This page is a garden in summer. Move your pointer and your bug will walk, buzz or crawl after you, and land on a flower if you rest beside one. Choose a different bug at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
Macclesfield right now checking the sky…
A seven-spot keeps its seven spots for life. The number tells you the kind of ladybird, not how old it is.
One ladybird can get through around five thousand aphids in its lifetime.
If something grabs it, yellow fluid oozes from its knees. It smells and tastes vile.
Birds learn that the bright red coat goes with a nasty taste, and leave ladybirds alone.
A young ladybird is a bristly grey-blue grub with orange patches, a bit like a tiny crocodile.
The flying wings are far longer than the body, and fold up neatly under the red cases in a split second.
Meet them all
Coccinella septempunctata
A small, round, red beetle with seven black spots: three on each wing case and one shared across the middle.
Bombus terrestris
A big, furry bee with two dull-yellow bands. The queen's tail is buff and the workers' tails are nearly white.
Bombus lapidarius
A velvety black bumblebee with a bright orange-red tail. Males also have a yellow collar and face.
Apis mellifera
A slim, amber-and-brown striped bee, much less furry than a bumblebee, that lives in colonies of thousands.
Episyrphus balteatus
A small orange fly with black bands, some thick and some thin. It looks a little like a wasp but is completely harmless.
Lasius niger
Small, dark brown-black ants that march in lines between their nest and anything sweet.
Cornu aspersum
A snail with a round brown shell, marked with darker bands and paler flecks, and four tentacles.
Araneus diadematus
A plump brown or orange spider with a cross of white spots on its back, sitting head-down in the middle of a round web.
Through the year
The green months are when you are most likely to see each one in Britain. The bug following you is shown in red.
Lend a hand
Grow something that flowers in every month from early spring to late autumn, so there is always nectar.
Let one patch of lawn grow. Clover, daisies and dandelions come up on their own, and bees love all three.
Bug sprays kill the helpful insects along with the pests. Ladybirds will deal with greenfly for nothing.
Hollow stems and dead leaves are where insects spend the winter. Leave the cutting back until spring.
Put pebbles in a saucer of water so that bees can drink without falling in.
A bundle of hollow canes in a sunny spot gives solitary bees somewhere to nest.
British bugs: 4 more places
Real photos of the bugs on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews. Open a photo to see who took it.
An ordinary garden can hold more than two thousand kinds of insect. You do not need to go anywhere to start: get down low, keep still, and look.
Back to the topPond and stream bugs live on their own page: choosing one takes you there.
Bugs from other parts of the world live on their own pages: choose another.