Andrew McCartney
Make your garden more bug friendly
Insects of all kinds play an important role in the health of your garden. From bees and lady bugs to woodlice and spiders, insects help to pollinate lants, control pests and encourage birdlife to visit your garden.
Providing a safe place to shelter, hide from predators and raise their young, bug hotels are a great way of encouraging more insects to live in your backyard. They are also cheap, easy, and most importantly, fun to build. Here’s
Step 1: – Choose a shell
The first thing you need is something to form the outside of your bug hotel. A wooden crate or old drawer works well for this, but almost anything will do. In this example, we are using a cardboard box
Step 2: – Create some rooms
Your bug hotel will work best if you provide a variety of spaces for your insect guests. Use cardboard or strips of wood to divide the inside of your hotel into several smaller spaces.
Step 3: – Furnish your hotel
Insects like to live in small gaps and spaces. Pack the rooms of your hotel with a range of materials to create appealing spaces for them. Natural materials like bundles of sticks, pinecones, dry grass, and plant offcuts are great, but rolled up bits of cardboard and toilet rolls work just as well.
There are no rules as to what you can use, so get creative. You can even set your self a challenge, like “only using recycled materials” if you like.
Step 4: – Location, Location, Location!
Now that you’ve built your hotel, you need to find a good place to put it. Many insects prefer to live in cooler, moister areas so try to locate your bug hotel in a shady spot on the ground, that doesn’t get too much direct sunlight.
Now your hotel is finished, be sure to check on it regularly to see who has moved in.
Happy gardening!
