This DIY bug hotel project is great for the garden to attract pollinators. It also offers space for predatory insects that will help with natural insect control.
Have you ever heard of a bug house or an insect hotel? You can buy them as kits already assembled online or find them at nurseries. However, they are pretty easy to make at home. And if you have kids or grandchildren, it's a great activity to get them involved in.
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What is a Bug Hotel?
A bug hotel or house is a place to shelter different kinds of insects from the elements and provides helpful habitats for nesting. This includes beneficial bugs that can lay eggs and hide in the various plant materials of these insect structures.
Why Create a Bug Hotel?
You may have heard about the honey bee crisis. Creating a bug hotel for the backyard is a good way to encourage different types of pollinators, like mason bees and wasps, to set up camp and help your garden thrive. It also encourages insects such as ladybugs and lacewings, which will feed on aphids and other garden pests you don't want in the garden.
How to Make a Bug Hotel
Supplies
- Container for the house - I used a wood crate from Joann's. However, you can use any wooden box or an open wooden birdhouse. Or build a simple box with wood scraps.
- A variety of natural materials - bark, moss, lichen, wood chips, twigs, dried leaves, seed heads, reeds, pinecones, and bamboo.
- Something to help divide up sections, such as cardboard or thin pieces of wood.
- Large pieces of chicken wire or wire mesh can also be used across the front and stapled to the sides to help hold in some of the materials.
It doesn't take long to fill this 18-inch crate with all kinds of insect-loving materials. Some specifically used to make these bug houses are reeds, bamboo, or logs drilled with small holes. The small holes, nooks, and crannies encourage mason bees. Mason bees are solitary bees and do not live in hives but prefer to use hollow stems or holes in wood for their nests. And they are great pollinators.
By providing a welcoming home to many different types of bees and other beneficial insects, you can feel good about helping to create more biodiversity and a good ecosystem in your yard and garden.
How to Make a Bug Hotel
Equipment
- Scissors or pruners
- Hammer and nail or rope
- Stapler for wire mesh
Materials
- Wood box
- Sticks twigs, straw, and small logs
- Pine cones
- Dry leaves
- Bark
- Seed heads
- Cardboard pieces
- Moss
- Lichen
- Plant reeds or bamboo
- mounting bracket or velcro optional
- chicken wire or mesh optional
Instructions
- Gather materials from the garden.
- Include pieces of cardboard or wire mesh.
- Start grouping plant material in sections of the box.
- Cut pieces of cardboard to wedge in between to help hold the materials in place.
- Fill the box until the materials are in so tight that when you turn it upright nothing falls out.
- Or use some wire mesh across the front and staple it to the side to hold everything in.
- Hang on a tree trunk, fence, or shed near your garden several feet from the ground in a sheltered spot.
Bessie A Ashby
This is such a good idea. I am wondering how would I maintain it here in the Portland Oregon area where it rains so much.
Patti Estep
Bessie, you could coat the wood with a waterproof sealer and hang it on under the eves of a shed if you have one.