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Creating a Bug Hotel

PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
in Wildlife gardening
Hi all. I hope this thread finds you all well.

After seeing a Bug Hotel on a gardening programme a while ago, I have been thinking about creating one.

This afternoon I decided to make a start and picked a spot behind my garage which is out of the way. It is currently a work in progress. It is going to be against a wall, I have stacked up a few logs and twigs and I found a bit of old fencing to lean against it to keep it sheltered.

I was just wondering what other materials you have found to be successful when added to the hotel and any advice/recommendations you may have.

Thank you 😁
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Posts

  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    A sheltered dry bit of hard packed sandy clay.  I have tons of burrowing bees and wasps in my dry hard packed sandy areas.  Maybe make a small mound and make a bit of a bark roof for it a foot above the surface?  Then mud daubers and such can use the underside of the roof for a nest, etc.  
    Utah, USA.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    My OH is building one at the moment, and it includes fir cones, bits of terracotta flower pots and one of those bricks with holes in.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    In my last garden I made a multi storey one from 5 or 6 pallets.   I stuffed the entire thing with straw so it was good for small beasties to burrow into and nest and then "faced" it on the visible sides with bunches of hollow canes, bricks with holes, loose tiles, pine cones....   I found that the blackbirds and starlings would come and gleefully pull out and scatter the pine cones so ended up with more hollow stems. 

    I put a wooden board all round the top layer to make a rim, placed weed matting on the top pallet and filled it with compost then planted house leeks and small, mat forming sedums to provide nectar for insects as well as reduce rain dripping down below.  I mulched it with shells which also held the rain and provided drinks for insects.

    Don't need to do one here. We have all sorts of holey walls, wood piles, nettle patches and wild bits plus a pond for them to hide in and nest.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    There's lots of very useful info here
    https://www.foxleas.com/make-a-bee-hotel.asp

    I've recently made a small 'house' for the buff tailed bees which had adopted the hog house this summer. They're ground nesters, but clearly liked the handy accommodation available.
    The little bit of banking under the conifer and pine tree was being used by the overwintering queens last year, and was right next to the hoghouse, so they'd found an easy option for their colony. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    This guy has turned his whole garden into a bug hotel and nectar garden, it's wonderful. As well as drilled wood, wood piles and specially made bug boxes, he's introduced mounds of sand and grit which will be great for ground nesting bees as well as wildflowers and lovers of poor dry soil.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esayaHNOZCk
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
    Thank you all for your help. Some good ideas here to consider for my Bug Hotel. 
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Loxley said:
    This guy has turned his whole garden into a bug hotel and nectar garden, it's wonderful. As well as drilled wood, wood piles and specially made bug boxes, he's introduced mounds of sand and grit which will be great for ground nesting bees as well as wildflowers and lovers of poor dry soil.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esayaHNOZCk
    As much as I love that I can just see it being a magnet for every cat in the neighbourhood. :|

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • PyraPyra Posts: 152
    Sorry for piggybacking on your thread. But does anyone know how you'd stop cats using the sand as a toilet? 
    What that guys done is amazing! 
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited July 2020
    Water scarecrow is the only sure fire way or else lots of small sticks poked vertically in the sand so they can't perch to poo or pee.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
    Oh yes. I never thought about the cat toilet situation 🙄
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