How to have a ceramic hoverfly lagoon without drilling holes.
Me and a client came up with a brilliant idea for ceramic hoverfly lagoons
Buzzclub, a citizen science wildlife gardening club based at Sussex University, do some lovely work with wildlife gardening.
One of their projects is hoverfly lagoons. These are usually old plastic milk bottles filled with grass cuttings and water, with drainage holes pierced along the top. The idea of the holes is that, if it rains, the rising water doesn’t wash away the hoverfly eggs, as excess water can drain out.
However, plastic milk bottles are, obviously, plastic. And plastic is bad. But how to replace them with a cheap alternative?
A circle of stainless steel fine wire mesh, inserted into a superlarge ceramic or toughened glass mug. No drilling required. Mugs available from charity shops, mesh from hardware shops (or Amazon if you must).
Fine steel mesh, photo by tammcd on Pixabay
Alas, there is no prize money for such a fabulous idea. But if there was, I am sure we would win. As it is, non-plastic habitat for hoverflies is prize enough.
Other ideas that were discussed were secondhand wooden dolls houses to repurpose as habitat.
And my favourite (along the lines of John Little’s badly pruned trees) is a badly pruned/pollarded willow or dogwood, as a perch for birds for the feeding station.
Croeso.