Country diary: A mission to help gardening's invertebrate collateral damage | Phil Gates

Crook, County Durham: Until they began to appear under the bin lid in early autumn, I'd never noticed these colourful arachnidsTomorrow is garden-waste bin collection day, so I'm on a rescue mission. Among those accumulated prunings and dead twigs, too tough to compost, there will be some accidental captives, gardening's inevitable invertebrate collateral damage.When I lift the lid, a seven-spot ladybird and two earwigs, on the rim of the bin and momentarily dazzled by sunlight flooding in, waken and tumble over the side, scuttling into crevices in the path. Garden snails raise their shells, extend stalked eyes, then glide to safety. But the animals I'm particularly keen to liberate are the candy-striped spiders. Until the garden-waste collection service started here and they began to appear under the bin lid in early autumn, I'd never noticed these colourful arachnids, probably because they usually hide, shielding that jewel-like egg cocoon, inside a rolled leaf. Continue reading...