Author: Hannah Mitchell

By Josie

Rats have a pretty bad reputation, often seen as pests, disease-ridden, and simply unwanted. But maybe this isn’t all the truth…

First of all, rats are extremely intelligent, in fact, they are the sixth most intelligent wild animal in Britain according to Countryfile! They’re smart enough to learn tricks, solve problems, and they’ve even been known to detect landmines and diagnose diseases like tuberculosis!

Rats also play a crucial role in many ecosystems. They help clean up waste, spread seeds, and serve as food for other animals

Of course, there are health concerns, but it’s worth noting that rats are just as dirty as many other animals. They are actually known to be very clean animals as they bathe themselves and each other regularly!

All this aside, it’s not a good idea to let wild rats live in your home – but rat poison is not the solution! Rat poison and other pesticides add toxins into the food chain, so by poisoning the rat you could be poisoning an owl or hawk too! Instead you can use natural deterrents like strong smelling substances which includes peppermint and lavender. If you’re interested in this, make sure to do more research to see what suits your home!

By Matilda

Everyone wants a to eat fruit, and everyone likes honey, right? But not many people think about where it comes from, for example, I’m sure everyone in this country has eaten at least one banana, which is 68 million bananas. Everyday bananas are imported to the UK from Latin America on refrigerated cargo ships that can take up to 12 days to arrive, just so we can eat a banana. It uses electricity to keep all the bananas cold for 12 days which is a lot of electricity, and just the journey there and back uses a lot of diesel and releases greenhouse gases into the environment. Trying to buy your fruit locally and seasonally, or grow your own has a much lower environmental impact and is much kinder to the planet.

Let’s think about honey also, the type you buy in the supermarket often is imported from abroad and carries a large carbon footprint, and even if it is made in the UK, you don’t know how the honey has been produced, or how well the bees have been treated as there are currently no laws mandating humane treatment of bees for honey production in the UK.  So, it is possible that the bees may have been harmed just so we can have a little honey on our pancakes. Try to buy local honey if you can, this is a more sustainable way to get honey and the bees may have been treated better than a big corporation. You can also make your own honey made out of dandelions and sugar- this is a great way to get honey if you are vegan or want to ensure no bees are harmed.

Directions for making Dandelion ‘Honey’: just pick dandelion heads (you need about 200 but be sure to leave some behind for pollinators!), give them a shake to make sure any minibeasts can escape, pick all the petals off an add to a large pan with some lemon slices, 500ml of water and approx. 450g of granulated sugar. Simmer it on the hob on medium heat till the sugar melts and the mixture reduces down to a syrup, once cooled pour the mixture into jars through a fine sieve and let it set in the fridge. It keeps a long time and will last you through winter when the dandelions grow- great for adding to teas to soothe a cough or cold!

by Matilda Ward

Everyone loves Christmas but have you ever thought about the impact on the environment? In this blog there are tips and tricks on how to have a more sustainable Christmas.

1. Try wrapping presents with reusable wrap- a cotton bag sewn out of scrap material or an old silk scarve, or a gift bag or box that you keep and reuse, or why not reuse newspaper to wrap presents. If you buy wrapping paper make sure it is recyclable paper and not plastic coated or metallic. 
2. Think about what you’re eating, try to have less (or even no) meat and dairy for Christmas, this produces less food waste, and less CO2 emissions as the meat and dairy industry is responsible for 15% of all global greenhouse emissions.
3. Shop local for presents and giving handmade gifts is better because you’re not shipping things around the world and it supports independent businesses.
4. Try to buy loose vegetables instead of ones wrapped in plastic.
5. At Christmas time it is nice to have Christmas lights up but this causes light pollution and adds to your energy bills, put them on a timed socket so they turn off with the streetlights and use LED bulbs where possible.

After reading these simple steps its now time to make a more green Christmas at home!

By Jessica

If you’re having a bonfire or lighting fireworks  this year, there are some things that you should consider for the environment:

Fireworks:

• Fireworks are not enjoyed by pets and wildlife
• Many fireworks contain hazardous chemicals. 

How to help:

• Going to a big firework display instead of having your own fireworks can help reduce the amount being set off
• Supporting low bang displays helps reduce the disruption of pets and wildlife
• If you are unable to attend a large event, there are companies which sell more eco friendly fireworks 

Bonfires:

• Check leaf piles and bonfires for hedgehogs before burning or discarding
• Fires contribute to air pollution 

How to help:

• Going to bigger displays also helps to reduce the amount of fires being burnt and therefore air pollution

We can’t wait to join the No Limits Festival at Normanby Hall Country Park on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September 2025.

Our group our young volunteers will be on hand with fun environmental activities for all ages.

There is so much happening at the Festival and is free for everyone to attend. You can read more about No Limits here.

We were honoured to be invited by the staff at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre to create a Bug Hotel in their outside area. As a group we are passionate about pollinators and wildlife, and educating everyone on why it’s important for us to create safe spaces for wildlife (including our bugs!). It’s even more important in urban areas, to ensure that there are safe havens dotted around to increase the biodiversity and positive environmental impact on the area.

See below photos of the final hotel, and some progress photos along the way. We will be going back to finish the hotel with some arty touches and some plants too – so watch this space. We would love to create for bug hotels and environmental spaces across North Lincolnshire, so if we can help you do this – please get in touch!

By Josie

Biodiversity is crucial for the health of our planet and its inhabitants. From the tiniest microbe to the largest tree, each species plays a vital role in the balance of nature.

Biodiverse areas provide important things like clean air and water, and nutritional soil as well as helping to correct the effects of climate change by storing carbon, moderating the weather, and supporting ecosystem strength.

Human activities like deforestation and building infrastructure lead to a decline in biodiversity. This is a big issue for our Earth.

So, the big question is “How can I help?” There are so many answers to this question, however, here are a few options of things that you can do in your everyday life:

• Reducing waste, simply finishing the scraps at the bottom of your bowl or reusing old bits and bobs can reduce the need to buy more and therefore reduce the need to produce more through unsustainable harvesting!
• Using public transport, this lowers the emissions released by driving your car every day.
• Donate to wildlife charities and organisations to help them have all the resources they need to protect what needs protection

By Josie

Bees are some of the most fascinating insects on the planet. These tiny creatures play a very important role in our world.

Bees are responsible for pollinating around 1/3 of the world’s crops. Without bees, many of our favorite foods would disappear! They fly from flower to flower, collecting nectar and pollen which helps the next generation of flowers grow!

Despite these bees being such superheroes, their population is quickly declining! They face issues such as habitat loss, climate change, and disease. All of these things together are making bees more in danger than ever!

If you think you want to help our bees why not consider planting more bee-friendly flowers, these include things like lavender and sunflowers. And PLEASE avoid using pesticides, it hurts most creatures in your garden – not just the bees.

By Jessica

Composting is like turning waste into gold, and it’s very simple to do! It reduces the amount of waste and turns it into nutrient rich soil that you can use around the garden, and by creating less waste, you can help the environment too.

How to get started:

• start by collecting food scraps and organic materials and keeping them in a designated bin or container (outside)- you may already have a compost bin
• it’s also important to add garden materials to your compost such as grass clippings and dead leaves
• it’s beneficial it keep your compost moist so it can decompose
• worms and microorganisms can help speed up composting too- as they help to break everything down!

The benefits:

• composting yourself helps you to save money as you won’t have it buy it from the garden centre.
• you can use it for your plants as it is fertile soil that will promote strong and healthy growth.
• it supports biodiversity too- composting helps to create healthy ecosystems by supporting the growth of microorganisms and insects!
• it also conserves water as it helps the soil to retain to more which will reduce the amount of frequent watering

Keelby Brownies invited one of our fantastic volunteers, Matilda, down to do a pollinator workshop and share lots of knowledge about how we can help the bees and other pollinators.

Matilda was invited to go to their old Brownies unit in Keelby to do a talk on pollinators and what they do and how we can help them, the brownies then made a seed bomb, butterfly feeder, bug house, and planted some herbs. It was very well received and Matilda was presented with a thank you badge.