How to build an insect hotel
To make a homemade insect hotel, old pallets are a perfect choice. Ideally, have several old pallets, and find a shady, damp spot of your garden. Create an even flat base in the earth, and start building the hotel one storey (pallet!) at a time. Each pallet should be filled with the as many logs, twigs and old bit of wood as you can find; these make a great haven for wood-boring beetles and their larvae. Rotting wood is also enjoyed by beetles, spiders, woodlice and centipedes. The likes of woodlice and millipedes will break down woody plant material. All these creepy crawlies are an important part of your garden ecosystem, helping to recycling living material and start a new cycle of life.
As you layer the pallets, try to include hollow stems, bamboo canes, and even holes drilled into blocks of wood for solitary bees to lay their eggs - these parts of the insect hotel should be positioned on the sunniest side. Broken flower pots, old bricks, stones and tiles are another important addition - they provide cool, moist conditions for amphibians like frogs and newts, and should be positioned lower down, on the shady side of the bug hotel. Hay and straw provide opportunities for burrowing, and for hibernating insects. Dry leaves are a favourite of ladybirds looking for somewhere to hibernate over winter, and even rolled-up old cardboard can be included rto attract lacewing.
Once you have completed the final layer of your insect hotel, yocan add sods of turf to the top. These may not survive as a grassy roof, but they will break down and provide additional organic material for the soon-to-be residents of your bug hotel.
Garden designers and landscape gardeners in Glasgow and beyond will be happy to set aside space for you to build an insect hotel, or you can have a professional one installed. Here at Tom Angel Studio we can build or install pre-fabricated insect hotels, habitat poles, bee banks, ‘hugel beds’, wildflower lawns, hedgehog houses, native hedges and more.
Other great resources for learning about how to make insect hotels can be found on the RSPB, Buglife, and Woodland Trust websites.
To discuss garden design or landscape consultancy, give Tom a call on 0141 432 1141 or email on tom@tomangel.co.uk