Make an Insect Hotel : an Easy Backyard DIY
5 Materials
$20
3 Hours
Easy
Almost 3 years ago, our family took a hiking trip through Austria. It was a memorable trip for so many reasons and, as is the case with all of our trips, our family brought home many memories and several ‘ideas’.
The day we started our trip, I spied what turned out to be an 'insect house'. I snapped a picture of it intent on building one when we got home.
It took a couple of years, but we finally built our insect house.
Why Build an Insect Hotel:
As organic gardeners, we are firm believers and ‘encouragers’ of beneficial insects. We’ve seen firsthand what parasitic wasps can do to those nasty Tomato Horn Worms and how quickly a few ladybugs can decimate a horde of aphids. We welcome any and all bees to our humble garden and put out the welcome sign in the form of Bee Balm, Zinnia, Lavender and Dill.
To that end, we are always looking for more ways to encourage those friendly bugs to make our home their home and this Insect Hotel is just another way to induce them.
- The nooks and crannies, leaves, tubes and drilled logs provide shelter year-round, but especially in the winter months, for an assortment of beneficial insects.
- Solitary bees will nest and lay their eggs in the bamboo tubes and the holes drilled in the logs. These pollinators are always welcome.
- Ladybugs and Lacewings will hunker down and nest in the leaves, pinecones and straw and devour any unwanted aphids and mites
- Ground beetles and hoverflies will burrow in the bundles of sticks and twigs. Both of these insects love to feast on aphids, hoverflies also do a good deal of pollinating!
And while I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I’m a fan of ‘lawn art’…this insect hotel not only is utilitarian but is a piece of lawn art to me.
It’s a pretty straightforward process, but here’s the drawing we used for our insect hotel:
After building the frame, with the 1 by 6’s, we lined the back with the 1 by 8’s.
We put the ‘shelves’ in and then separated the shelves and various angles, for all the different ‘rooms’.
We put the ‘shelves’ in and then separated the shelves and various angles, for all the different ‘rooms’.
Once it was attached to the fence post and ‘planted’ in the yard, it was just a matter of filling it with various items we had lying about
The final step was attaching the chicken wire to prevent the material from falling out, as well as preventing any marauding birds from snacking on our guests whilst they are sleeping. Once they leave the safety of the hotel, I guess they are fair game.
I plan to start a flower garden surrounding the hotel this spring, with all sorts of beneficial insect attracting flowers…everyone likes a nicely landscaped hotel…hoping that it further increases our occupancy rate. If you are interested in an insect house, but not sure you want to spend the time to build one, you can buy them on (where else), Amazon.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
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2 of 3 comments
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I think this is Great! 😁👍👍 Adding it to my list of projects "to do"
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Love it. I will make one for my yard. Thanks.
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