Ladybirds
Everyone loves ladybirds!
There are a massive 26 types of ladybirds in the UK. When gathered together the gorgeous little red spotty bugs are called a loveliness.
Even more excitedly they much through around 50 aphids a day each and their larvae will eat considerably more. That means they eat their body weight in aphids every day.,
The aphids are on the menu are blackfly, greenfly and their larvae. They are also partial to pollen.
Some of the ladybird’s most favourite plants include Grapes, Hibiscus, marigold and mint (there are loads more).
Lacewing
With its transparent and delicate looking wings these little creatures are far from their appearance. They are ferocious eaters of black fly, aphids and aphid larvae. Lacewing can eat up to 200 aphids a week!
Hoverflies
A joy to watch these tiny 'helicopters' dart around, changing direction in a millisecond and hovering as if they were parked. Hoverflies are completely harmless to us in the garden, often mistaken for wasps or bees due to their yellow and black stripes but they pose no threat.
As adults they feed on nectar so great for pollinating your plants. The true magic lies in their larvae who gorge on aphids. Aphids, thrips and even caterpillars!
Hoverflies love daisies, asters, lavender and coriander.
Bees
All Bees! Honey bees, bumble bees, masonry bees, carder bees are all excellent pollinators. Bees are excellent pollinators, bot only that but they directly provide food in honey and wax, in which there are so many uses! Its estimated that insect pollination is worth a around *£600 million in crop production annually.*Defra Nov 2020
Spiders
Looking for 'friendly' images of spiders, literally made me itch. Love them or hate them, either way, they do a great job in the garden. The spider web glimmering in the rain or frost its easy to see their diet/cobweb is filled with the remains of many types of insects. Whilst up high they are easy to spot. However there are also a few who burrow in the soil and catch their pray. A dinner of pretty much anything that might stroll past such as ants, beetles, worms and slugs.
Jumping spiders love flies, moths and beetles as well as other spiders.
Parasitic Wasps
There are literally 1000's of parasitic wasps in the UK. Some look like a 'normal' wasp but much thinner. Others look more like a type of fly. The most common parasitic wasps in the UK lay their eggs in caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly.
There is a parasitic wasp called Colemani, which lay their eggs in the tiny aphids. As the aphid dies, it turns in to a parasitised brown mummy. This mummy contains the the wasp which eats its way out of the aphid to emerge as a new wasp. Interestingly these wasps are bred commercially as a biological pest control.
Centipedes
On paper, they read as if from a horror film! Thank goodness for their size.
Segmented bodies and lots of legs- centipedes are very easy to find in the garden. The word ‘centipede’ means 100 legs but most have between 15 pairs and 177 pairs.
They are predators. They hide during the day, under rocks and fallen branches to then come out at night time and hunt for prey!
Their front legs are adapted to be fangs and contain a venom which paralyses small prey. This makes them great hunters. They eat slugs, worms, and flies.
Soldier Beetles
There are around 40 species of Soldier beetle in the UK. They live in a range of habitats including grassland, parks and garden. They love cowparsley, asters and ornamental grasses.
Both the beetle its self and its larvae are predators the larvae eating snails and worms. The beetle loving aphids and caterpillars.
It’s called a soldier beetle because its colours resemble that of the ‘red coats’ uniform of 17th century British soldiers.
Minute Pirate Bugs
Also known as Flower bug, are less than a cm in size and can nip you! We aren't a first choice though and during the spring and summer they are full time feasters of small insects, mites, thrips and whitefly.
They are attracted to marigold, cosmos and spearmint plants.