Bugs are disappearing and have you been doing to attract them?

[JBtheExplorer]

Allowing a beekeeper to place hives in your garden...? That's pretty cool - renting beehives is big business over here. The almond farms in CA rent billions of bees every year - there just aren't enough to pollinate the crops.

Honey Bees are non-native here in the US, and sadly, often mislead people into thinking they're the specie that needs saving, which takes attention off of our native bees, who really need our help. Honey bees are commercially available and their only importance in the U.S. is to make honey. Saving native bee species is what matters. They have no help right now and numbers are dropping. Native North American bees pollinate far more than honey bees do.

 

[alp]

Sorry for the absence of news.. There are actually quite a few different sorts of bees, just as @Rajesh Sethi points out, there are bugs, and BUGS.. This man has his garden specially designed to cater for all sorts of bees hotels. He has the ground for bumble bees and some bees which build their nest several inches above the ground. Also, there are various different kinds of beneficial bugs such as hoverflies. My carrot flowers are on, but I haven't seen any hoverflies. Hopefully, when the sun comes out, they will be here. Last summer, they were buzzing drunk..

 

[Logan]

Sorry for the absence of news.. There are actually quite a few different sorts of bees, just as @Rajesh Sethi points out, there are bugs, and BUGS.. This man has his garden specially designed to cater for all sorts of bees hotels. He has the ground for bumble bees and some bees which build their nest several inches above the ground. Also, there are various different kinds of beneficial bugs such as hoverflies. My carrot flowers are on, but I haven't seen any hoverflies. Hopefully, when the sun comes out, they will be here. Last summer, they were buzzing drunk..

@alp i grow a lot of single flowers, that's better for polinaters. Don't get a lot of butterflies, but get hoverflies and a lot of different bees.

 

[alp]

Hoverflies are very good for gardens. Nick Bailey had a visit to a lab and he was explaining how important it was to have hoverflies around and he mentioned carrot flowers and ammi which I have. I still have one in sort of flowering .. I have kept it but sadly too cold for hoverflies. Bees love single flowers, especially blue or violet ones. Good that you have loads of single flowers.

 

[roadrunner]

In my experience hoverflies generally like the smaller flowers, such as on the Alyssum, Poke weed and chickweed, but I've also seen them around other flowers like my Spiderwort, Blanket Flowers, Spanish needles.

 

[alp]

I think we should plant local or indigenous wildflowers as they are best for local wildlife. Funny things is that we have all sorts of bees and we should have different levels of height of bug hotels for them. Bumblebees like the ground level, if I remember correctly.. Very interesting subject.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Credit to one Craig Burrows via Reddit, a photo of what insects see in the UV light spectrum.

 

[Logan]

Yes I've got lavender a lot of single flowers that they like better,poppies, foxgloves,pot marigolds,snapdragons, Japanese anemones,tithonia and aquilegia.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

I couldn't agree more DirtMechanic. I've created flower beds and done a huge amount of work to create a small wildflower meadow.

Thanks for posting the delightful pictures.

Kind regards, Colin.

As it was at the top of the mountain.

Just one of many piles of debris disposed of.

The front hedge completely gone including roots. Lots of digging by spade turning grass over and clearing endless stones and many roots.

After a great deal of hard graft I could finally use my new Hyundai rotavator.

Our new small wildflower meadow in full bloom this year; it looked stunning and even now nearing mid October there are still lots of flowers in bloom. Lots of hard work but end result well worth it.