We’ve had some fantastic hand-made bug hotels donated by pupils at Aston Fields Middle School, Bromsgrove, thankyou so much! We’ve scattered them around our flower gardens and polytunnels where they’ll provide safe shelters for bees and hopefully attract some ladybirds and lacewings to help reduce the aphids that are eating our plants!
Bug hotels provide great hidey holes for all sorts of insects and mini-beasts, giving warm and dry spaces to shelter, hide from predators and raise their young. They can be made from all kinds of different materials to fit in any space, making them great additions to support the little creatures in our gardens and outside areas. Bees especially will seek small holes and tubes to lay their eggs in during the spring and summer months.
Build Your Own Bug Hotel
If you’d like to make your own bug hotel, all you need is some wooden boxes, pallets or bricks to create a frame and a roof to keep things fairly dry.
Divide the space inside your frame into sections and stuff each part with different materials such as dried leaves and grass, pine cones, hollow stems, bamboo canes and bark.
You can build your bug hotel at any time of year, although autumn is the time when you’ll find a lot more natural materials available to use, and when many creatures will be looking for cosy spaces to spend the winter.
