Number of insects

[BurntBroccoli]

Just wondered if anyone else's garden is devoid of insects such bees and butterflies?
I'm East Yorkshire.
Very worrying 😢

Maybe because it's been so wet, so the seasons have got a bit messed up? I'm not sure but yes we've had loads of them! They're definitely daddy long legses, they do that thing where they half fly half scuttle up the wall.

Bedfordshire, and worryingly few bees or butterflies this year, despite having planted wildlife friendly flowers

I read somewhere that you need corridors to attract insects. In other words, even if you plant a lot of wildlife friendly plants in your own garden, you need your neighbours to too in order for the insects to have a route to get to yours.

I think that works where I am, because the two back gardens diagonally adjacent to mine are also pretty wild, even though my direct neighbours' ones are very tidy.

I'm trying to link up my back and front garden as a corridor by planting things like lavender and calendula down the sides. Retired Neighbour at back grows roses but sprays his lawn with weed and feed every few weeks and cuts it 2 or 3 times a week to bowling green height. Next door has grasses and foxgloves which bees love.

Yes! I saw one I the kitchen this week and though WTF these are a September thing!

In the East Midlands, just wondering exactly the same thing this morning.

Seen less butterflies this year. I'm getting bitten and awful lot compared to other years. Lots of snails! I have limited knowledge of insects but finding this thread fascinating.
My garden is ruled by children but we have a little wildflower zone at the bottom. I like seeing the bees, they look quite small, lots of those.
I'm in Yorkshire.

Numbers are a bit down here but I'm seeing plenty of insects in my garden. I think most of it can be explained by the awful weather.

However, we gardeners should do all we can to provide plants for as many insects and butterflies as we can.

This video is interesting, and I really recommend his book Garden Jungle if you haven't read it.

I’ve just bought his book, but haven’t got round to reading it yet.

It's been wet and cold here (except for a few days - edge of Peak District). Lavender, buddleia not out yet. Catmint out but almost no insects - a very few bumble bees, hive bees - about tenth of usual or even fewer. Clover just started to flower in 'wild garden'.

Only 4 butterflies seen so far - 1 orange tip, 1 small white, 1 peacock, 1 speckled wood. No commas, no red admirals, no holly blues, no painted ladies, no gatekeepers etc yet.

Blackbird ( only just seen collecting worms) blue tit, coal tit, great tit, robin, dunnock, magpie, crow, collared dove, wood pigeon, gold finch but no bull finch, green finch, song thrush - but seen buzzards. Not seen swallows, martins, kestrels for years. ( May be some on the farms.) Swifts have not arrived in the village this year. Garden sparrow colony and starlings doing well.

I have a very wildlife friendly garden, although next door is the opposite. No butterflies at all yet, it’s really strange. Although I have fewer things in flower than I usually do this time of year. Almost no honeysuckle, no Buddleia flowers yet. Some large alliums but nothing on them. The odd hoverfly about, some bumblebees, but not much else. It’s quite unnerving.

Sadly mine is very scarce on insects hardly any butterflies on the budlea etc

Only 4 butterflies seen so far - 1 orange tip, 1 small white, 1 peacock, 1 speckled wood. No commas, no red admirals, no holly blues, no painted ladies, no gatekeepers etc yet. No orange tip eggs on the Jack-by-the-hedge, no small white. Yay!! No peacock. Several speckled wood and meadow brown, and today a cinnabar moth.

Blackbird ( only just seen collecting worms) blue tit, coal tit, great tit, robin, dunnock, magpie, crow, collared dove, wood pigeon, gold finch but no bull finch, green finch, song thrush - but seen buzzards. Not seen swallows, martins, kestrels for years. ( May be some on the farms.) Swifts have not arrived in the village this year. Garden sparrow colony and starlings doing well. Had all that. Bullfinch earlier in the year but not recently, and Red Kites instead of buzzards. Was staying in a house early June which had multiple swallow nests (and 3 robins, two of which would feed from your hand). Earlier this season we had a very obvious goldcrest which could be seen making its way up fence posts picking off insects. The last two weeks we’ve had a couple of wrens following us round the garden yelling at us.

over the last several years, there’s been a general downward trend in bird numbers, and upward trend in average size. I’m learning to love magpies, but I draw the line at wood pigeons.

Lots of it all here as usual. South east,

They UKs flying insects have more than halved in the last 20yrs. 60% in 17yrs. And that's against a shifting baseline, we don't know what normal is anymore. The weather earlier this year means its a bad year on top of that. We are sleep walking into a massive disaster imo.

BBC News - Bug splat survey shows decline in insect numbers
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87zp05rz84o

Ah well I can tell you where all the ants are.. in my previously glorious lavender 😞
they set up shop while we were away, when I left it was gorgeous, 10 days later it was dead

I’ve not seen one butterfly this year. And normally I have to remove multiple ladybirds from my bedroom, but none yet this year.

I aspire to be able to recognise different butterflies and their eggs like this!

It’s only orange tip eggs I recognise! Bright orange, laid singly on the flower stems. On Jack by the hedge, and I think on Lady Smock. Once you see one, you’ll recognise instantly what you’re looking at.

I’ve also got an excellent field guide to caterpillars, arranged by foodplant. So you come across a feeding caterpillar, look up its foodplant, and have all the possible caterpillars arranged in the same picture.

Not so useful for big caterpillars found in the middle of a footpath on their way to pupate