Where are the butterflies?

[Woody girl]

I've been keeping watch on my budlia and so far there have been a couple of large whites or cabbage whites and a couple of commas two fritillary a but they were to high up to see which particular species . Normaly the whole tree is alive with them. Very few bees too. The garden hasn't got a great deal of birdlife at present either tho my lady blackbird (wife of the one that got caught by the cat )still visits. Not one ladybird seen this year either. No wasps. No shield bugs. Normaly I'm cussing them !. Even the flies in that get in the house have been absent.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I've been keeping watch on my budlia and so far there have been a couple of large whites or cabbage whites and a couple of commas two fritillary a but they were to high up to see which particular species . Normaly the whole tree is alive with them. Very few bees too. The garden hasn't got a great deal of birdlife at present either tho my lady blackbird (wife of the one that got caught by the cat )still visits. Not one ladybird seen this year either. No wasps. No shield bugs. Normaly I'm cussing them !. Even the flies in that get in the house have been absent.

Wasps started to arrive a couple of days ago, very small and not very insistent around the table. Shield bugs in about the same numbers as previous years. No ladybirds, though. But loads of white tailed bumble bees, plenty of ant lions, crickets, and I've seen a few grasshoppers in the past few days, and two very young katydids.

 

[Woody girl]

How are your butterfly observations this year?
I have seen a couple flitting about over the past week or so, but they were just one here or there. No ladybirds, havnt seen one for a few years now, and bees are fewer than normal, even the bumbles.
I counted seven honeybees on my tayberry. Normaly its quite a- buzz. Had to look hard to find them.
This is a worry, being as I live on exmoor. A very rural area.
The decline since I last posted in 2019 is realy noticeable.
Sadly, the budlia took a beating in a storm over the winter, and is now half it's size, and I think will have a lot less flowers this year. So I'm expecting fewer visitors anyway.

 

[slowworm]

Ive just gone through a couple of my hives so quite a few thousand honey bees...

There's a few butterflies about and some big moths of an evening but I was thinking there's less caterpillars about with all this dry weather. Quite a few bumbles and ladybirds at the start of the year but again I think the dry sun hasn't help them either.

Our buddleias look very good considering the wind damage they had, I gave them a good prune at the start of spring and theyve grown back strongly.

We certainly need some rain though, the birds seem to be struggling to find much food for their chicks.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Plenty of butterflies in the garden. Had a pair of long eared owls nesting too, first time since the 90 s. They've raised a couple of big fluffy chicks who don't obey their parents.
The only critters I haven't seen many of this year are hornets. It's the second year running where their absence is worrying.

 

[Disabled Preppers]

My budlia is not out yet but most times we have lots of butterlies but out front i have a huge lavender headge and i know i moan about having to cut it clean it and so on but you rub near it the smell omg and it has got bigger each year even after a hard hard cut back last year this year it is huge and when the flowers pop omg bee's as far as the eye can see so to sepak and they get so heavy they struggle to fly with many crashign in to the house hanging on for a rest then off , i have to be careful of stings i am allergic but again bee's are fairly mild in nature , now wasps yup kill kill kill .

 

[Broch]

Really? wasps and hornets are fantastic, beautiful, creatures that play an important role in the ecosystem.

I have an allergic reaction to wasp stings, if stung on the hand it will swell up like a Marigold glove that you've blown into - yet, I still won't kill them.

 

[Disabled Preppers]

@Broch yes i am the same as you but mine well lets say they said i am close to a epipen type , i use to get stung as a kid and nothing but normal but i once worked on the famr in the summer got hit by what they think was a hornet and after that well i was unlucky , i got stuck on my arm by a wasp and they nicknamed me popeye for weeks it was huge .
I hate wasps , i know all have a use like ants to but why is it ants like to nibble me even if i am no where near their nest working i nthe garden i use to find them on me , now days i have garden shoes soaked in citronella and they don't like that so not bad but bee's unless you poke or anony them they just go about there day but wasps sit down with food and bingo they are there ready to sting .

It is as i say eveything has a use and ants make fine soil , moles every gardener hates them in the veg patch but their soil mounds i use to go our with buckets collecting it mix with worm cast for my toms i nthe polytunnel

 

[SaraR]

Definitely fewer butterflies this year, although we’ve seen some in the last few weeks. Our garden is very much in the ”wildlife haven” style of gardens and we normally get loads of butterflies and other pollinators. The bumblebees are going strong though.

 

[Woody girl]

Normaly fighting to keep the whites off my veg, not a one so far this year.
I've seen a total of 3 butterflies so far, despite planting a bee and butterfly patch.
Lots of blackfly, almost destroyed my honeysuckle. Its coverd but I'm loth to spray with bug spray as I realy want to encourage other insects in. No ladybugs for a couple of years her. Thinking of buying some to release into the garden.

 

[Toddy]

From one end of the country to the other.

Very few butterflies here, loads of bees, and the honeysuckle is truly infested with blackfly.

Lot of silent times from the birds too.

I reckon it's the weather.

M

 

[Woody girl]

From one end of the country to the other.

Very few butterflies here, loads of bees, and the honeysuckle is truly infested with blackfly.

Lot of silent times from the birds too.

I reckon it's the weather.

M

I've just been flitting in and out of the garden today, I too noticed how deathly quiet it seems. Normaly the crows are very vocal, sparrows squabbling in the trees, and even my semi tame thrush hasn't been seen since yesterday morning. Normaly she comes running up to me for her handful of mealworms as soon as i appear, or I turn round and nearly tread on her! It's so quiet, I can hear a sort of roaring noise... tinnitus? Something I'm not normaly aware of,( or can I hear the plants? ) feels very weird, and unsettling.
I can see and hear the bees on my tayberry, and the bee Hotel there looks busyish, but due to the blackfly the honeysuckle is silent, as is the honeysuckle bee hotel.
The mock orange is in full bloom, and is scenting the whole garden beautifully.
The whole garden otherwise is so still and silent.

 

[mikehill]

Tons of birds and squirrels. A few bees, hover flies and the horrible horseflies. Hardly any butterflies yet. Warrington area.

 

[Ystranc]

It’s been a strange year, we have done very well for insects including moths and butterflies but in other places I’ve noticed a worrying lack of insect life where I really would have expected it to be abundant in the past.

 

[ged]

Not long ago as it seems to me now, my prospective father-in-law and I were talking about the developments taking place in an area behind his house in Ripley, Derbyshire, which we called "forty horse". We were both sorry to see the area's ecosystem being destroyed by yet more road-building.

At one point he said, "I'll tell you what you don't see so many of now - butterflies!"

It made a big impact on me that somebody else had noticed the same thing. I agreed.

It's now fifty years since that conversation, and things seem to me to be quite a bit worse.

 

[Disabled Preppers]

Normaly fighting to keep the whites off my veg, not a one so far this year.
I've seen a total of 3 butterflies so far, despite planting a bee and butterfly patch.
Lots of blackfly, almost destroyed my honeysuckle. Its coverd but I'm loth to spray with bug spray as I realy want to encourage other insects in. No ladybugs for a couple of years her. Thinking of buying some to release into the garden.

Wow we have loads of ladybirds , and i was doing some trimming the other day and came in with 3 small larve running round me me , my wife and i use to collect them and put them on plants that needed the help the garden is infested with them now days i do still collect some and take them in the polytunnel if i find whitefly on the toms or rhe cues , our raspberries are awash with the ladybird larve to like little dinosaurs running round or little aliens they look so scary .

We have loads of bird activitive but my neighbor and i have been getting rid of the squirrels due to the fact they year on year have kept destorying the birds they attacked the blackbirds last year killing the babies and then went for the wren , this year no squirrels allowed to do so , as we are o nthe canal we also have loads of waterfowl ducks swans geese and i even saw a grebe i was amazed but it soon went , i know they say robins don't last more than a year but i have one i am sure is the same one comes and sits on the table or on the fork if left out i put feed in little places i know it goesand feels safe , but we also have 2 feeding stations out , i will say not see nthe doves this year but again they may be out on the fields at this time of year .

 

[Woody girl]

Ladybird lavae are not cheap to buy, wish you could send some my way. Still, my best friend S and I are going to put in an order for lavae and ladybugs and a couple of ladybird hotels, split the cost, and split the bugs between us. Some in each garden. Seems the best idea. We have looked at the green gardener website, and it looks to be a good company for anyone interested in restoring ladybirds to their garden. We will be ordering later this week.
Don't know what to do about the butterflies. Budlia is close to flowering, so fingers crossed it will bring more into my garden. But if they are not there, no amount of flowers will bring them in.

 

[Disabled Preppers]

Yes ladybird larve are not cheap years ago i brought some when we had the allotment and i wanted more in the greenhouse we had there .
I wish we could post them but i always worry about the little monkies in the post if they get delayed , when the hot weather comes back i will go down to the raspberries and when picking i find loads of them hiding in the cracks of the posts , we do collect some as and when to pop in the tunnel because we do get whitefly on the cucumbers and toms toward the end of the season so i like ot get the bugs in there on them .
My budlias are not flowering yet but i have been planting more of them as we find babies growing roudn the garden in the wrong place i move them to where we want them , the canal bank got a couple of over hangers lol wild grown but i did buy some whites and dark purples and pinks a few years back so now we collect the babies and move them i am trying to keep one no bigger than fence high in the top garden as we like to sit on the lawn in summer and watch the bugs on the quiet days .

 

[Ystranc]

We have loads of bird activity but my neighbor and I have been getting rid of the squirrels due to the fact they year on year have kept destroying the birds they attacked the blackbirds last year killing the babies and then went for the wren , this year no squirrels allowed to do so ,

…Well done on controlling the grey menace. They cause untold damage to the songbird population. This has been a good year for the bird population here as well after a concerted effort trapping greys throughout the Spring and early Summer. Certain areas have suffered from magpie and Jay predation but that is a little harder to prevent as they have very mobile populations, if you manage to get rid of them more quickly move in.

 

[Disabled Preppers]

…Well done on controlling the grey menace. They cause untold damage to the songbird population. This has been a good year for the bird population here as well after a concerted effort trapping greys throughout the Spring and early Summer. Certain areas have suffered from magpie and Jay predation but that is a little harder to prevent as they have very mobile populations, if you manage to get rid of them more quickly move in.

Hi your so right on the maggies i hate them , we do have a fair few but between my neighbour and i we tend to keep them away as someone is always in the gardens at this time of year , the tree rats as i call squirrels make me so mad i know we all have to live but there is so much food in our gardens and in the trees but no they go for the birds and the eggs , the worst part is that no amount of scaring keeps them away the only fair way is the trap and dispatch , if anyone is thinking of using traps for the greys i highly recommend the big cheese rat trap cage omg they are so good , when you get one just check the edges for catch points on the trigger action also you must not just catch it take it to the woods and release once you trap they must be dispatched and as fast as possible .

Again when they have eaten the bird feeders and broken stuff and eaten the sunflowers yes we curse but if that was all they did i would suck it up and say ok but when they destroy the birds nests and kill the babies that is a no for me , again since my neighbour and i have worked on it we have a huge amount of song birds and no song birds come to the garden.

Good luck in the garden it is a war out there