h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Where are they? I haven't seen one so far this summer.Or it it just in my small seaside town that they seem to have vanished?

In urban environments they tend to be eradicated - eventually all those poisons etc does the job of killing all the nests etc. I'm not sure what the rural populations are like. In general there is a decline in insect numbers (bees etc).

I haven't seen many yet, in South London, but it's still early season for them, they seem to peak in mid / late August as fruit starts to ripen.

Are hornets and yellow jackets considered to be wasps? I always have yellow jackets building nests in the front of my house. They aren't numerous, and they do seem to help pollinate my flowers and vegetable garden, so I leave them be. The only exception was when hey built a nest inside some large Christmas bells that I hung on my porch railing . Even then, I did not do anything to them. I waited until the next Winter and threw the bells in the trash.

But letting bugs inside is a no-no, with the possible exception of spiders. I don't bother them unless they bother me. If they build webs in corners where I need to go, the webs have to go! They can jolly well build their webs elsewhere or find another home.

That was well timed - I was just attacked by a wasp in the bathroom.

I can't remember seeing many before today, though.

The butterflies are doing very well - I've been painting the shed today, and saw peacocks, red admirals, and something that could have been a meadow brown:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?species=jurtina

I also saw a large painted lady, but then the wife does have a habit of creeping up on me.

I got stung by a wasp in the country park while cycling home after work a couple of weeks ago – it got caught in my shirt collar.

<BB<

No not yet but a hornet or two not seen any for ages it was nearly 1 inch long

On the radio this afternoon the DJ was talking about all the many mosquitoes, wasps & other bugs that were sweeping across the Midlands at the moment. I haven't seen many myself so maybe they're giving Cannock a wide berth (and some might say they don't blame them, I wouldn't dream of it )

However,my dog was stung by a wasp on the way home from our walk in the park this afternoon.

Oh, and a pair of (possibly) red admirals chased each other into my outhouse and back out again today, which made me smile.

Deb

It's still a wee bit early for wasps - when we ran Guide camps we would usually go for the last week in July, because generally the wasps became a bigger problem into August. My husband calls these wasps 'lager louts' because basically their work in the nest is done and their mission at this point is to neck as much sugar as possible before the cold weather comes and they die.

Obvs it's not precisely 1 August every year, I mean I know the weather has a lot to do with it and wasps don't sit around a wall planner working out when they'll have their holidays. But the odd one I have seen in recent weeks was still gathering wood pulp for making the nest.

Mol

mosquitos are back again that's for sure.... Went out with a friend, one evening recently, and the next day.... coverd in mossy bites, from having sat out in the beer garden (kept feeling things flying by whilst we sat out there...) I react badly to them, hypersensativity/allergy; one on my thigh was a good ping pong ball sized lump under the flesh, and the blood vessel above it was so* sore, all the way up to my top of the leg

Never get anything like the numbers of butterflys used to, back at the parental home in Suffolk; budlier used to be smothered in them, but not done that now, for a good couple decades, just isolated few about maybe or maybe not connected; the bats have all disapeared from that area too...

In fact I don't remember seeing any last year either..

I've been seeing more butterflies lately. There was a nice tiger swallowtail flitting among the trees at my father's house the last time I was there.

I've seen a lot more butterflies this year, too. Is it that people are finally paying attention to the lack of them and planting butterfly friendly gardens?

I have also seen a lot of bees which is great. We had 5 bumble bees overwintering in our garden and I have loved watching them zipping about the flowers doing their thing.

There are wasp about but at this time of year they are busy catching insects to feed the grubs in their nest and feeding on flowers - it is only at the end of the summer when the colony is ready to shut down for winter, that the workers are released to spend their brief retirement feasting on jam at picnics before falling pray to frost, a newspaper or a hornet or larger wasp (most people mistake the very large Vestal Wasps for Hornets which are fairly rare)

If you have 15 minutes to spare and want to help Butterfly Conservation you could do a bit of citizen science as part of the Big Butterfly Count which is currently running in the UK.

Someone just HAD to mention wasps. found one of these in my about to set up a nest in the window above my sofa.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/102309

My frantic swatting scared my cat.

Butterfly-friendly gardens? I've always wanted to have a butterfly garden. Milkweed, Lantana, and Butterfly Bush are all high on the list of plants that butterflies like. There may be others, including some that I do have.

Here's a link to a website that lists such plants:

http://www.almanac.com/content/plants-attract-butterflies

It turns out that I have the following beloved flowers:

Tickseed coreopsis
Pansies
Wild asters

I've planted a row of mixed wildflower seeds, which contains:

Sweet alyssum
Cornflowers
Phlox
Sapdragons

Just be careful about where you buy your plants and seeds to avoid neonicotinoid pesticides. Many seeds and plants sold at large chain box stores are not labeled yet may include such pesticides. Other names include acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam.

On wasps and butterflies, a good choice for wasps that build paper bests is evening primrose, which they prefer as a base for their paper.