Читать книгу The Wildlife-friendly Garden - Michael Chinery - Страница 11

Ground beetles These long-legged, fast-moving insects are most likely to be found lurking under logs and stones. They hunt by night, destroying slugs and many harmful caterpillars.

Michael Chinery

Long, sensitive antennae enable the ground beetle to track down its prey at night.

Lacewings In spite of their fragile appearance, the lacewings are voracious carnivores, destroying hundreds or even thousands of greenfly during their lives.

Michael Chinery

Lacewings often come to lighted windows at night; introduce them to your roses or other plants where they can eat the troublesome aphids.

Hedgehogs Among our most popular garden inhabitants, hedgehogs do good service by getting rid of slugs and snails, although they do destroy the useful earthworms as well.

Michael Chinery

A good friend in the garden, this hedgehog is busily polishing off a snail.

Ladybirds These attractive little beetles eat huge numbers of greenfly and other harmful aphids and are therefore among the gardener’s best friends.

Centipedes These fast-moving carnivores eat a wide range of other creatures, including slugs, insect grubs and other centipedes, which they kill with powerful venom. On balance, they do more good than harm, and they are certainly not dangerous to us.