BERNAMA/DPA – Bug hotels are an excellent way to invite beneficial insects into your garden.
These structures, also known as insect hotels or houses, are filled with various natural materials like dead wood, stones and straw, offering shelter and nesting spaces for a wide range of insects.
Laura Breitkreuz, an insect expert from the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu), appreciates the growing trend of people setting up bug hotels at home, especially in light of a 2017 study predicting a sharp decline in insect populations.
However, she advises caution when purchasing, as poorly constructed bug hotels may not provide the intended benefits.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Regardless of the material used, it’s important that any holes providing nesting sites for solitary bees are smooth, said Breitkreuz.
When an insect hotel is filled with hollow stems, such as old bamboo canes for example, make sure to check that they have been filed down well.
While the bees will still nest inside fibrous canes, freshly hatched bees might injure their wings on them.
As a result, they can no longer fly and eventually die miserably, said Holzel.
A good shelter for bees and wasps has round, sanded holes at least five centimetres (cm) deep.
According to Breitkreuz, only very few bees will nest inside a cavity that is only 2cm deep.
BUILDING YOUR OWN
If you want to make your own bug hotel, you can start by drilling several holes around 5cm deep or more into a block of dead, untreated wood and sand the openings well.
The best location for your insect hotel is “a windless, dry and sunny spot”, said Breitkreuz.
You can also protect the nesting aid from predators such as woodpeckers by placing a mesh around it.
Pine cones, wool or wood shavings are not suitable materials for a bug hotel. Instead you can use wood, clay and bamboo or reed, said Breitkreuz.
If the structure is well made and the insect hotel stays in the same place for a long time, it will attract different insect species. If it starts to mould, however, the hotel should be replaced.
“The reason we put up insect hotels is that there are no longer enough nesting structures like dead wood or mud walls in the natural landscape,” said Breitkreuz.
Until that is the case again, “interim solutions like insect hotels are really quite a good alternative”.
However the expert also said that “an insect hotel alone won’t save the animals, but it is at least a small contribution that everyone can make”.
