Notes from Alan Bunker, who lives in Hornchurch, from an email he sent me.
I wondered if you have experienced any of the following changes I have noticed in our garden this year. A lot of ladybirds were seen early on and then none. No greenfly and very few black fly and woolly aphids. A good crop of apples almost all destroyed by Codlin moth. Hardly any pears, but heavy growth of clover in the lawn. No Peacock butterflies at all. A lot of leaves stripped from the gooseberry bushes. Plums were ok this year. I never see earwigs or crane fly now. Have they died out?