Minibeasts in Your Garden

Minibeasts in your garden www.naturalengland.org.uk Minibeasts in your garden By far the most numerous and diverse of animals, on the planet and in the garden, are the minibeasts – invertebrates. They include spiders, snails, woodlice, worms, millepedes and centipedes, false scorpions, mites, earthworms and, of course, the ever-abundant insects. Sycamore moth caterpillar. Gardens are ideal for minibeasts, often full of useful microhabitats such as ponds, compost heaps, rockeries, flower borders and shrubberies that mimic good examples of natural habitats. Unlike much of the countryside, gardens provide a continuous habitat, separated only by hedges and fences and are havens for our smaller wildlife. Some species, such as the impressive stag beetle, are now commoner in gardens than in the wider countryside. Gardens can be ideal homes for minibeasts. 2 3 Minibeasts are fascinating and beautiful creatures. Encouraging and studying them in the garden makes a real contribution to their conservation and is an educational – and highly enjoyable – pursuit that brings a wider understanding of how the living world works. Food plants – minibeast General purple and gold moth. restaurants and cafés gardens and it’s worth increasing the Many minibeasts eat the leaves, value of the garden to them by stems, flowers, even the wood of cultivating the plants they can use, garden plants. Most simply make the while avoiding those that attract odd hole in a leaf here and there, pests. mine the occasional stem or suck a little sap and are not really a Native or not? Cardinal beetle. nuisance. Lots of attractive butterflies, moths, bugs and beetles take Most books on gardening for wildlife Thousands of minibeast species world. They pollinate crops and advantage of the plants in our stress the need for native plant inhabit gardens and it is easy to find flowers, tidy up the remains of dead species to attract scores in a single day. A fifteen-year plants and animals, and are vital links insects. While study of a typical Leicester garden in the food-chains that support other this is sound, it’s found over 2,100 species. Some favourite garden animals – the birds, not necessary to turned up only very occasionally, but mammals, amphibians and reptiles. fill your garden others were long-time residents. with wildflowers to encourage Sadly, some people don’t appreciate attractive plant- the wealth of wildlife on their eating species. doorstep, thinking of minibeasts with You can still be a fear and revulsion, or consider all of plant enthusiast – them as pests. However, only a tiny or use most handful of creatures bite or sting, or ordinary garden ravage our plants and it is these that plants – and still have given the rest a bad name. have a host of interesting Minibeasts are vital in the smooth minibeasts in the running of both the garden and the Cucumber spider. Shield bug. garden. 4 5 Many garden plants are closely on herbaceous plants, and some on the local authority to leave them for related to our native wild plants and grasses. Some minibeasts are, the butterflies. are equally acceptable as food plants, however, highly fussy, eating only a despite their garden pedigree and few or even a single species of plants. It can be fun to grow a particular For example, native plant (or a closely related brimstone species) that supports a wide variety butterfly of species and see what turns up. caterpillars feed Good plants to try are bird’s-foot- only on trefoil, verbascums, figworts, birches, buckthorns, willows and poplars (remember that which are rarely the last two make sizable trees so be grown in careful where you put them). gardens; and small tortoiseshell and peacock caterpillars and a Peacock caterpillars on nettles. host of other species, feed only Not every gardener wants lots of Picture-winged fly. on nettles. nettles and it’s worth bearing in mind that the butterflies only use nettles in showy flowers. Generally, the more Where a plant grows in the garden full sunshine. Keeping that nettle similar a plant is to our native species’ can be very influential. As a rule, patch in the shady area behind the Peacock butterfly. growth-form and leaf texture, the more minibeasts prefer food plants garden shed more likely it is to support plant- growing in sunshine than in shade won’t do – you eating insects. Exotic plants, perhaps and plants at the very edge of the will need to with thick waxy leaves, dense woolly border or shrubbery are favourites. sacrifice a prime hairs or strong-smelling foliage, are bit of sunny less likely to support many species, border if you though there are often surprises as to want butterflies who will eat what! to breed on them. An alternative Generalists and specialists might be to check out the local area Many plant-eating insects are – there are ‘generalists’, feeding on a wide variety usually patches of plants, usually of a particular of nettles around growth form. Some feed mostly on somewhere – and the foliage of shrubs or trees, others Mullein moth caterpillar. then persuade Figwort sawfly. 6 7 Flowers – minibeast bars Probably the most valuable feature of gardens for the most numerous minibeasts – the insects – is an abundance of flowers. Crab spider – these often ‘mug’ insect visitors to flowers. After all, flowers evolved specifically to attract insects – nectar is many insects’ main energy source and protein in pollen is vital in the production of their eggs. Regardless of what they eat as larvae, many adult insects visit flowers as their only source of food. Others use flowers as territory markers or meeting and mating places, or even lairs from which to catch other flower-visiting species. Some crab spiders, for example, ‘mug’ unsuspecting visitors, changing their colour to match that of the flower. Example of good garden border. 8 9 What sort of particularly good. There are similar drone flies, small tortoiseshell and structured flowers in many families brimstone butterflies rely on late- flowers are best for and it soon becomes easy to get the flowering Michaelmas daisies (asters), ‘jizz’ of what is likely to be a good ice plants and ivies. On emerging in minibeasts? insect plant. early spring, these same insects use early-flowering hellebores, narcissi, Open structures Tubes for bees doronicums, viburnums and Prunus species such as the early flowering, Most insects are attracted to flowers Tubular or bell-shaped flowers cater cherries, cherry-plum etc (single- with an open, flat structure that allows for a more specialised clientele. flowered varieties only – see above). access to the nectar without the need Snapdragons, foxgloves, penstemons, Blackthorn is often not suitable for for specialised mouthparts. campanulas, ericas, and members of the garden as it suckers too much. the pea and mint families such as Thick-legged flower beetle on geranium. broom, clover, lavenders, Lamium and moths and many other insects. (dead nettles) and Prunella (selfheal) Buddleias, valerians, hebes, mints and species are all excellent for attracting marjoram, and the whole of the daisy bumblebees, solitary bees and the family are excellent. Daisies provide domestic honey bee. While most an open ‘landing stage’ of petals and bees also visit the more open flowers, the central ‘button’ provides nectar some specialise in tubular flowers. over quite a long period. Especially valuable are achilleas, goldenrods, A mixture asters, and almost anything with the ‘typical’ daisy structure. Soldier beetle. Some plants mass together lots of tiny tubular flowers into one large bloom, Beware of doubles! Particularly valuable are plants in the providing a whole carpet of nectar Nectaring insects on ivy. rose family. The best roses are open- sources, much loved by butterflies Don’t fill the garden with cultivars of flowered, single varieties, but the ‘double’ flowering or ‘flore pleno’ A nectar surprise family also includes hawthorns, crab varieties. While attractive, few of apples, potentillas, and whitebeam these provide nectar and pollen, and Some garden plants provide nectar in (Sorbus) species including rowan, what little there is may be difficult for surprising places – a cherry-laurel can together with the various insects to get to amongst the mass of swarm with nectaring insects, even blackberry/raspberry (Rubus) species. doubled-up petals. when not in flower. Look carefully The saxifrage family, such as underneath younger leaves for ‘extra- saxifrages, heucheras and astilbes, Flowers through the year floral nectaries’. These are small green the stonecrop family (ice-plant and pads at the base of the leaf veins that other Sedum species), and umbellifers Aim to provide a good variety of attract ants, parasitic wasps and flies in such as angelica, lovage, fennel (and flowers throughout most of the year. particular, and help protect the plant bolted carrots and parsnips), are also Bumblebee on selfheal. Overwintering queen bumblebees, from leaf-eating insects. 10 11 Cover – minibeast stems are all good hideaway places. Think ‘minibeast’ before tidying the hide & seek dead material away and keep some throughout the winter. Most garden minibeasts need Winter retreats somewhere to hide at certain times, either to sleep, escape from predators Many minibeasts hibernate, and cover or shelter from the rain or sun. is essential for them to overwinter successfully in our gardens. Stones, Cover is very important so don’t be bits of wood, loose bark, fissured bark too tidy in the garden. Dense on older trees (the flaky bark of old vegetation, tussocky grasses or sedges apple trees is excellent) – anything that and plants with a ‘rosette’ of leaves creatures can get into or underneath is that minibeasts can get beneath; all valuable, as is a cool winter-time Lesser marsh grasshopper. offer good retreats. Dead leaves, grass compost heap.

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