Making a Bug Hotel
All kinds of mini-beasts can benefit from these varied shelters made from recycled materialsWhy do bugs need hotels?In natural habitats there are endless nooks and crannies where mini -beasts can shelter. Crevices in bark, holes in dead wood, piles of fallen leaves, gaps between rocks, hollow plant stems - all these can provide a home for the small creatures that need somewhere to nest or escape from predators or bad weather.
Established gardens can also provide lots of hiding places, but gardeners often like to tidy away the debris where mini-beasts may live.
We can provide more homes by creating bug hotels, which are often interesting creations in their own right.
What makes a good bug hotel?The best bug hotels have lots of small spaces in different shapes and sizes and made from different materials. Ideally some areas should be nice and dry inside, and others a bit dampish. Bug hotels are generally made from reclaimed materials, or natural objects, which reduces cost, helps them blend in with their surroundings and is probably more attractive to the mini-beast guests.
How do you make a bug hotel?A simple bug hotel can be made from a collection of hollow stems packed into a plastic bottle with the end cut off. Several hotels could be placed in different positions such as on the ground amongst vegetation, fixed on top of a post, next to a wall, half way up a hedge, in a tree, under a bird table. These are likely to attract different mini-beasts to live in them.
What might check in to your bug hotel?A surprisingly wide variety of invertebrates including nesting mason bees and leaf cutter bees, woodlice, earwigs, ladybirds, lacewings, beetle larvae feeding on the dead wood, funnel web spiders and centipedes.
