GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Time to check your stock of insect repellant and check the leg-sock gap when you’re out hiking, for the spring of 2014 promises to be a battleground for bugs. Bugs after your garden plants, bugs after you: most of them are enjoying a relatively warm spring after a mild winter that killed off fewer than usual, according to the Swiss Federal Agriculture Office.

The good news is that their enemies, insects that go after other insects, are also having a good year. There will simply be more soldiers slugging it out on the battlefields of nature this spring.

And for those of you in warm, damp areas, there is also a bit of good news – conditions are not right for mosquitos to thrive.

Head for the fields and woods, but remember that ticks will be out there in larger numbers. If you’re a gardener, keep an eye on those aphids – and remember that ladybugs (ladybirds) are your friend in this particular fight, so stock up on them from organic suppliers.