Mini-beast Life in a Rotten Log

Rotten logs make perfect habitats for many different types of mini-beasts.

If you have a wood pile, rotting logs or sticks in your garden, look closely and you might find:

• Recyclers such as:
  • Termites
  • 
  • Slaters & Millipedes
  • Native Cockroaches
  • Earwigs
    
• Predators such as:
  • Bark Mantis
  • Spiders
  • Scorpions
  • Pseudoscorpions
• Colonial mini-beasts & their brood such as:
  • Ants
  • Bees
    
  • Wasps
     
• And Others such as Beetle larvae (Borers, Longicorn, Weevils etc) and wood moths, caterpillars & cocoons.

The rotten log makes a good home for so many animals because it provides them with lots of small hiding places in which they can shelter against predators and weather extremes such as hot weather, droughts, rain, storms, snow and hail.

Of course, all of these mini-beasts are food for many other larger animals such as owls, Tawny frogmouths, kookaburras, magpies, lizards, frogs, echidnas, bandicoots, possums, bats and more. We call this a ‘food web’ which is made up of ‘food chains’ involving all of these animals, as well as plants, fungi and more.