Big help for buzzers
IHAVE spent most of this morning annoying a hoverfly, which was happily fluttering above our back lawn.
We don’t have a front lawn and I don’t see this as a way of getting back at flies that might annoy me over summer. No, because I respect all of our flies and other insects.
I was trying to film this amazing fly with its wings moving so quickly that I could only see a blur, so any chance of a video on my phone was minimal to say the least.
My garden visitor continued to stay in pretty much the same place as it surveyed the garden for food plants with those big eyes.
I was actually hoping to capture a moment to celebrate this week’s launch of our Action for Insects campaign across the whole of the United Kingdom.
As we are isolated in our homes and gardens it is a good time to appreciate the variety of insects that visit our homes. We all love bumblebees, ladybirds and butterflies but all of our insects have a part to play.
Worryingly, 41 per cent of species are in danger of extinction.
This is a terrifying thought because without insects many birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and fish would die out as they would have nothing to eat.
Some 87 per cent of all plant species require animal pollination, most of it delivered by insects – that is pretty much all of them except grasses and conifers. In addition, three out of four of all the crops that we grow require pollination by insects.
Of all the astonishingly beautiful insects you have in the garden, the 27 species of hoverfly are pretty much up there with the most glamorous. You will have seen the common banded hoverfly in your garden, it has a black body covered in yellow bands and is about a centimetre long. It feeds on the nectar of flowers and will hoover up some of the aphids that are a pest to gardeners.
Our most common hoverfly is the marmalade fly, named because of its orange body with thick and thin black bands. I believe this was what I was filming today.
Again they are great for gardens because their larvae will chomp on aphids. They can be seen in gardens but they enjoy feeding on nectar of tansy, ragwort and cow parsley in wilder areas.
Most of the flies you will see are locals but some marmalade flies migrate here in huge numbers from The Continent. In early spring there will be thousands of them feeding on coastal plants close to the English Channel.
I will also mention the Heineken fly, which has a distinctively long snout that enables it to take nectar from deeper flowers - reaching the parts other hoverflies cannot reach! Seriously?
This week the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is launching a new practical pack, Your Guide to Taking Action for Insects, which will help everyone do their bit in reversing decades of decline for the UK’s struggling bees, butterflies, moths, bugs and beetles.
The colourful 20-page illustrated guide is available as a free download via www. wildlifetrusts. org/ take-action-insects. It’s packed full of tips, useful info, and links to finding out more, all aimed at helping individuals and families make simple yet crucial changes to helping insects through the ways we shop, garden and run our homes.
To support the work of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside. Text WILD09 with the amount you want to donate to 70070.