Jake Shaw-Sutton of small Cornish company Robotriks and his team are perfecting a robotic device designed to locate and pull up poisonous ragwort – a wild plant that’s excellent for insect life but not for livestock – particularly horses! ‘Raggy’, the robot’s temporary name, was undergoing field trials in Dorset in July and I met up with the device and it’s inventor, Jake, to learn more.
Wildlife ponds fared badly – like so many things – in this summer of exceptional heat and drought, and unwelcome pond plants and even more unwelcome, potentially toxic, algae flourished in the heat. Nick Mann of Habitat Aid gives information about these and how to reduce, for instance, excess nutrients in a wildlife pond.
and the persistent heat no doubt made many think of moving to somewhere cooler. Perhaps even a cave? But, as entomologist Dr. Christopher Terrell Nield informs us, there could be other creatures already living there, and we might not like them very much!
Jenny Devitt