National Insect Week

 National Insect Week, the last week of June, is a chance to celebrate the diversity of insects! 

Here in Edinburgh, it hasn't been a particularly good year for larger insects so far as the weather hasn't been ideal for most species. Plus the fact that climate change, habitat destruction and pollution are all having a long term negative impact on insect numbers in this country (and around the world). 

Insects are vital to life! Without bees and other insect pollinators we would have far fewer food crops or garden flowers. And although some species of insects are pests (including mosquitoes) some insects are the best solution to insect pests (ladybirds eat aphids). 

Insects are also beautiful, particularly butterflies and moths, the photo below shows a speckled wood butterfly

As regular readers of this blog may have noticed, I'm particularly interested in hoverflies. There are 250 species of hoverflies in the UK and many of them are beautifully patterned like this Eupeoides corollae 

If you want to help insects, then if you have a garden, let part of it grow wild with plants such as buttercups and clover. Pollinating insects love these flowers, like this tree bumblebee on white clover 

Alternatively you can plant wildflower mixed seeds (but make sure the mix includes only native flowers) or plant nectar rich garden flowers. You can also make 'insect hotels' which offer various places for different species of insects to set up home. There's a good article about making a bug hotel on the Woodland Trust website. 

For Insect Week and 30 Days Wild.