Grumpy

If you check out the attached link http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/490/contents/made you should be able to find out the regs pertaining to both protected species and protected habitat. Having said that remember that the UK's  interpretation of the European Legislation may well differ from the French interpretation! Hope you have plenty of time for reading. Grumpy

Lets get this in perspective.  The reason wildflowers are scarce in the UK is down to habitat loss.  Our grandperents generation could pick as many as they likes without threatening the overall population.  Agriculture, horticulture, roads, urbanisation and over maintenance of verges does far more damage than picking. Here in Lower Normandy the verges aren't mown untill the primroses and early purplr orchids have seeded and we have oodles of plants every year. If plants are lifted and planted in a garden the seed still has the opportunity to set adnd be distributed!  Even picking the flowers doesn't prevent the plant from growing and you only need to let a couple of flowers mature to increase the population! Occasionally you will find verges with a sign "deffence de cueiller" Grumpy

The national rate for a peysagiste will be around €30/hr with his/her own equipment.  The actual time will depend on the machinery used (ride on or walk behind mower) the size of the lawn and its flatness,  the number of beds and shrubs and what you want done with the clippings. As a rough guide look at how long it takes you normally; if you are using a walk behind mower his time will be roughly the same.  If he/she uses a good ride on the time would be about half your time. Bigger companies usualy have bigger overheads and may well charge TVA whereas someone registered as a micro enterprise will not add TVA. Grumpy

You should be (bee) able to order pre-wired foundation on line from E H Thorne (www.thorne.co.uk) Grumpy

Now I am confused.  We can buy used railway sleepers (traversée du chemin de fer) in all our local Agria/Point Vert shops in Lower Normandy! Grumpy

Please, if it as all possible don't kill off the nest. Lets get back to basics. Firstly check Google immages to check that they are actually hornets and not the European Wasp that is starting to take over from the smaller domestic wasp. Smoking the chimney will agrivate the animals and probably result in an attack! Hornets are very docile, in spite of being large and noisy, unless they are provoked and believe you me they are hard to provoke!  Their sting is milder than a wasp or a bee (yes I have been stung by all three) and they are reluctant to attack. The season for all these insects is coming to an end; as soon as the weather turns colder the "worker" hornets and wasps will die off leaving only the queen to over winter. Hornets are great controllers of garden insect pests and can take tree sap and eat fruit.  They are attracted to light sources after dark but are so fascinated by the light that they are extremely reluctant to attack. Grumpy

Just done some research into this. Whilst male adders tend to be of a greyish colour, females can take on a more pronounced brown.  Close up pictures of adder heads do show that there can be a "streak" of colour behind the eye.  I guess that this means that it is possible to at least find a reddish brown colouration where you describe and I would speculate that if this was a young individual the colour might be brighter again. Grumpy

Nectarine, any chance of putting a picture up here? Grumpy

Nice one Patf.  I used to run a tree ident. course at Flatford Mill.  One year we came accross a tree in early winter and I spent some time explaning looking at the bark and buds and finding leaves nearby.  Eventually I decided that it was some kind of apple tree at which point the students started roaring with laughter and pointing.  I looked up and saw.........................................an apple hanging on the tree!  So I was right but the moral was look for the obvious first!! Grumpy

Re. hibernation vie-en-rose.  Bats need an even temperature at a point cold enough to make them fully torpid while there is no food around so a stairwell would not suffice.  A classic "hibernaculum" would be underground with a door that allowed rain water in (and out) but no wind and no larger mammals.  Rules encompasing the inspection of hibernacula are very stringent to prevent the body heat of the inspector or the heat from a non LED type torch from raising the ambient temperature and breaking hibernation which would lead to the bats starving to death because they'd used up their reserves of fat and had no food to relplace them. Grumpy

Ignore the instructions, just use it neat but wear gloves when you do it.????? Most brushwood killers contain some 2,4,D or 2-4-5T both of which are not to be messed with so DON'T ignore the instructions please! And please don't put irresponsible postings on the forum Re. Roundup aplications.  Most modern herbicides act by the agent being absorbed through the minute breathing holes in the leaf surface.  The droplets in the spray will be absorbed quickly as there is little or no surface tension. At the correct dilution rate this is much better than plunging a few leaves in water where the syrface tension will hold back absorbtion. Grumpy

If you add fuel and repairs to Loiseau's cost you come to a similar minimum of arround €21. Many registered jardiniers and peysagistes travel some disstance to work and have repair, maintenance, replacement and fuel costs before making any money for themselves.  Add to this social charges, tax and insurance and €30 per hour worked is not unreasonable. Grumpy

Perhaps that should be "wooly aphida". (What a wally1) Grumpy

Killing bats is ILLEGAL and and moving them by smoke is ILLEGAL. Please don't do it or put the idea into peoples minds! Grumpy

Hi vie-en rose.  With the hole already inhabited it is unlikely that any other bats will arrive as that would be a separate colony and hence incompatible.  I think you will have to wait till the bats go off to hibernate for winter but you only need to leave a gap of approx 2mm as these bats are most likely pipistrelles.  All bats are protected under European Species Conservation legislation so you can't interfer with the roost. Refering to an earlier posting on volets versus bat boxes. the latter gives far superior protection to the colony from predators like woodpeckers and they are extremely easy to build for any handyman (easier than hanging a volet) so I'd go for the box anytime. Grumpy