The stories of bees and bugs

Edited extract from A Year Of Garden Bees

APHIDS Scan to see more We've all watched in despair as, seemingly overnight, our favourite garden plant becomes a seething mass of aphids. It's hard to believe that a minuscule insect can create such havoc, but when it comes to aphids, the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. What makes the tiny aphid such a formidable adversary? The answer is extraordinarily efficient reproduction. Aphids can reproduce both sexually (male, female, sperm, egg) and asexually (clones), depending upon the conditions in which they find themselves. A single aphid can have billions of descendants in a single year. But before you reach for the pesticide spray, consider the benefits. Quite simply, the more aphids you have, the more wildlife will come to eat them, and that equals a lot of…

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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024

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