Insects 2022. Where are they?

Down the end of our garden there are hundreds of wasps as we have a lot of fruit trees. I don't clear up badly damaged windfall fruit and leave it to the wasps and birds. Good windfalls are collected either by us or friends - last week one friend took 25lb of windfall apples to make cider and another friend is coming for a lot so that she can make chutney. The wasps not only come in from other areas but we have had a wasp nest in the ground under a plum tree for decades.

At the patio area we have dozens of pots with annuals and we have a few water bowls that are also flying insect friendly (stones etc. in the water for them to perch on whilst drinking. They never bother us at all but don't like being touched. Whereas bees are quite happy to be stroked whilst on occupied getting pollen.

 

What? With all those nasties crawling and flying around? You've almost sold me on moving there.

 

We have bees and wasps in abundance. The wasps are starting to become a nuisance and preventing us eating outdoors in the evening. Bees leave us alone. There have been some large dragonflies too and the hummingbird moths keep coming even during the drizzle yesterday.

Lots of different butterflies, mostly whites with a few overseas migrants Red Admirals and Painted Ladies. The only common butterfly I've not seen is the Orange Tip this year.

It helps having a vegetable patch and open water features to encourage our winged friends. Yesterday i had to release a cabbage white that had found its way in to my netted sprouts, I don't mind them having one or two.

 

Our buzzies are getting even busier. Sitting on the patio yesterday afternoon the buzzing of the bees was a continuous background noise and it helps that we have a 30ft long mass of cosmos in pots near our benches and drinking bowls alongside.

We were also a little bit hassled by wasps whilst we were having our dinner, with friends, under the pergola but we put a number of very small vases along the tables with cut cosmos in them and they got covered in bees and the wasps kept their distance a bit more. The wasps didn't seem too keen on having the bees flying amongst them.