Peterborough's been overrun...

[Adam1701D]

with swarms of little black aphid-like bugs. The air is thick with them here and they are covering any brightly coloured surface. Absolutely horrible.

Never seen this many before swarming like this...is this a local phenomena or are other folk affected?

[OwL]

Hello Captain,

Im fairly local, and we have been swarmed by green fly!!!!

Where are the Ants when you need them?

P.S the good news is that we have also been visited by lots of bumble bee's, good news in my books!

[jonclox]

Hello Captain,



Where are the Ants when you need them?

Staging a takeover bid for our garden. Even our ant nests seem to have ant nests on top of them 

[Adam1701D]

We've got ants swarming all over the place, as well. All the big flying ones have decided to take off for pastures new.

Greenfly, flying ants...I'm staying indoors. 

[OwL]

We need more Spiders!!! ( On Behalf of Mrs OwL, as much as this hurts me to say)

[MJKERR]

Decreasing numbers of birds is resulting in an increasing number of insects
Give it a few weeks and expect to see an increased number of spider webs

[OwL]

Decreasing numbers of birds is resulting in an increasing number of insects
Give it a few weeks and expect to see an increased number of spider webs

Quite a few INSECTS around here lately methinks? Like you say, not enough birds around.

[Lawrence]

Decreasing numbers of birds is resulting in an increasing number of insects
Give it a few weeks and expect to see an increased number of spider webs

I seem to remember the RSPB doing a thing a year or two back about counting the number of bugs on your car number plate, somehow they could work out the number of birds around by the number of bugs.

I have noticed quite a decrease in bird numbers in the garden, though that may have something to do with our 9 month old tabby 

[m1racleman]

Well my garden is full of ducks !! They have had about six clutches already this year and the pond is full of them. We need more foxes to keep them at bay, or a shotgun even !!
No bugs around here though even if I am only 20 miles from captainfantastic.

[MJKERR]

I've noted dramatic drops in certain types of birds

The obvious one for me is the Starling, although recently have noticed a slight increase, used to see them above Glasgow Central station in the evenings but haven't seen that for years now

Next is the Seagull
Fish ports and city centres used to be overrun with them, again their numbers exploded in about 15 years ago, partially filling the gap left by the Starling, however the reduction in offshore fishing forced many inland, and it was calculated about two thirds of the population perished

The more common garden visiting birds have also fallen in numbers
I tend to now only see Blackbirds, Robin, Sparrow, and Magpie
I have not seen any of the others I would have expected for several years now, such as House Martin, Thrush, and so on

Then we have the absurd
Some areas have reintroduced birds of prey, but you can really only do this if the existing bird populations are sustainable
We then end up with both ends of the spectrum; birds of prey and insects
Last time I checked these birds don't tend to eat insects...

[Lawrence]

Going to have to argue with you on the seagull one, absolute bloody nuisance if you live on the coast like we do and I'm sure they are getting bigger, gorging themselves on discard big macs and fish suppers, there has certainly been no (obvious) decline up the Fife / Tayside coast.

And they will actually attack people for food, St Andrews & Anstruther are two of the worse places.

I enjoy the birds in the garden, we have a family of blackbirds who live in our loft, every year for the last four years they have come back to lay and rear their young and it is nice to see.

But not seagulls I'm afraid, now if I had a gun 

[longbridge]

The England I remember in the 1940'50s never had problems like that but where I live in Australia we have plagues of Locusts, Mice, Mosquitos, Sand Flies, Red Back Spiders Cockroaches and Ghecko Lizards.

You can end up with itchy lumps, poisonous spider bites, creepy crawly things that walk up the walls or crawl across the floor maybe a snake bite that will kill you and so on, why not come over for a holiday.

[poliss]

Think they mentioned lots of greenfly/blackfly at Wimbledon today.
Can't say I've seen any swallows this year. They like insects. Not many sparrows about. Crows seem to be doing well, but then they chase cats. Pigeon numbers have gone down since they put windows on our balconies. Nowhere for them to nest now. There are a lot more cats around. When I was a lad the streetlights used to go off at midnight. There on all night now. Confuses the birds which never get to sleep from the all night singing I've heard. Perhaps they're dying from exhaustion.

[Newportnobby]

Not that they're a nuisance, but my Upvc windows and doors are covered with tiny red spider mites. At least they just wash off!

[EtchedPixels]

Think they mentioned lots of greenfly/blackfly at Wimbledon today.
Can't say I've seen any swallows this year. They like insects. Not many sparrows about. Crows seem to be doing well, but then they chase cats. Pigeon numbers have gone down since they put windows on our balconies. Nowhere for them to nest now. There are a lot more cats around. When I was a lad the streetlights used to go off at midnight. There on all night now. Confuses the birds which never get to sleep from the all night singing I've heard. Perhaps they're dying from exhaustion.

Saw swifts around Swansea today - don't often see them though.

The streetlights are going off more and more at night, nobody can afford the power bills any more since the bankers stole all the money