My wife brought a white rose in from her garden and this spider dropped out. We are intrigued as we’ve never seen a white spider in the garden before. — Michael Flanagan, Rathfarnham, Dublin
This white crab spider has been living in a rose of the same colour. This excellent camouflage allows it to nab any insect treating the flower as a pub and sticking its head in for a free drink of nectar. It can change colour to yellow to match the flower it is in.
We heard this creature before we saw it! It sounded like someone was using a strimmer outside, but it was this fella buzzing around our pepper plants on the windowsill. — Colm Ó Muirí, Co Offaly
This is one of our solitary bees, known as a flower bee. This hairy bee, whose eyes reach right down to its mandibles (jaws), has a faster flight than a bumblebee and so the flight tone has a much higher pitch.
My wife was waking up each morning to a buzzing sound in the bedroom. We have a wicker chest underneath the window and when we turned it upside-down, we found the answer to the puzzle attached to the bottom! — Derek Egan, Co Laois
Your wife was being wakened by the sound of a queen wasp as she arduously constructed the beginnings of a nest under the basket. You can see the perfect paper sphere and the 16 hexagonal cells into which the eggs of the first worker wasp are laid.
This swarming hive arrived and settled on a redcurrant shrub in the garden on our farm. — Susan O’Brien, Co Kildare
The people at swarms.ie will take away swarms like these free of charge (unless they are in an inaccessible place) if you contact them by email.
Found on the patio during a very hot spell of weather last September. Is it a grasshopper or a cricket? - Pat Coen, Co Galway
It is a mottled grasshopper.
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