Make your garden insect-friendly
Get your garden buzzing all year round!
Water vole by Terry Whittaker/2020VISION
Get your garden buzzing all year round!
The fly-shaped flowers of this fascinating plant are attractive to insects - but not the ones you might expect!
Unlike many of its relatives, this shimmering shieldbug is a predator, feasting on caterpillars and a variety of other insects.
One of our largest soldier beetles, often found on flowers where they hunt other insects.
The yellow flower heads of common ragwort are highly attractive to bees and other insects, including the cinnabar moth.
The nodding, blue bells of the harebell are a summer delight of grasslands, sand dunes, hedgerows and cliffs. They are attractive to all kinds of insects, too.
The large, dark grey water shrew lives mostly in wetland habitats. It's a good swimmer that hunts for aquatic insects and burrows into the banks.
The spiked shieldbug has fearsome shoulder projections or 'spikes' and a predatory nature. This brown bug feeds on caterpillars and other insects in woodlands and on heathlands.
The Welsh poppy is a plant of damp and shady places, roadsides and hillsides. It is also a garden escapee. It flowers over summer, attracting nectar-loving insects.
Fat hen is a persistent 'weed' of fields and gardens, verges and hedgerows. But, like many of our weed species, it is a good food source for birds and insects.
Look for the small, white, star-shaped flowers of Common chickweed all year-round. Sometimes considered a 'weed', it is still a valuable food source for insects.