Wildflowers are an essential habitat providing an important food source for many insect and pollinator species. Species such as butterflies and moths play an important part in hedgehog’s diets as caterpillars make up a large part of their diet. Other insect species, like beetles upon which hedgehogs also feed, rely on habitats such as wildflower patches to both feed upon and live. If you are ever lucky enough to find hedgehog droppings in your garden, you may notice that they are slightly shiny and you may well see the remains of beetle wings which gives the droppings their sheen!

Identifying droppings in your garden or in green spaces is a lot of fun. Why not check out our guide on how to identify whose poo is who!

How to Identify poo 

It isn’t always possible for everyone to have big wildflower meadows however, you can create wildflower patches both small and big scale to suit the size of your garden or space. Whether it be pots in porches, tubs on window sills or totally replacing your lawn with wildflowers there are lots of different options. Check out our guides for help on how to achieve this.

How to grow a wild patch 

Another way that you can provide habitats for insect species is by leaving patches of your lawn to grow long and to refrain from mowing it. Whether you leave a strip, a corner or a circle in the middle of the lawn, so many different species will benefit from long grass with many species using long grass to overwinter in. Reducing the amount of times you mow your lawn will encourage a wider range of wildflower species which of course then support insects, and again support other wildlife, such as hedgehogs.

Why not survey your garden and see if you can find any caterpillar species in your garden? Searching at night is a great time to see them as many are nocturnal. We spotted these caterpillars at night last week! You never know, if your garden has access for hedgehogs, you may well also spot a hedgehog at the same time!

How to identify caterpillars