Another year. Another decrease.

Friday. September 20, 2024 - 1 min

Ever since the extreme (for the UK) heatwave happened a few years back, there’s been a noticable dip in the number of insects spotted in the garden.

The trend was continuing this year. . . until the last month. In particular, we’ve noticed an anecdotal bump in butterfly numbers. The same goes for Bees. Certainly not as high in numbers as they were a few years back, but an increase none the less.

This doesn’t seem to be the trend. This years butterfly count recorded record lows at the time. The damp summer just wasn’t suited to a wide range of insects. My hope is that others are noticing the same uptick, and we’ll get a flush that sets next year’s population up well.

What can you do?

Over the past 60 years, the UK has lost 97% of its species-rich wildflower meadows. It’s these native wildflower meadows that many insects eat and nest in. Anything you do to add a few native wildflowers into you garden will help, no matter how small an area it is.

Just remememebr to leave them in-situ once they’ve finish flowering so that the critters can nest over winter.