

Yes! So, so many aphids.

Siameasy · 17/06/2019 21:36

Yep really aphid

Eggshellnutmeg · 17/06/2019 21:48

I thought that thread was going to be about butter. Slightly disappointed.

MitziK · 17/06/2019 21:48

Sorry for stealing all the bees in my town.

I bought a 'climbing' rose a few years back. Turns out it's a rambler, Rambling Rector, to be precise. And it likes the brutal way I deal with it each spring going by the way it's swamped the fence, shed, next door and the wall of the garden over the back.

I've got Mason bees (no leafcutters yet, but they do tend to be a bit later), at least 7 species of bumble, every honeybee in the area and a mob of very noisy sparrows, a wren, blackbirds, rampaging crows, magpies and thrushes/blackbirds and robins. Before that, I had pyracantha blossoms encouraging them in along with the unintentional Green Alkane that's appeared for the first time this year all over the weedpatch out the back.

I've also got what seems like the national collection of snails, going by the way everything that was intended to be a food crop has been massacred. As if they didn't have a fuckton of normal plants to be getting on with.

Not a huge number of moths, though, despite the honeysuckle going mad out the front this year and not counting the bastard Flour Moths that find their way in every year from somewhere nearby.

There are actually some native ladybirds this year, which makes a change from the vast numbers of harlequins I've had every other year.

I started this garden from plain builder's turf on plain builder's rubble. Didn't even have earthworms when I moved in. It's cost me loads in topsoil, compost, seeds and plants, easily three grand overall for the grand area of about 150 sq ft - and I could still do with spending some more and actually gardening for a change so it looked less like an overgrown woodland glade and more a space we could sit in comfortably. But DP says it reminds him of home (Dartmoor), so it doesn't get tidied (or mown or weeded or paid much attention to at all).

Shouldn't be long until the lavender and rosemary are out round the front, though. That normally gets the buzzy things more visible. Especially as I've spotted some Buddleia has seeded itself in between the paving blocks and can't be arsed to do anything about it.

HoppityChicken · 17/06/2019 21:55

Same as Siameasy - bumbles everywhere, massive, two big fluffy ones removed from the house today. Also seen quite a few worn out ones pottering about outside, odd.

Plenty of butterflies too, lots of dancing pairs. Snails galore. Fox cubs keeping the street awake at night. Daddy Long Legs staring to appear.

South East

Minkies11 · 17/06/2019 22:02

Am waiting for 100 ladybirds to come (by post)! Infested with blackfly/aphids and don't want to use bug spray. No butterflies either and we usually have loads Sad Garden is like a jungle and everything seems to be flowering out of sync. Weird.

feellikeanalien · 17/06/2019 22:12

Just mentoned this to DP who reckons that all the wifi is killing off a lot of insects. But he is a bit of a conspiracy theorist so I don't know if there's any truth in that!

NinjaInFluffyPJs · 18/06/2019 09:41

Bloody aphids attacked my butterfly bush.

Thanks all for sharing. Feeling better now I know they just muved into nicer areas😂

OP posts:
ZippyBungleandGeorge · 18/06/2019 09:48

They're all in my bloody garden! It's an insect paradise out there.
I love it really. We've planted wildflower patches the last couple of years, some in full sun and a big one in a shady area with some trees, also got a couple of 'bug hotels' , they're full of earwigs, woodlice, and all kinds of other creepy crawlies, this also brings the birds which is a bit of s problem as we have a cat and he came running in with a sparrow last week. DH managed to rescue it. We keep putting collars on him with bells but he gets them off. We've got a pair of big fat wood pigeons who the cat is scared of as well as the resident seagulls and regular visits from some magpies. I'd love a bird feeder but it's like luring them into a trap, luckily the cat is fairly old and mostly lazy.

ZippyBungleandGeorge · 18/06/2019 09:49

I forgot about the ridiculous number of snails and slugs and the foxes that live in the monstrosity that is next door's 'garden' .
We're in Essex

Buscake · 18/06/2019 09:50

I came here to talk about kerrygold..