Home-made Repurposed Wood, Luxury Insect Hotel or Five Star Bug House for the Discerning Arthropod

Fun to make and fascinating to watch, these insect hotels can make all the difference to the successful pollination of your fruit and vegetables and also to the control of pests by insect predators.

Open for Business - Build Your Own Green Hotel

Here's our deluxe version and in the next post I will be featuring our designs for 'Eco Lodges' smaller hanging and nestling accommodation you can place around the garden or orchard. They also make great presents, not only for Christmas but also in this larger form an ideal Wedding Gift. 

Here is a close up of what an occupied room looks like - in this case the 'door' is closed with clay but some creatures like the leaf cutter bee.. yes it's all in the name! 

Larger arthropods we find in our garden and have photographed, can overwinter in the larger stems and or bark and leaf infill. 

 

Some of these like the larvae of the Stag Beetle are becoming ever more rare, so providing them with a permanent shelter is a great idea. The larger stems will also be able to accommodate the beautiful large European Black solitary bee, again another species, who is threatened by extinction.

This is a great project to do with kids as there is a massive selection of differing natural materials to be sought from within the garden or further afield in woods and hedgerows. The end result can be quite artistic the only limit is your imagination. Children also enjoy seeing who is using the Hotel and can observe the essential role insects play in nature, for pollination and pest control.

Some of the materials we found for the Hotel, dried teazle heads, fir cones, dry branches, various dry flower and vegetable stems, dry bamboo canes and leaves, moss and lichens and of course pallet blocks.

Making the Hotel Frame

The structure is a rectangular frame with shelves within surmounted with a triangular apex. It is simply nailed together, including the rear wall of tongue and groove planking, which ensures that the hotel remains square and rigid.

I selected 100mm (4") wide untreated pallet wood planks.

The bottom, top and shelves were cut 50cm long. The two vertical sides were cut  50 cm plus twice the plank thickness.

The vertical sides are nailed into the end-grain of the top and bottom pieces and to ensure that the nails do not split the wood this close to the edge, I drilled pilot holes for them.

I used a 2mm drill for the holes, the nails are 2.4mm in diameter.

When nailing the sides I made sure that the rear edges of the planks were level with each other.......

.......and the corners remain square.

I used pallet blocks (pre-drilled for use in the Hotel in this image) to set the distance between each shelf. I found it easier to drive the nails into the end grain of the shelf if I once again drilled pilot holes at the appropriate positions in the vertical side walls.

If you want to put a vertical divider in an area then cut it to length and nail it to the shelf before the shelf is nailed in place. the free end of this divider may then be nailed to the top plank. You can see this in the image at the start of this post.

The triangular section at the top of the structure has a 90° angle at its apex. I initially had cut a 45° angle where it met the edge of the vertical side but I thought this was unnecessarily difficult so I just cut a square edge as illustrated. I found there was no structural difference in doing this and as the wire mesh on the front face was held in place with quarter-round beading this joint was hidden from view.

I had marked a centre line in the top of the rectangle and used a try-square from this line to determine the lengths for the two angled pieces.

Once again, pilot holes for the nails were drilled. Notice that the drill is vertical to the face of the sloping piece of wood.

When the Hotel is filled with the 'bedding materials', the exposed portions of nails are hidden from view.

The rear wall can now be cut to size and nailed in place. I used tongue & groove panelling 10mm thick. I marked the length and shape of the piece and nailed each one in place before marking and cutting the next one. Pilot holes were drilled and the back wall was nailed to each shelf as well as the rectangular frame and the triangular top.

This, ensured the whole structure was rigid and the, potentially, weak points (where nails were entering the end grain or going in at an angle) were reinforced.

And this is how it looks.

Fitting out your hotel rooms

 

Now comes the fun bit, filling the Hotel with suitable nesting materials. I used the pallet block as a guide for cutting twigs and branches to length. The 'compartments' between the pallet blocks were filled with an assortment of natural materials as well as these cut stems. 

I cleared the pith out of some stems (like the elderberry) with a stiff piece of wire. Some stems were left with the pith as certain insects eat the pith and/or use it to create doors to seal the rooms.

For the twigs, branches, and pallet blocks I drilled holes of between 4mm and 10mm diameter. 

Before everything was put in place, straw was packed along the whole back wall of the hotel to provide insulation and extra bedding.

All of this was done with the Hotel laying flat on its back. 

Once filled, chicken wire was cut to size and secured with quarter round beading nailed to the front edges of the structure. I used 30mm long panel pins to do this.

A nail punch was used to drive the panel pins' heads flush with the wood surface.

Siting your Hotel

Your Hotel once completed should be sited in a sheltered location and preferably in a South Easterly to South Westerly facing direction. This house is meant to be placed at ground level or hung on a wall. In the next blog I will show how to make the smaller Eco Lodges, motels, chalets and gîtes we designed for placing around the garden, on a balcony and/or hanging in trees. 

Beware once made, these insect hotels make addictive watching, people have been known to spend hours observing insects coming in and out of their hotels! Have fun and now, if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film.
 

For a smaller insect hotel project see our blog post on The Bee Cosy for cosy bees!

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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Home-made Insect Hotel from repurposed materials. Bee Cosy Bug House for happy Mason bees

 

Give the bees a gift - 'B is for Bee Cosy'

An insect hotel makes a great project and a gift you can be proud of. The following film shows you a detailed 'how-to' but if you need any more help. please get in touch. 

The Bee Cosy for cosy bees is an elegant green gift for you to make using 99% recuperated materials. This time the design uses more wood recycled from a fruit crate and in addition dried plant stems and thin branches from the garden. The Bee Cosy is a little more difficult than the Apple House bird feeder in the previous blog post: http://thegreenlever.blogspot.fr/2011/11/is-for-apple-house-diy-green-gifts.html

I know from experience this present is well received by friends, family and the bees and lacewings, its future tenants! The house will provide not only a Winter shelter for many small creatures including some 200 varieties of solitary bees but year round living accommodation too. These superb insects are an essential part of any garden, they pollinate and in the case of the lacewings consume vast quantities of garden pests such as aphids. Overwintering insects in an hotel encourages them to stay on and multiply in the Spring.

 



It's been a fantastic year in the garden, we've just gathered the third crop of figs and the greenhouses are still providing nasturtiums, tomatoes, lettuce, rocket, basil and lemon balm for Autumn salads. 

Planning Accommodation for Solitary Bees

For the interior section of the Bee Cosy I looked at various sites on the web, which had information on insect hibernation. Because the solitary bees are so diverse, they can easily be put off using a Bee Cosy if the accommodation is not to their liking. To make your Insect Hotel as attractive as possible you need a selection of hollow stems but the cube block from a pallet also makes an ideal nest box. You will need to drill the holes to the recommended diameter and depth for bees, although making some larger or smaller will also attract ladybirds, earwigs and the giant but friendly, European Black Bees. The rule I followed for the pallet block was a maximum diameter of 10 mm, I used a 8 mm drill.

 These holes are drilled right through the standard pallet cube/block

Some of the solitary bees are really tiny, the beautifully named, Harebell bee often reuses a vacated woodworm hole, so will need a nest no bigger than 2mm in diameter! You can therefore,  drill your block will several sizes of drill between 2-10 mm or make a separate house to attract a specific bee. You will also notice as you look through some of the sites that they recommend lining the holes with parchment paper, I believe this is because bees can get put off by sawdust or splinters but I just made sure I'd  tidied up the block. When the bees find the accommodation to their liking they will stay throughout the year, using the hole as a nursery, so your Bee Cosy could become the base of an expanding colony for the garden.

Loss of Habitats. Wither the Lacewing?

The stemmed section of the Bee Cosy is for all insects but also hopefully to accommodate lacewings. Why lacewings? Well this hugely beneficial insect is in decline because it no longer has the habitats in which to survive the Winter. The Lacewing has unfortunately fallen prey to the mania for tidy gardens and in particular to the whole army of people brandishing  snippers and secateurs, who issue forth in the Autumn to attack herbaceous borders and cart garden debris off to the local tip. Giving someone an insect house means they can still cut off the flower, herb and vegetable stems but these are then just relocated to a handy 'hotel'. 

Slightly angry Swallowtail caterpillar amongst the fennel stems.

Gardening for insects means leaving as many habitats as possible available for Winter use. The making of the Bee Cosy is in fact the only time we ever raid the borders to obtain these stems, which will provide a plethora of winter holiday homes for a whole myriad of insects.

When choosing stems and branches to use for nesting tubes, remember to think about toxicity, for example I used elderberry branches as recommended on various sites, although they are slightly toxic. All plants are not toxic to all species. 

Finishing off and siting your insect house

Ready for a wrap

The final Bee Cosy was decorated with a wash of acrylic water-based varnish, which had been tinted with natural mineral-based pigments. We have already used these on the Apple House and will be using them and other ecological finishes in the upcoming 'pallet presents', we therefore decided to devote the next blog to their use.

In order to help with positioning the Bee Cosy, I include a nail with the finished gift and a simple instruction on the best place to locate it. Solitary bees being cold-blooded need the warmth of the sun, so the Cosy should face south east or south. They tend also to like an uninterrupted flight path when nearing their home but need shelter form prevailing winds. Placing it amongst or near flowers is also a good idea.

Peace over the Hen House and the Bee Cosy!

How long will it take to make one of these? Around about four hours, including cutting the stems, perhaps a more satisfying experience that wandering around the shops or surfing the net trying to find an original gift!

Update: Last year in this very insect hotel above, a wren decided it was the ideal spot for a nest and removed all the hollow stems and filled the Bee Cosy with a beautiful moss and feather nest, which unfortunately was blow away in the wind before completed. We have since replaced this with one of our open-fronted nest boxes (the design is on this blog see 'Browse by Project' bottom right of this page). However, we did make our other stand-alone and wall-mounted designs with a layer of wire netting to stop this happening, as it was also frustrating for the poor wren! This has not been a problem with our tree-hanging designs, so it might also depend on positioning, as well as how many wild birds you have nesting in your area - we have a forest garden.

More designs on this blog

A step-by-step tutorial for our Luxury Insect Hotel for discerning arthropods (shown left) and two simpler but effective designs for Mason bees and lacewings, follow this link for The Gîte & the Chalet (Chalet pictured right).


If you enjoyed this article, then please feel free to share it, comment and/or ask questions.

Cheers, Andy

Some useful sites:

http://www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/making-wildlife-habitat-recycled-found-materials

http://merseyforest.org.uk/howtoguides/hibernationandnesting.pdf

© Andy Colley 2014

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Home-made Wild Bird Feeder from Repurposed Materials - A is for Apple House

Our handsome Polish crested cockerel Ruffles showing far too much interest in this easy to make pallet wood food dispenser, for use with fruit or fat balls.

This is something to make for your own garden but also we have made and given away many as presents. They make ideal gifts to take round to a house warming or Birthday party. We also have on this blog the 'how-tos' for various design bird boxes and an insect hotel all of which have film follow-ups. Many of our projects take less than an hour to assemble, even including the preparation. They also use a minimum of tools and purchased extras and they have scope for personalised, individual decoration and imagination. If you are really inventive you could even recuperate all your nails and tacks and take the price of your presents down to zero. The wood used in all the projects is untreated pallet wood so if you follow these links you will be able to pick up two articles with information on finding and using pallets:
http://thegreenlever.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-collect-pallets.html
and http://thegreenlever.blogspot.com/2011/11/few-guidelines-for-collecting-pallets.html


An Aid to Orchard management

We first came across the idea for an apple house in a garden centre in Holland it consisted of a piece of wood with the outline of an apple cut out of it. There was a wire to hold the fruit in place and a couple of strips on top to make a protective roof and give it the appearance of a house.

Apple picking with the Quality Control Inspectorate

Let them eat grapes. Omnivores also means fruitivores

We liked the idea for an apple house for our garden because we have a lot of apple trees and windfalls but the wild birds don't really get a look in with all the competition. I also think that wild birds feel more vulnerable eating on the ground, so the Apple House provides them with a safer and more natural position in which to enjoy the fruit.









Testing, testing, one, two three and four!








There is another more practical consideration for us as well and why this will be a much appreciated gift for anyone who has late apples, such as Jonagold. These fruit start to ripen  as the garden is beginning to prepare for Winter and the wild birds start to feel the urgency to store up some extra vitamins and minerals. So as Autumn begins to bite, so do they and finding the fruit not quite ripe, they move on, hopping and hoping for the next and the next apple to be ready.

Some thoughts about tools

The Apple House as designed for our video uses a minimum of simple hand tools and this bird feeder can with help and supervision easily be made part of a holiday project to get children interested in self-sufficiency and recycling.  Furthermore it can also be used as a way of introducing children to the practical use of hand tools, something which could be of immeasurable use in the not too distant future. As for financial concerns,  buying  power tools has never been cheaper, over the past couple of decades these latter have become a drug on the market and  you can pick up a handy and good quality cordless screwdriver, for example, for around 10 euros/dollars/pounds. Good hand tools however, are another story, 1930s novels are full of old men complaining about the quality of steel, they didn't know when they were well off.

You are often better buying old tools at a car boot or yard sale, they are usually of excellent quality and because of this can be sharpened and/or reset. Be aware of brand name old tools, over the past few years these have become collectors items and can now command very high prices. However, good tools are an investment and the more you become acquainted with them the more you will be competent to build up a fine collection.

                                                We are somewhere in the middle.

For the Apple House the tools you will need are as follows: a saw, tri-square, hammer and a tape measure.
 

You will also need the following materials and fixings, a pallet wood plank and block, some slats from a fruit crate, a few nails and tacks and some string. In addition you will need some interesting looking twigs and a pair of scissors or secateurs.

Handy hint for all projects - No tri-square? Use a CD box.

I get my fruit crates from my local organic shop, where we do our food shopping. They also give me the occasional pallet. In this way I know these crates come from organic growers and will not have contained potentially hazardous chemically treated fruit and veg.

The Apple House itself can be recycled in the Spring to become a nest box for a small bird, such as a wren, blue tit or robin. All it needs is the addition of a tacked on front and back made of fruit crate slats. Remove the twigs and in the Autumn transform it back to an Apple House.

With the addition of a piece of wood laid across the twigs the Apple House can be transformed into a table for small birds after the apples have all gone. Use string to attach rinds and nuts to the twigs for additional avian gourmet treats.

Now sit back, relax and watch Andy make the 'Apple House':

Hope you get to make one.

If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share it, comment and/or ask questions.

Cheers, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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