Without having researched this garden interloper, I can say that I have not really seen problems due to their presence. I have a lot of containerized plantings and I rarely see them in them there. (Maybe helped out by all the birds I have attracted to feeders.) I would say though, that I feel that their overabundance is probably a sign of excessive moisture (to the point of being detrimental to a lot of plants), and also possibly a sign of decaying wood (turn over any log and you'll find them). Increasing ventilation and increasing UV sunlight by doing judicious pruning of existing shrubs might be useful. Also maybe by not mulching too close to plant stems/trunks?) Like a lot of things in the natural world there seem to be cycles of population explosions and declines. Several years ago, we had an explosion of lightening bugs (fireflies) in my yard. It was like a show from Disney..., this year, not so much.

I'm on two acres in semi-rural central Massachusetts, bordering conservation land (wetlands). This is the first time I've thought about itemizing what I've seen in my four years, here. It's a long list, and I'm sure it's just a fraction! We have a pond, and keep half the property meadow. (Maybe, by some standards, the whole thing is a meadow....) I've been putting up birdhouses, lately. We see (in rough order of how interesting...) great blue herons, red tail hawks, egrets, a large flock of cedar waxwings, redwing blackbirds, barn sparrows (how do they know it's a barn?), downy/hairy/piliated/red-breasted woodpeckers, orioles, juncos, nuthatches, and the usual finches, bluejays, cardinals, yadda yadda yadda. A wood duck down the road, and I wish he'd visit. Spring peepers (I can't wait for them to come back!), leopard frogs, other various frogs and toads, garter/ribbon/maybe milk snakes, 4-toed salamanders. Turtles nearby, but not at my pond. In the pond, various snails, leeches, more frogs, infinite insects (especially mosquitoes). In the orchard, every pest an apple tree has ever known. Mice, groundhogs, rabbits, grey squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks. Coyotes, foxes, deer. Neighbors have seen a bear and reportedly minks, but not me. Beavers have us surrounded, but they are not my own yard. Some lovely spiders, and some plain ones too. Lots of paper wasps and various bees. More mosquitoes. In fact, mostly, we have mosquitoes. And worms. --Jonathan

Antichinus are carnivores and quite helpful in the garden. The males will start to die off now as only the pregnant females make it through winter... These can be quite a problem if they come into houses because they make nests for their youngs in secure places such as wardrobes, clothes drawers etc, etc shredding items in the process or using these places as toilets... Rose-Marie

dbarron, Maybe you're running out of space for more plants? Or perhaps you grow so many different things that it is just harder to find anything else that is unique enough to interest you? Honestly, I feel like Select Seeds is changing over the last decade and has less and less unique offerings every year, while adding more of the same-old-same-old stuff that everyone else carries, like some of the newer zinnia seeds you can get anywhere. It dismays be to see this because they've been my go-to for the more rare seeds and plants for such a long time. I've noticed that I don't order as much from them as I once did and in my case it is because they offer less unique seeds that will grow in our climate than they once did. I see it with other 'niche' seed companies too---a growing reliance on modern-day hybrids where they once carried many more heirloom open-pollinated seeds. I suppose they all are trying to compete and increase market share, but I liked it more when the unusual seed companies truly offered unusual seeds. Have you ever killed a few hours looking at the seeds offered by J. L. Hudson? I have to admit that even their seed offerings seem to be veering a bit more mainstream too, but they still have lots of seeds that are more unique and harder to find. Nancy, Often, I don't see pollinators as much within the fenced garden at certain times of the year, but they are abundant in the wildflower meadows, which contain both natives and non-natives. Once the summer drought sets in and the wildflower meadows pretty much dry up and go to seed, the plants in the garden, native and non-native alike, become immensely popular again. I suppose if I stopped irrigating the fenced garden, the flowers in there would dry up and wither and the pollinators would have to go elsewhere to look for food, so I always try to at least keep the herbs and flowers going in the fenced garden, even if I stop watering the veggies in drought and let them go. Nothing attracts more bees and other pollinators nearly so much as any/every herb when in bloom, so I mostly grow the herbs for the butterflies, bees and pollinators and let them all bloom and go to seed. At times the fenced garden is simply overrun with herbs in bloom taking over everything else, but I let them all stay because the little wild things need them. The comfrey, though it is immensely popular with the bumblebees, is pushing its luck by invading pathways and other beds. I'll never get rid of it, but am seriously considering digging up all of it and moving it outside the fenced garden. Maybe it could shade out the Bermuda and Johnson grass outside the fenceline since it spreads so thickly. Comfrey has been invading the asparagus bed for three or four years now and I've been letting them slug it out. I think the comfrey is winning in that corner of the asparagus bed. When we first moved here, I spent 2 or 3 years walking around our almost 15 acres with guide books and a notebook in hand, trying first just to ID all the existing plants, and then after that was done, removing some non-native, highly invasive stuff while trying to leave the natives or the well-adapted but non-invasive plants alone. It took me years to ID it all. It was a very instructive exercise because I was able to see what thrived under different conditions and in different soils, and it gave me a great understanding of what we had here that would feed everything....not just pollinators, butterflies and birds, but also all the animals, whether mammals, reptiles, amphibians or marsupials. (I didn't even know possums were marsupials before we moved here!) In my quest to figure out all the plants, I learned a lot about our wildlife as I worked my way along--for example, when we moved here, I didn't know we had ring-tailed cats here, or beavers either, though we do have both (the beavers come and go---last spring they were here, but I don't think we've seen them this winter). Poor Tim suffered through it all, with me telling him he could not mow this or that or prune this or that because it was useful to some living creature for food or shelter. His lawn mowing dreams suffered terribly because I didn't want him taking out anything that was useful to something living. Of course, we have to mow the grass around the house to keep snakes away...or at least visible....but the abandoned pastures, which I should more correctly call meadows now since no animals are pastured on them and have not been since 1998, don't get mowed much at all any more...once or twice a year, with the timing orchestrated to allow plants to self-seed before we mow. Maintaining your property for the benefit of wildlife is a wonderful thing to do, but it is hard on a man who likes everything mowed all neat and tidy. Jennifer, I do not follow Drinking With Chickens but her account of taking down the tree sounds hilarious. You're so busy! We've been the opposite this weekend---just hanging out with Lillie, enjoying her company, chilling and taking it easy. Of course, that did involve watching football, so we suffered through the LSU-OU game, and rooted for Clemson to beat Ohio State. At least we were happy with the outcome of one game, and Lillie learned a lot about football. She goes back home today so she can spend quality time with Chris and her mom. There's nothing wrong with thinking about your garden and planning it in your head. I think it is natural for our minds to turn to gardening after the holidays since the planting season does start so early here in Oklahoma. Here we are---the last few days of 2019 are winding down and we're looking ahead to 2020, and I think that is exactly how it ought to be, and of course our gardens are a huge part of that. Dawn