I’ve taken some images of a badger and fox who visit our garden in south county Dublin. Here is a picture of them both here at the same time. Jennifer O’Neill, Dublin
Foxes are now more abundant in urban areas than in the countryside. The average urban fox territory can be as low as 20 hectares, whereas it can be up to a 100 hectares in rural areas. They are common visitors to gardens, where they will scavenge on any food they can find, even smelly shoes left outside. Badgers are not as frequently seen but they do visit gardens with lawns. They dig holes to catch earthworms, which can form up to 40 per cent of their diet.
We have had an ongoing issue with these insects in our kitchen since just before Christmas. We would like to know what they are and how we can encourage them to leave our house. They fly around and also seem to have larvae. We have disinfected all cupboards, drawers and surfaces, to no avail. Claire Hearty
This is an Indian meal moth, a species that attacks a wide variety of foodstuffs such as grains, dried fruit and nuts as well as pulses and spices. While native to tropical and subtropical regions, they have been around these parts since 1847. You need to inspect all your dried food stores, throw out any that are contaminated and keep the rest in sealed containers, not just the paper bags they came in.
While doing a clean-out of the garden shed in Ferns recently, I swept up this guy along with some clay that had fallen from under the lawnmower. At first I thought it was a mouse and then, on closer inspection, saw the very long tail and bushy whiskers. Can you enlighten me please? Elaine Foxton
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It is a mouse – not a house mouse but the wee sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie that Robbie Burns found in his ploughed field in 1785: a long-tailed field mouse, Apodemus sylvatica. This native species has a tail that is longer than its body and long whiskers that are vital for finding its way in the dark. They count long grass pasture among their preferred habitat as well as hedgerows and field boundaries, so go handy with the lawnmower. Another reason to subscribe to no-mow-May.
I saw these little blobs on an old tree root in Dromore Wood in south Kerry. I think they may be known as wolf’s milk. Una Thompson
This is a slime mould, probably Lypogala terrestre, which is common throughout Killarney National Park, so no surprise that it would be in Dromore Wood as well. It has been called wolf’s milk in English because they secrete an orange-pink substance, which people long ago thought was the colour of wolf’s milk. Who knew? Slime moulds are classified as different organisms to fungi. They don’t form a mass of hyphae in the wood substrate as fungi do but rather form masses of protoplasm, called plasmodia, which creep about engulfing particles of food.
This bee-eater was around the parish of Bunbeg in Donegal during the first week of May. Derek Brennan (Donegal overseer of IWebs)
This is the European bee-eater. These birds normally nest in southern Europe and north Africa and over-winter in southern Africa. They eat bees and other flying insects such as dragonflies, darting out from a perch to catch them in mid-air. Once they have their catch, they bash the bee or wasp against a branch to remove the sting and venom. This one has caught a large bumblebee. There are one or two sightings here most years.
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