Bug Life

Last weekend I put some bee boxes on the shed to help attract mason bees to the plot. Mason bees are non-aggressive solitary bees, they are very small and do not swarm or produce honey. The females make nests in cracks and crevices in walls and will also use handmade or purpose-built bee boxes to nest, becoming very active during April and May. I love watching them provide for their future off-spring, carrying nourishment to the nest before sealing the nest entrance with mud. They’re amazing little creatures and very important pollinators, keep an eye out for these industrious little bees on your allotment.

Sunny weather over the past few days has been a welcome break from the wet weather, encouraging a number of bumblebee queens to venture out of hibernation to look for suitable nesting sites. I observed one disappearing into crevices in the ground and reappearing again with a distinctive low-pitch buzzing sound.

My blue allotment shed is a beacon to bees and hoverflies of all shapes and sizes, I believe the colour blue is particularly attractive to them. Inside my shed is proving to be popular with other bug life too, take a look at what I found hibernating:

I’m pretty certain these are Harlequin ladybirds in many different colour shades and patterns, they gave me quite a shock when I moved some stacked bamboo canes (I spy a lacewing there too!). A non-native voracious predator they are able to out-compete our native species for aphid and may even snack on other ladybird eggs and larvae. They are widespread and very common in gardens now but I do still see many of our native ladybirds which is reassuring, but sadly not all. Hopefully they will prove to be beneficial in keeping aphid numbers down on the allotments this year.

Just above the ladybirds are a group hibernating lacewings, another great insect to have on the allotment for keeping aphids under control. They don’t seem bothered by each other and quite happy to share my shed as a safe place, and that’s perfectly fine with me.