There have been plenty of mention of various insects/garden pests (eg slugs) in various postings.
However there are many insects that are very few this years. I have seen hardly any wasps in the garden and not too many bees.
Most years previously I have had to wage war on ants in our back passage (oops!) and our patio, and appearing between the flagstones. Sometimes we have had them getting into the house. This year, none !
Also very few ladybirds about.
Is this general round the country or just up here in the Wirral ? I guess its a weather thing thats caused it.

Short on ladybirds and butterflies in the garden
Not short!! on mosquitoes, midges, bees wasps, hoverflies, mayflies, fruit flies, woodlice, bluebottles, ants and spiders
Have a plague of slugs - there was even one on my draning board this morning
I do live in the country next to open fie lds

Yes, lots of flies and mosquitoes buzzing around everywhere! Spiders scuttling everywhere, and crane flies are abundant around the walls of the nearby High School! What was it they said about tropical diseases carried by the mosquitoes again?

~Wobby~

They have all moved to Anglesey! We have loads of wasps, bees, crane flies, greenfly, white fly, slugs and snails, as well as plenty of butterflies and moths and quite a few ladybirds.

Very few wasps or ladybirds. A few daddylonglegs but not as many as usual. A huge spider in the bath the other morning (gulp). I'm in Surrey.

Short on ladybirds.

Not at all short on wasps - however, NONE have come in the house this year which is really lovely of them We planted up lots of wildflowers in the garden and there have been hoardes of wasps all over them (and bumble bees and honey bees) but not one of anything stripey has come in the house.

Absolutely millions of moths, little ones.

Hardly any butterflies; the few there are seem to be cabbage whites intent on laying eggs on my kale

There has been an epiemic this year of Bee Colony Colapse Disorder. Some estimates say 75% of bees have died in the UK. It is an international problem and has had a huge impact in America this year too. Nobody seems very sure of the cause

That is with the exception of those who remain in East Anglia.

Where are the insects gone? try telling that to my little Alexander (6) he's just been stung by a wasp!

Loads and loads of wasps (eek!) and more daddylonglegs than usual... but I haven't seen ants or ladybirds or butterflies for ages!

... and the wasps are getting dopey and angry too!

No wasps or bees here that I've seen, but thousands of midges, flies and moths - the small kind that chew your clothes. Lots of tiny little unidentifiable insects too.

Can anyone explain to me why I've been living in my little cottage for nine years now and yes, we got the occasional spider on the wall/in the bath etc etc... normal stuff...

and then this year we have had a plague of, I'm not kidding, ENORMOUS spiders!!!!!!!???? Some of them are three inches across including the legs - I've never seen anything like it! They only appear on the wall one at a time, but no sooner have we despatched one (sorry, yes my OH kills them) then another one appears.. and they really are HUGE and I'm getting quite distressed at just how many keep appearing. I daren't invite visitors in unless I've checked the room (although I can't catch them myself) and I'm dreading my Brother-in-Law visiting because he's phobic about spiders.. he'd die if he saw one of these.

Someone told me they are 'Hunter' spiders but I've not been able to find a book to look them up. They don't appear to make webs and do seem very territorial.

Any ideas?

Daddy longlegs. They creep my out the most out of all houshold creatures.



I can't realy look at an invertebrate without wanting to scream..... They look creepy I guess... The smaller the better, beause they're difficult to see properly.

And they are all congregating in one of our music classrooms!! We've actually had to stop using it because they seem to lose the will to fly and just randomly drop onto desks and crawl around... One can imagine the ruckus if one fell on a kid! We've got a book handy though - squashed about half a dozen between us, and swept at least a dozen off the floor.....

I've had mosquitos buzzing around my head when I'm trying to sleep recently

We do the garden butterfly survey for Butterfly Conservation. This summer we've had all the usual species, but less of each type.

Quite a few ladybirds, including several of the Harlequins which are becoming a problem. We sent one to a lab to be officially identified, my daughter was heartbroken to hear they'd probably destroy it, she thought they'd send it back to Africa or wherever.

Less dragonflies in the garden this summer, less damselflies too, although the garden spiders (not insects!) are making beautiful webs over everything.

Lots of bees earlier in the year, not so many now. The foxgloves in our front garden were covered in bees in April and May. June's bad weather didn't do them any favours, and any insects which are ground nesting will have been devastated in many areas by the floods.

I remember driving to Cornwall about 18 years ago and having to stop a couple of times to clean the insects off the windscreen. That doesn't seem to happen any more, even on a long journey you only get a smattering, literally.

Midges in Scotland alive and doing very well, though, this summer.

I love insects and arachnids, especially huge hairy cute spiders such as tarantulas

I have a large hairy black spider in my studio. He is called Boris. I have a theory that he keeps the woodbeetle away from my instruments.

We used to have a house spider called Boris as well! Not many spiders in our house now as our cat likes to eat them

There is a spider in my dining room

You should have seen the size of the one on the wall of the lounge last night! No way was I going to argue with it

Ah well I seem to be proved wrong !
Actually Jod, I was close to you at Anglesea Abbey a bit earlier in the summer and there were a lot of wasps there, but not here at home.

I walkthough the Herts/Beds boarder where there is fields and woodlands so I see many inects I was walking home yesterday and I heard loads of crickets! Its the first time I've ever heard them there.

I agree witht the slugs and spiders. We've been invaded by slugs in the garden. Luckly my house is bulit on a hill so they cant get in unless they climb 6 feet up the wall The spiders recently have been huge. There was one in my living room the other night! And the big harvester spiders keep trying to land on my! 3 have suceeded in about as many months!

All insects seem to be thriving in my garden as usual. It's a bit untidy and scruffy and wildlife seems to thrive in it. Well that my excuse for it not being neat and tidy.
I've also got a spider living in my driver's side wing mirror. Every morning I go out and there's a new web which sadly breaks on the drive to school.

we're short on bees, wasps, moths and we're always short of ladybirds where i live

Not many wasps this year - bees seemed fairly plentiful, slugs as normal, although one of my hens has taken a fancy to slugs and snails so she's doing a great job of keeping the numbers down!!

A lot of small bees literally filling our pussy willow tree in the spring. None since. No wasps and so far no hornets though we don't usually get them until October. Very few house flies ( we use an untrasound device to discourage them) and only a few of the nasty ones that come from our neighbour's cows. Fewer moths than usual but strangely, more butterflies and some new ones I haven't seen before. Fewer crickets. quite a few of those little hay spiders, no really large ones. I have only been bitten by a mosquito twice this summer.
Not a single ladybird but one stick insect. No ants since one infestation in the shower room which ceased before I got round to dealing with it.

There are definitely fewer insects here and as a result fewer swallows.

Similar area to me and I can count on one hand how many wasps or ladybirds I've seen in the garden this year. No ants, no daddylonglegs and no butterflies either despite my giant mutant sized buddleia plant, which has an enormous amount of flowers on it.

As to what's happened to them? Well, my own theory, which is possibly backed up by ecologists etc. - Climate change and loss of habitat.

When I was a child, the garden was unindated with insects of all varieties, but now the surroundings are full of polluting cars on clogged up roads, housing estates (and houses being built in back gardens!) and industrial parks. Whatever wildlife isn't being killed off by the duff weather, is being forced out, or dying out because the habitat that supported them is being destroyed by the greedy grabbing human race. They'd call it progress. I call it outright and deliberate destruction.

We had this a few years ago - just for a couple of months - a friend looked them up on the internet and apparently they only come out for 6 weeks of a year - no idea what they do the rest of the time!
I don't know why it suddenly happened that year - it hasn't since...
It was suggested that it was do with building an extension and opening the cavity walls - I don't know if you have been doing anything like that?

Our hens are eating all the slugs too!

Seriously overrun with mozzies round here - ugh!