Bug Hotel: How to Make a Home for Beneficial Insects

Beneficial insects are an essential part of any successful vegetable or fruit garden. They help us by eating pests and by pollinating crops but to to make sure there are lots of them in the garden in time for spring, they need some protection during the colder months.

Bug hotels are easy to make and are great projects for children to get involved in. They give beneficial insects a safe, cosy home to shelter in over winter, so they'll be right on hand to help fight pests and pollinate crops when the weather warms up next year.

In this short video we demonstrate how to build a bug hotel that will make beneficial insects want to check in and stay in your garden forever!

If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers:
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[juodimarskiniai]

Placing shingles like that, you get more water then without roof.first shingle goes on the bottom of the roof, then work way up.

[dr]

Why have I just now found this channel, what a wealth of information. Awesome job on the presentation as well. Thanks

[simonebourgeois]

I've planted lots of alyssum & marigolds in my garden & I have a huge colony of hover flies & lady birds living in my garden. I also found that lady birds are also attracted to sage.

[JanesGrowingGarden]

I've thought about doing this many times but wasn't quite sure where to start. This was a great introduction - thanks!

[hellomygarden]

This is a great video. We think it is super important to provide homes for the insects (particularly beneficial ones).

[catiecodes]

great and informative video about the different types of shelter for different bugs!
i also learned how to put on shingles properly

[georgerogers]

Another good tip that has been making the rounds lately is to avoid picking up leaf litter until quite a bit later into the season, as all sorts of things overwinter in piles of leaf litter.

[MidwestGardener]

This is on my list of things to do. Some great ideas here.

[juliebeal]

Yep, a GREAT craft for the grandkids in the spring!!! :)

[DougGrinbergs]

3:37 alternative for the less-motivated... like me (;-)

[COHikerGirl]

This video is very well-meant, but propagates a few of the practices DISCOURAGED by entomologists. The small construct shown being built in the video is actually fairly ideal (though a bit shallow), but please ignore the suggestions and examples shown of BIG bug hotels for multiple specie. Don't try to make large multi-material bug hotels for several reasons -- first, much too often, this puts predators right next to their prey. It also encourages too large a population of one naturally solitary specie, which is encouraging the spread of disease. So instead, make several smaller, single-material bug hotels such as the one actually being built in the video, each placed in different locations, and each using a specific material most favored by a particular insect. Note, too, that the hollow stems should really be 7-8 inches long rather than 4-6 inches, since in some species the female/male ratio of larvae is negatively affected by NOT being able to place some of them deeper into the stems.

[chrissysimpson]

Thankyou so much I'm going to make some of these I love bugs :)

[stephenscragg]

Great ideas thank you, I take it the one with the shingle the wrong way was the Prototype 😉 great work keep posting 👏

[elizabethlogsdon]

Really well made tutorial!  Thanks for sharing!

[AquarielCharms]

So cool, thank you for the great idea!! I think the birds are going to be jealous :-)

[brycejames]

Awesome video thanks! i'd love to see a follow up video of how the bugs interact with the home. Thanks!

[gramasamy]

Useful advice. With common sense the roof can be nailed properly. You didn't say what should be the depth. I am going to make that as about 100 mm. Many thanks.

[harryrarmer]

Afternoon lovie, good to watch this new vid o' yours. Picked up a lovely tip on how to store pumpkins from your mate yesterday. Can you do a short clip on how you deal with your courgettes and marrows? Cheers!

[danjackson]

my sturdy wooden hi-fi speakers are going to be reincarnated into a quieter, peaceful afterlife as
a luxury residence for bees! ....and so is my rickety bedside cabinet !

[robbeiber]

What happened to his singles? When he added them, they were correct. When he added the bamboo and hung it, they were backwards. They will pull the rain into the bug house.