Page 12 - Wildlife News April 2015

Bugv’sieeywe Log piles help to attract Ivy bee (Peter Creed)
invertebrates such
as the stag beetle.

(Nick Garbutt/naturepl.com)

Large red damselflies (Peter Creed)
Marmalade hoverfly (Peter Creed)

Insects and other invertebrates fuel the bottom
of the food chain. Make spaces for them in your
garden and you will help to create a thriving
ecosystem, as Ben Vanheems reveals

Insects and spiders are vegetation in your garden. moist microclimate. Burying from the countryside only
endlessly fascinating. A Many insects feed off dead the bottom of the pile an inch succeeds in removing natural
garden that has a thriving wood or use it as shelter. Log or two into the ground will habitat.
population of these piles are a great source of help keep it damp. Logs can be
invertebrates will, by default, dead wood and will provide a laid randomly, arranged side Make a feature
be rich in the wildlife that livelihood for many insects and by side, stacked into a pyramid
feeds on them – from frogs other creatures besides. or buried vertically to create Log piles can be located in out-
and toads to hedgehogs and visual interest. of-the-way places – behind
birds. Making room for insects Make a log pile by stacking a shed or at the back of a
and spiders will turn your logs of various thickness in as Hardwoods such as oak, border – or made into a feature
garden into a miniature nature orderly or disorderly a fashion beech and ash are best but with native ferns, bulbs and
reserve, alive with sound, as you wish. Aim for logs at any wood will have value. wild flowers planted around
movement and colour. least 10cm thick. Drilling a Don’t worry if you can’t source it to give a lush, woodland
series of random holes into the enough wood from your own feel. Alternatively encourage
Rotten luck logs will provide homes for or a neighbour’s garden – climbers such as honeysuckle
solitary bees. prunings and dead stems of or ivy (much loved by the ivy
One of the easiest ways of herbaceous plants also bee) to sprawl over the pile.
boosting numbers is to leave Tightly pack the logs provide welcome invertebrate
areas of dead and rotting together in a position out of refuges. Collecting wood You can create a self-
direct sunshine to maintain a contained insect residence

12 Wildlife news