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Do hibernating insects use ivy walls?

pinkskyinthecitypinkskyinthecity Posts: 109
in Wildlife gardening
I don't have much space for specific bug boxes etc. I have already stored my canes and spent hollow stems in the rain shadow of my house wall and I'm wondering if I stuff some canes behind the ivy that's cladding my wall, will that be useful for the insects? 

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I don't think the canes will be necessary.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    An ivy covered wall is a wonderful winter home for insects and small birds. As has been said ... no canes are necessary. 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • pinkskyinthecitypinkskyinthecity Posts: 109
    Thanks for your assurances, folks. 
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    I'm trying to work out where the local bats overwinter.  And I read that they like crevices in old trees etc.  There's a huge sycamore in the neighbour's garden.  And though supposedly sycamores themselves don't support much wildlife, it's covered in ivy, and it's like a city within a city in there!  I had an old chicken coup, that was covered totally in ivy, and that had birds nesting in it.  Given room I think I'd build deliberate ivy structures.  I regret clearing old dead trees covered in ivy now, as they would have been an ideal place for wildlife.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    It's funny how wildlife finds a home.  I put up a few bird boxes this year, hoping to get them populated, and they were all found and used, relatively quickly.  A friend living in a flat on the 3rd floor with a small balcony put up a mason bee home, and she watched it being used.  Amazing really.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    We have a colony of bats, several species, living in a chalk mine across the way. We watch them coming out in the evenings and trigger various houses security lights as they pass on their way to the marshes over the rise  🦇 🦇 🦇 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    edited November 2020
    The bats bring me much delight.  They fly the same loops and routes each night, each year, and I can only assume they are different generations.  I watched about 20 emerge from a small roost.  They just kept coming!  I read that the males and females (pipestrelles) don't live together in the summer.  But they do overwinter together.  So their winter hideout is a mystery to me.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I expected there to be loads of bats here but have only ever seen one at a time.  Our plot is large and has a mix of trees, hedging plants and ivy along its boundaries as well as the old ruined farmhouse and 2 open barns for birds and bats to nest safely.  It has had no chemical treatments on it apart from weedkiller on gravelled areas, we have left areas of nettles and wild mint grow to provide habitat, left fruit on trees for birds and insects and left a large area to grow wildflowers to attract insects. 

    Lots of small brown jobs, assorted tits and more swallows, swifts and house-martins than usual this year but no bats.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    When we bought this we were told that there was a bat winter roost in the barn in some old stacked firewood. unfortunately when we moved in (in March) the firewood had been removed, we've made a new stack and are hopeful the bats will return. We don't even have a fire!
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