You might be looking outside at the rain and the cold weather and thinking you’d much rather have your feet up with a cuppa inside… but in fact, now is one of the best times to get outside in the garden!
There are lots of jobs that could be done, you can plant your spring-flowering bulbs, divide herbaceous perennials, clear up fallen leaves and get ready to look after wildlife over the colder months!
It’s a really good idea to attract certain types of wildlife into your garden, hedgehogs for example, will eat all those pesky slugs and snails, while birds will eat crickets, grasshoppers and beetles.
However, some insects help to control the pests, so why not create materials that will attract them?
Over recent years, there has been a decline in the amount of insects in the garden. Bugs like pollinators are less healthy and abundant than they have been in the past and if this continues, this will cause problems in the garden since plants rely on insects to reproduce. And other bugs like ladybirds and lacewings will eat those little aphid pests that damage our hard work outside.
Build a bug hotel
Building a bug hotel is easy, you don’t need to be a DIY expert to create something suitable. You can use plenty of materials you already have lying around in a shed or garage, and there’s no sort of finesse about making an insect hotel, so it’s totally fine to be messy!
You will need:
- Old wooden pallets
- Assortment of twigs, wood chips, paper, leaves, thin cardboard or corrugated cardboard
- Bricks
Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the above, you can still improvise with whatever you can find!
Pick a spot!
Build your insect hotel in the spot you choose so you don’t have to negotiate carrying it!
Create the framework
To start, you’ll need to create a strong framework that’s around 80cm high, you don’t want it to be higher than 1m, as it’ll be hard to build, and move, if you need to.
Old wooden pallets make a great structure for the hotel, so if you can get hold of these, stack them on top of one another. Use bricks to balance the pallets just above the floor and place in between each pallet and you’ll see a framework come together.
If you can’t get hold of any pallets, any sized wooden box works just as well.
Fill it
Fill all the gaps of the pallet with wood, bark, dry leaves, sticks, twigs, straw and cardboard. Try to have different layers of different things based on the list below. For example, the bottom layer could include damp wood, bark and moss while the top is drier and filled with straw.
What will my materials attract?
Sticks/twigs:
Packing your insect hotel with sticks and twigs will attract ladybirds and lacewings.
Wood/bark:
Wood will entice bugs such as stag beetles, woodlice, spiders and centipedes.
Straw/hay:
Straw and hay attracts invertebrates such as ladybirds. They also like pine cones to lay their eggs in over winter.
Leaves:
Leaves will mimic a woodland floor so it attracts insects like butterflies, beetles and spiders.
Holes: General holes throughout the insect hotel will give solitary bees a place to shelter in. They like warmth so a sunny spot will give them what they need. Try placing bamboo, old canes, hollow plant stems in a plastic drainpipe or plastic pot placed between the pallets.
Log piles
An alternative way of attracting insects is to create a log pile in your garden. It’s quite simple, you just stack lots of different sized logs on top of one another and then drive a stake into the ground either side to stop them rolling away.
Check out my previous article about creating a log pile.
There are certain species that absolutely love logs:
- Moss
- Fungi
- Toads
- Earwigs
- Slow-worms
- Wasps
So get outside and build a little (or big!) insect hotel for all the critters that visit your garden! What insects do you cater for in your garden? Leave a comment in the box below!
David Domoney is a Chartered Horticulturalist, Broadcaster, and Author. David has worked with a number of the UK’s leading garden retailers as a plant buyer and strategic consultant. With more than 30 years experience, in horticulture, David is as passionate about plants now as he was when he bought his first plant at a village fete.
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