General Chat

It is noticeable that this year so far, there are no ants, green/blackfly, or ladybirds in my garden.
Also the snails and slugs seem to be greatly reduced in numbers compared to other years.
Has anyone else noticed this?

Tec :-)

Hi Tec - I do have greenfly :-( well some of my roses do anyway :-D

Hello AnnC,

Normally my roses would be infested with greenfly by now, and ants crawling all over the peony buds, but nothing this year.
We normally get ants crawling up between the cracks in the paving too, but not this year.

Tec :-)

We have ants by the million. Ladybirds are scarce. No slugs or snails but I have my lovely hedgehog to thank for that.

Have quite a few snails but not many slugs. Not seen a lot of ants either, maybe it has been too cold for them to show themselves.

I've seen a few invertebrates around here recently.

I wonder how they survive with no backbone.

Millions of ants in my garden Tec, and still some coming in the kitchen :-| They (black ones) seem to like the 'coffee' area, so if I spill any there they make a beeline for it and then seem to have a caffeine high and dart around at top speed lol.

We sometimes get a visit from a hedgehog, but I haven't seen him this year, though he may be around.
I'm not complaining about the lack of pests, it just seems curious :-D

Tec :-)

We've had two ants' nests in the garden and countless snails but very few slugs.

Rose - Maybe you should try de-caff :-D

Errol - I live in sheep country and surrounded by thousands of them. When they are brought down off the mountain for shearing etc, we get inundated by flies in the kitchen :-0.
I hold you partly responsible for this :-D

AnnG - I think the late Spring could be the reason - you may be right about that.

Tec :-)

I must apologise for my mountain based cousins.

They have neither the breeding nor the finesse of us urban living ovines.

Tec, many ants here over the long dry summer in West Oz with plenty getting into the house.

No snails in the back garden thanks to our family of bob-tailed lizards but a few slugs about.

Now that the weather has turned wet and cold we may see a decrease in ant numbers

just been checking my roses - just a few greenfly to zap now

I have two beautiful Arthur Bell climbers - bright yellow with a gorgeous scent - 127 blooms on the one and 89 on the other

Hello Allan, We haven't had ants in the house for years, though I remember one year getting up to find the kitchen wall was black with them - yuck :-0

Errol - Pleased to hear that urban sheep have more couth than our unruly lot :-D.

AnnC - I haven't seen the Arthur Bell rose, sounds good. I have a lot of David Austin Old English, but the best one I have is a Constance Spry that I planted 16 years ago. Never fails, and has hundreds of buds now along a 20ft fence :-)

Naturally, Tecwyn. One tends to distance oneself from those hillbilly types.

AnnCardiff - you COUNT your roses? Is that daily? Weekly? Whenever the urge takes you?

only when I want to show off!!!!

Errol - Our mountain sheep would be very miffed to see that their posh urban cousins "Fly Emerates" while they get stuffed into a sheep transporter like a lot of peasants :-D

AnnCardiff I might have nicked one - you'll have to count them all over again now.

Tecwyn - first class, too!

Has anyone else been getting centipededs in the bathroom sink.

I had 6 the other morning and every day since had at lease one centipede in the sink..

Had to start putting the plug in last thing at night so I don't get any more.

Yes think they came for a bath,,,, :-D :-D :-D