A drought seems set to plague farmers/gardeners, but one plague they surely wont see this year is aphids, not here in N.E.Essex anyway. Having survived the cold, thousands of 7-Spots are on the move. On 23.2.12 I counted 90 in our small garden in north Colchester and there have been between 30-50 on various other dates. Huge numbers have also been noted at Highwoods, Mistley, Dedham, and Stourwood. At Skinners Wall, Manningtree 100+ were seen in a nettle bed just a few square feet in size.
Another possible benefit for gardeners could be an attack on scale insects. Pine Ladybirds are also more numerous too, with a maximum count of 49 on one beech tree at Mistley Walls with smaller numbrs in our garden, Highwoods, Dedham, and Stourwood where a Kidney Spot was also noted.
Your Forum
This forum has now been more or less replaced by the Club's Facebook page at 
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more