Past Buzz Club Projects
On this page you will find summaries of our past projects, including project protocols, findings and anecdotes from project leads.
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This resource is here for you to look back on projects we have previously run, projects that you were involved in, and for you to have access to past protocols encase you want to continue running the projects at home!
Earwi'GO!
Earwigs are omnivorous garden insects with a reputation for damaging soft plants, but their diet also includes aphids and other small invertebrates, meaning they provide 'pest' control.
The Earwi’GO! project aimed to investigate the design and use of DIY earwig shelters in gardens, to support and manage these insects, and improve knowledge of earwigs.
Strawberries Rock!
Damage to strawberries by birds was reported by Buzz Club volunteers, along with questions about an unusual method of safe deterrence: ‘Strawberry Rocks’.
Birds have excellent colour vision and learn quickly, so the idea is that putting red-painted stones in a strawberry patch will mean that visiting birds learn that ‘red things’ found there are not food – and thus leave the subsequent red crop alone.
Polli-Nightors
Nocturnal insects provide pollination to flowers that are / stay open at night, even attracting insects with contrasting pale colours and strong scents that can be perceived in low light. The logistics of studying nocturnal pollination are more complex than for daytime observations, so this area is less well understood. We wanted to explore the possibility of nocturnal insect projects with the Buzz Club, so we tested out several methods under the theme ‘Polli-Nightors’.
Marvellous Miners
Providing habitat for solitary mining bees on wildlife sites often involves ‘scraping’ several square meters of ground, or building banks of soil / sand.
These techniques are not very practical for garden-sized spaces, so we investigated potential methods of making ‘mining bee hotels’, suitable for gardens.​
Slowing Slugs
While most species of slugs and snails are harmless to garden plants, some of them are particularly prolific crops pests. Chemical controls have non-target impacts. Barrier methods (non-chemical controls) are recommended, but many are not well studied.
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Can barriers slow slugs enough for plants to get settled in?​
Snapshot Projects
Buzz Club projects tend to be quite long, with data recording taking place over​
several months at least. Members’ feedback indicated that there was desire for shorter projects, that did not require the same time commitment, but still fitted with the Buzz Club’s focus on garden insects. The finding from these ‘Snapshot’ projects are summarised here:​ Cinnabar snapshot; Ivy bee snapshot; Ladybird snapshot.