How to Make a Bug Hotel

Arabella Miller is a proud supporter of Buglife, here's a great Autumn project which kids will love (and so will bugs!)

As the leaves fall, create a cosy spot for bugs!

As the weather gets colder there’s something you can do to help the bugs in your garden survive the winter. This autumn, why not create your own Bug Hotel?
With just a few pieces of simple equipment and some dead leaves, you can provide a safe, dry place for bugs such as ladybirds, lacewings, ground beetles and even bumblebees in your garden.

Bugs love untidy gardens! Piles of dead wood and leaves lying around the place are a source of food to some bugs and provide shelter for others. For many bugs a heap of autumn leaves is the ideal place to hibernate through the winter. This autumn, why not make a bug hotel out of a 'tidy' leaf pile? This is a great activity for children – they’ll enjoy gathering the sticks and leaves and helping an adult to make a cosy home for bugs!

All you need is:
Plastic mesh or chicken-wire
Sticks such as long twigs or dead plant stems
Garden string/wire
A flat piece of wood
A pile of dead leaves

HOW TO MAKE IT

Make a tube: Most garden centres sell chicken-wire or plastic mesh by the metre. For our bug hotel we bought a one metre length of green plastic mesh, curled it into a tube and tied it in place using four twists of plastic covered garden wire.
Put sticks through the tube at the bottom: take some dead plant stems or twigs and poke them through the sides of the cylinder at the bottom. The twigs overlap to form a mesh which stops the leaves falling out of the bottom if you pick it up; it also stops the leaves touching the ground and helps to stop them getting damp.
Fill the tube: with the twigs in place you can fill the cylinder with dead leaves
Give it a lid: put a piece of wood on top to stop the rain getting in (the wood has to be heavy so it won't blow away).
Top it up: as the leaves in the hotel dry-out they will shrink, so try to keep some extra ones to top-up the tube.
Secure it: if your garden is very windy it might be an idea to make some v-shaped staples out of coat-hanger wire and use them to pin the bottom of the cylinder to the ground.
Once you have made your hotel put it in a quiet corner of the garden - preferably somewhere in the shade. As the nights start getting colder, bugs will find your hotel and use it as a safe dry place to hibernate.

If you want to find out more about how you can help conserve the small things that run the world, visit Buglife or call us on 01733 201 210