Five Funky Facts about Insects
1. Unlike humans, the blood of an insect is usually green.
2. Travelling at almost 30mph, dragonflies are the fastest insects in the UK.
3. Only the female wasp stings.
4. The combined weight of all the ants on earth would total more than the combined weight of all the humans.
5. Flies can take off in any direction, not just forwards like most creatures.
Do you have a favourite bug?
Tell Billy Bug what it is and he will put it on this page.
Ladybird Coccinella septempunctata
There are loads of different types of ladybirds from hairy legged to smooth legged, red coloured to yellow. This one is the common 7 spot ladybird. Like all ladybirds, it loves eating aphids (greenfly) and is therefore a very welcome visitor on our farms!
Bumble Bee Bombus Lucorum
With the first hint of warm weather comes the bumblebee. Their nests, made of grass and wax, are underground and they live in small colonies centred around an egg laying queen. The males (drones) tend to the eggs and the worker females find food and look after the young larvae.
Woodlouse Isopoda porcellionidae
Meet the recycling king of the bug world! The woodlouse munches dying and rooting wood, as well as leaf debris, breaking it down into lovely mulch. This species cannot roll itself into a ball like others, but similar to all woodlice, it cannot pee! Instead they give off nitrogenous waste as ammonia gas which explains why big colonies have a very distinctive smell.
Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus
Cunningly disguised as a wasp to put off predators, the hoverfly is a great bug to have around on the farm. The larvae eat aphids and the adults feed on pollen and nectar. They live and breed in some very strange places, including wasps nests (the ultimate challenge for their disguise) and in stagnant water pools where larvae develop little breathing tubes.
Ground Beetle Coleoptera carabidae
here are over 29,000 types of ground beetle. They can’t fly (hence the name) but can run very fast, catching up with prey and trapping them with their powerful jaws. They hunt mainly at night and live under debris, leaf litter or some even in trees. This one is probably the type you will find in your garden.
European Earwig Fortficula auricularia
Ignore any big brother or sister who tells you earwigs burrow into your ear and live in your head – they don’t! The females lay eggs and look after them in their burrows, usually found in small dark places, looking after the young larvae fiercely from predators until they’re ready to leave home. They mainly eat plants but are also partial to small caterpillars, aphids and other insects.
Carrot Fly or Rust Fly Psila Rosae
Grrrr! They are the enemy of us carrot growers. They find carrots by smell, lay their eggs on the plant or in the ground and the larvae burrow into the root and open up the carrots for infection. We battle them by putting up netting around our crop (because they are lazy flies who don’t like traveling too far or too high), or sometimes putting smelly crops like onion or marigolds between carrot crops stops them spreading.
