Thursday 28 April 2011

Bug Hotel Colchester

Messy gardens with piles of junk are great for wildlife but we keep clearing them up! As we have been tidying up our garden and replanting the beds we thought we had better keep the wildlife happy too, as we want them to hang around! We want the ladybirds to eat the aphids and the bees to pollinate the plants.

So we built a 'bug hotel' from recycled materials (the junk we cleared up from the garden!). The main structure was a shelving unit we didn't need any more. We added dividers to make the compartments small (it was just two big shelves originally)
Read more about bug hotels and see the wildlife trust bug hotel at ulsterwildlifetrust - BUG HOTEL

The start of the Bug Hotel


We added wire to the back to hold in the snugly bedding


The junk we found in the garden to use in the bug hotel

We made a panel with lots of little holes that an insect just can't resist going through to a snugly bed.
To create a grid to make out holes
Drilling the holes

Stuff the section with straw, paper etc
We painted it black and screwed the panel on


We stuffed cans with moss but actually this wasn't very good as the birds pinched it for their nests, so if you use moss tuck it away where the birds can't get it.
The Bug Hotel, Colchester.