An easy way to get yourself and children involved in nature is with a bug hotel. Bug hotels are a natural, and at the same time creative way, to support the habitat of small critters. By placing or making an insect hotel yourself, you can easily enrich your garden or balcony.
Why and when to place a bug hotel
Bug hotels are attractive to various animals. They can therefore use the bug hotel all year round. The animals which are attracted to the bug hotel are mainly ladybirds, bees, spiders and even woodlice. In an insect hotel, they can take shelter from different weather conditions, lay eggs, raise young and hide from predators.
The best period for placing a bug hotel is autumn. This is because many animals start looking for a safe place to spend the winter and hibernate. If you are going to make an insect hotel yourself, autumn is also the easiest time to collect natural objects.
Examples of bug hotels
You can choose to buy ready-made bug hotels, but there is nothing more fun than making one yourself. Some of our favourites are listed below.
Building your own bug hotel
Supplies
The best bug hotels only consist of environmentally friendly and recycled (natural) materials. Useful materials to use for your own insect hotel:
- Wooden pallets
- Logs and wood bark
- Leaves, branches and pine cones
- Straw and hay
- Bamboo canes
- Solid material to cover the top or the bug hotel with, such as turf, roof tiles
- Terracotta flower pots
1. The base of the bug hotel
Use wooden pallets, logs and bark as a base. Create compartments and layers so that different insects and animals can use their own compartment and layer.
2. Fill the compartments and layers
Once the base has been formed, you can fill the compartments and layers with the other natural materials. There are no rules for filling the different compartments. In any case, make sure that all the compartments are provided with materials. This is how you keep larger animals and predators at a distance.
It doesn’t take more than two steps to make a bug hotel. You can let your creativity run wild! Fun and insects guaranteed.
