How to protect pollinators and wildlife attracted to our gardens 

It's wonderful to see so much biodiversity, but we need to guard against unwelcome guests, says Peter Dowdall

Thrushes will love the snails in your garden. They are a much nicer addition than slug pellets and it's important that our gardens offer safe refuge and food for birds and other beneficial wildlife. Picture: iStock

The garden is full of life right now and it’s not just the plant life. Bees, butterflies, spiders, woodlice, wasps and other common and not so common insects abound hopefully, along with other welcome wildlife such as birds, hedgehogs, frogs, perhaps badgers, squirrels and others.

Unwelcome guests are also around unfortunately, such as greenfly, blackfly, lily beetles, slugs, snails and vine weevils. These are some of the ones that we don’t want but at the same time we must tread very carefully as to how we control them.