Ivy can get quite bad press as it is believed it can damage walls and fences and strangles trees. If your structure is solid with no cracks it is just using it as a support. Ivy has its own roots and feeds off its own nutrients so does not do any harm to trees. Using the tree for support allows it to reach the sunlight and trees that have ivy attached to them have huge wildlife benefits. During the autumn and winter, the berries, pollen and nectar are a valuable source of food to birds and insects when food is scarce and provides shelter for them along with bats. The insects including butterfly and moth larvae will gorge on the highly nutritional berries before going into hibernation.
So before stripping ivy off a wall or a tree. Please take on board how valuable it is to wildlife this time of year and does it really need to go?
