• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Tereza Okava
  • Andrés Bernal
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden

Insect hotels

 
steward
Posts: 3722
Location: Kingston, Canada (USDA zone 5a)
554
13
purity dog forest garden fungi trees tiny house chicken food preservation woodworking
  • Likes 12
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Source: inspirationgreen.com

Paul sent me a link to this page earlier this week and I thought it was a really cool way to create habitat for beneficial insects in the garden. Yet another brick to solve pest control and help with pollination.

Anybody has pictures from their garden?
 
steward
Posts: 3706
Location: woodland, washington
211
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
looks very nice. might just be the resolution, but I can't actually see any insects in the picture.
 
Posts: 47
17
2
transportation tiny house solar
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I like the potted plants near the top. This way the square footage can still be used for growing.
 
pollinator
Posts: 4718
Location: Zones 4-5 Colorado
496
3
hugelkultur forest garden fungi books bee greening the desert
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Wow something for everyone. Hope there is a shallow puddle of water with mud, nearby also.
 
Posts: 6
Location: Willamette Valley
3
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
One thing I don't understand about this hotel, or even a beetle bank, is what guarantees you get good bugs?

Thanks.
 
Posts: 46
1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You have to go to the link that Adrian put in with the picture...

http://inspirationgreen.com/insect-habitats.html
http://inspirationgreen.com/insect-habitats.html
http://inspirationgreen.com/insect-habitats.html
http://inspirationgreen.com/insect-habitats.html

Hope this helps make it more understandable.

Oh, and there are SO MANY MORE COOL PICTURES THERE with explanations too!

Cheers All!
 
Posts: 65
1
6
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
That's not for bugs, it's art!



'Stack', 1975

http://meaghanclaricesartspot.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/tony-cragg.html

The only problem I have with this, other than harbouring cockroaches, rats or snakes, is that I read something somewhere that if you don't change out the hollow bamboo bits every year then mites and parasites build up and can ultimately kill off the bugs you are trying to encourage.

I will check the website though as I am now planting flowering insect attractors so I may as well give them somewhere to stay after they have eaten.
 
Posts: 8
2
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Mark Livett wrote:The only problem I have with this, other than harbouring cockroaches, rats or snakes, is that I read something somewhere that if you don't change out the hollow bamboo bits every year then mites and parasites build up and can ultimately kill off the bugs you are trying to encourage.



I've read that too. Is there any evidence to back it up? If it's true then how often and what time of year do you change the bamboo?
 
Nicholas Green
Posts: 47
17
2
transportation tiny house solar
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
That link brought up some great pictures. Thanks.
I always enjoy seeing what people are up to around the world.

I would love to put one if these in a chicken paddock. Hotel for bugs, buffet for chickens. But not so close to the fence that it becomes a launching point to the other side.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1981
Location: La Palma (Canary island) Zone 11
10
purity forest garden tiny house wofati bike solar
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Lewis Brown wrote:One thing I don't understand about this hotel, or even a beetle bank, is what guarantees you get good bugs?

Thanks.



You are right, there is nothing, no ID...
I have never found those informations.
When I find eggs beneath a leaf, I do not know if they are from a moth that will eat all, or from ladybugs, they are both long and yellow...

Something needs to be done for insect ID at all their life stages!!
 
Miles Flansburg
pollinator
Posts: 4718
Location: Zones 4-5 Colorado
496
3
hugelkultur forest garden fungi books bee greening the desert
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I think Paul and Dave Hunter did a podcast or two that talked about the straws.
 
Adrien Lapointe
steward
Posts: 3722
Location: Kingston, Canada (USDA zone 5a)
554
13
purity dog forest garden fungi trees tiny house chicken food preservation woodworking
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
That would be podcast 021.
 
Posts: 165
38
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I had a stack of bricks in my yard, about 2' wide by 5' long by 3' high. They were stacked relatively tightly, and had been there about 8 months.

Yesterday I had to move them across my yard to get access to the space they occupied.

As I unstacked them and carried the bricks across the yard, I found that the interior of the stack had been supercolonized by all kinds of life- spiders, slugs, earwigs, worms, even a little family of salamanders right at the bottom. Some of the creatures I hadn't seen at my property before.

So I don't have space at my permaculture-lite tiny townhouse to keep a big stack of bricks around, but when I have a larger spread, I'm thinking that a cubic yard of bricks, loosely stacked; or a wall of rubble; or something of the sort will be a high priority.

All this activity with bricks also brought to mind "The Bricklayer's Lament".
 
Posts: 12
Location: Amsterdam and France
5
  • Likes 20
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
(Sorry if my english is a bit sloppy, I'm Dutch)

I've had some experience with insecthotels through the years and they are great! Anything (organic!) that's stacked in large piles and slightly protected against rain will do and will host thousands and thousands of different creatures from the whole range of the animal kingdom. I'm personally not afraid of the 'wrong bugs and parasites'. As long as you make a lot of them, make them big enough or create a lot of small ones, there will be an ecological balance. The more you have of them and by using many techniques, the more biomass you attract/create and the more ecological complexity there will be. Many birds, lizzards, hedgehogs and so on, will be attracted to this richeness and they all poo in your garden for free!

I encourage you not to make insecthotels but insectcCITIES!



This one I created on my piece of land in the northern of France and is about 6 yards long, 2 yards high and 1 yard deep, so more of a "Insect Metropole. All in all have about 30 cubic yards of "piles" on the property. Even snakes are wellcome because they are rare and harmlous. And I don't have any problems with rats either because they are pretty harmlous too.



Some recent beds with extra animal accomodation:



My 'gate' also attracts insect because the wood is full of holes from larvae and caterpillars:

 
Posts: 67
Location: Eastern Shore, Maryland
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have been looking into insect hotels lately and this mini-city is amazing! I want this one day, but it will take up half my yard! Keep up the good work.
 
Posts: 95
Location: Berkeley, CA
30
3
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
hey all,

those are some great photos and ideas. I'm thinking of turning my 50 ft of city fence into one big pollinator hotel.

here are some more photos from my time at the kramaterhoff last year. they didn't worry about 'bad' bugs in a complex thriving ecosystem. they made them really big. enjoy

pollinator-condos-(4-of-4).jpg
at the kramaterhoff last year
at the kramaterhoff last year
pollinator-condos-(2-of-4).jpg
stones for warmth, dryness, snake and lizard habitat
stones for warmth, dryness, snake and lizard habitat
pollinator-condos-(3-of-4).jpg
Sepp earth shelter with pollinator habitat
Sepp earth shelter with pollinator habitat
 
Posts: 9002
Location: Victoria British Columbia-Canada
708
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have lots of standing dead wood and slash piles near the garden. I'm assuming that insects live there and in the wilderness beyond.

I have only done one thing to control pests in the garden. I have created reptile habitat by piling rocks and wood waste. Garter snakes and skinks have taken up residence.

This took care of all pest problems except for the deer. 
 
steward
Posts: 2719
Location: Maine (zone 5)
595
2
hugelkultur goat dog forest garden trees rabbit chicken food preservation
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Dale Hodgins wrote:

This took care of all pest problems except for the deer. 



Gotta make a space big enough for some bears and you'll be all set.



 
gardener
Posts: 3545
Location: Central Oklahoma (zone 7a)
1271
forest garden trees woodworking
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Or breed some super-giant skinks?
 
Dale Hodgins
Posts: 9002
Location: Victoria British Columbia-Canada
708
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A cordless electric drill, combined with a few bits and some dead trees, can lead to the creation of an insect habitat. Mason bees and many other creatures will occupy holes drilled into wood.

I had a maple stump that became home to several varieties of birds when larger holes were cut with the tip of a chainsaw.
 
Craig Dobbson
steward
Posts: 2719
Location: Maine (zone 5)
595
2
hugelkultur goat dog forest garden trees rabbit chicken food preservation
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A good way to teach kids about tools and habitat is to let them practice using drills, saws and hammers to build insect homes. I often let my kids practice on pieces of firewood while I'm working on something else. Once they have had their fun, we find a place to locate the new critter home. Many of them end up in various garden beds. Worms, beetles, pill bugs, slugs and centipedes will make homes under the wood, in contact with the ground. Bees, wasps, flies and all sorts of unidentified critters take up the other little nooks further up the log. The space between the bark and the wood is also an important place for many larva. I often try to make little nooks with rocks for things like frogs, snakes and toads while I'm at it. I can't tell you how many snake skins I find in my firewood piles though. It's a really nice place for them to shed apparently. Though I wish the mice didn't also find it so appealing.
 
author and steward
Posts: 55389
Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)
hugelkultur trees chicken wofati bee woodworking
  • Likes 12
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
 
Posts: 96
Location: Lancaster, UK
16
forest garden trees urban
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
love that - and you could do a green roof on it too in fact, I feel another project coming on.....

I have a long narrow brush pile on my allotment, mostly willow stems, tucked behind the row of willows that I have to cut down every other year.

I also have several smallish stacks of bricks that are always teeming with bugs if i have to move them The plan is that I won't need to once I've finished organising the plot!
 
Posts: 322
Location: USDA Zone 7a
32
books food preservation wood heat
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
All these bug hotels are really cool.  Very artistic and picturesque in their own way.  But I don't see any bees flying about, or anything crawling on, over, in or under them.  Shouldn't they look a little bit "lived in"?  Someone went through a lot of trouble to make each of these, so I'd expect they would want to see them get used not just sitting there looking cool.  I made a small bug house a couple years ago and hung it up under the shed overhang for protection.  Maybe it faces the wrong way (north) but it is protected from the wind and snow which usually blows in from the west or north-west. I have yet to see anything around it.  Thinking I need to relocate it and see if that works to generate tenants.
 
steward
Posts: 17418
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4457
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Denise, the bees that use the bee hotels are different from the honey bees. honey bees are busy going back and forth to the hives to deliver pollen.

The bees that use the bee hotels are cavity-nesting bees. The bee hotels are artificial nesting structures that mason bees, and other solitary bees, can use to lay their eggs.

These bees are important and they pollinate flowers of fruits and vegetables.

Here are some threads that might help you understand:

https://permies.com/t/30403/Kinds-Mason-Bees-effects-management

https://permies.com/t/34520/mason-bees

https://permies.com/t/136888/Mason-Bees-worth-investment
 
gardener
Posts: 887
Location: Southern Germany
526
kids books urban chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts bee
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
There are many different mason bees / solitary bees (in Central Europe over 500 species), and most of them are closely linked to a specific habitat (for their nectar, for example) and they require different habitats for their hatching as well. A lot of them nest in the ground (loose earth or sand, some in loam), others in decaying wood or hollow stems.
The classic "insect hotels" cater to species that like hollow stems but if you do not have those species around and if their preferred flowers are not around (mason bees fly only a short radius) you will not see visitors.

It also depends if you have birds that are very clever when it comes to easy protein, they might pick out the larvae.

I have observed about a dozen different mason bees in my garden which provides quite some natural habitat but recently have built some of these "stems in a can" hotels. It might already be a bit late in the year to see them in use but with nature you will need patience.
Good luck!
 
pollinator
Posts: 221
Location: South Shore of Lake Superior
66
homeschooling hugelkultur home care forest garden foraging trees chicken fiber arts medical herbs writing wood heat
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Cute! I create insect hotels by not cleaning up my garden (the wildflowers more than the veggies) so they have tall, dry stems to lay eggs in. I also don't rake up the leaves - they use those, too! I even have plenty of dead standing trees, and I know bugs shack up in there because I see and hear the woodpeckers going after them. I like these little bug hotels but I do it the lazy way.
 
Posts: 477
Location: Indiana
62
5
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I just planted a strip 3 ft wide and about 40 ft long with a bee/pollinator combo mix in sand and planted with my fertilizer applicator. I wasn't too sure how this would come out as it was grass before and I didn't till too deep. I did apply several sacks of top soil before planting and slightly raked the seeds in.

I did water a few times while the plants were small and the strip was chock full of flowering plants.

It was interesting. I have two bee hives near that patch, yet saw very few bees there. But I had butterflys by the dozens fluttering around those flowers.

I'm just wondering how many of those plants will come back in Spring now!
 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 17418
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4457
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Jesse Glessner wrote:I'm just wondering how many of those plants will come back in Spring now!



The ones that are annuals very well may come back in the spring.

I have observed that some seeds need more stratification and may take a few years for that to happen.

Looking to hear what came back in the spring.

 
Jesse Glessner
Posts: 477
Location: Indiana
62
5
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I know the Title of this forum is Insect Hotels, but, could we stretch it a bit and add Microbe Hotels too? The reason being that you might not need as many insects around IF your plants are super healthy. And here is a way to get them into great health by making a bioreactor to activate your compost! The link below takes you to the proper site and you can read it on-line or download it this way - highlight ALL, copy, open a blank w/p document and Paste, SAVE, and you then can save both the word doc and save as a PDF file. I always put the source at the top of the document as - Retrieved from:  and the URL and the date also.

SEE LINK:  https://www.csuchico.edu/regenerativeagriculture/bioreactor/bioreactor-instructions.shtml

The problem with the above is that it takes ONE YEAR for the activation to complete in the mass of the contents.

Below might be a better bargain for Bio-Activation of compost. This information came from Redhawk and titled something like this: Redhawk's methods of making the biodynamic preparations using the Mason Jar Method. Sorry, I could not find the original article. The Instructions are MY short version of Redhawk's methods.

MASON  JAR  BIO-ACTIVATED  COMPOST  INSTRUCTIONS
1. Use Mason Jars for the Project. (OR you could use other conatainers - but with lengthened times to your   completed bio-activated compost
2. Fill 3/4 full with cow manure.
3. Complete fill, leaving 1” headspace, with already activated soil from around a large tree. Go below grass roots.
4. Keep temperature at 70 to 75 degrees with a heat pad or small incandescent bulb.
5. Check progress every week or two.
6. Bio-Activation of compost takes 6 to 9 weeks for completion.

MASON  JAR  BIO-ACTIVATED  COMPOST  -  HOW  TO  USE
7. Use 35 grams or 1 1/4 oz per 10 liters or 2.5 Gal of water as a MIX.
8. Using a large Paint Stirrer and reversible drill, stir into a vortex then let settle. Stir in opposite direction then let settle.
9. Repeat the above process four times.
10. Do a rough straining through 2 layers of Cheese Cloth. Load the results into you Sprayer. Do not use a nozzle on your Sprayer wand –OR – if you do, use the nozzle with the largest hole to allow the suspended particle to flow out.
11. Bingo, you have started the microbiology of great soil and the more you do this application, the better (and faster) the soil becomes superior for plant growing
 
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10649
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5063
5
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Here's a great one I saw at Helligan a few years ago.

bug-house-insect-hotel-lost-gardens-helligan
source

(I just go for the messy look myself)
 
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10649
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5063
5
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Seth Peterson wrote:
those are some great photos and ideas. I'm thinking of turning my 50 ft of city fence into one big pollinator hotel.



Here's someone who has done just that in Sheffleld, UK! I think it looks really great!


 
Posts: 83
Location: La Bretagne
20
homeschooling solar rocket stoves
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Maurice van der Molen wrote:
Many birds, lizzards, hedgehogs and so on, will be attracted to this richeness and they all poo in your garden for free!


Do you still have some hedgehogs?  Our place is an LPO refuge (League pour la Protection des Oiseaux, translation: bird protection league) and there statistics is that well over half of the hedgehogs have disappeared in France during the past two years. Ours are gone, along with all of our friends, and the slug population is thriving aa a result. That's also why the price of Indian Runners has skyrocketed.
 
rocket scientist
Posts: 374
Location: in the Middle Earth of France (18), zone 8a-8b
208
2
hugelkultur dog tiny house chicken composting toilet cooking building sheep rocket stoves homestead composting
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Tiffaney Dex wrote:
...Our place is an LPO refuge (League pour la Protection des Oiseaux, translation: bird protection league) and there statistics is that well over half of the hedgehogs have disappeared in France during the past two years. Ours are gone, along with all of our friends, and the slug population is thriving aa a result. That's also why the price of Indian Runners has skyrocketed.



That's alarming news, Tiffaney. I thought I saw less hedgehogs than in the past, but I didn't realize it might be a common problem. Is there any data or theory on why they are disappearing? With that knowledge we could perhaps turn the tide?
 
master pollinator
Posts: 2000
Location: Ashhurst New Zealand (Cfb - oceanic temperate)
638
duck trees chicken cooking wood heat woodworking homestead
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I wish I could send you all of ours. I really dislike having to dispatch something that cute, but they are a pest species here and cause all kinds of havoc.
 
Posts: 33
Location: Oxford county Maine
3
cooking bike solar
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Maurice van der Molen wrote:(Sorry if my english is a bit sloppy, I'm Dutch)

I've had some experience with insecthotels through the years and they are great! Anything (organic!) that's stacked in large piles and slightly protected against rain will do and will host thousands and thousands of different creatures from the whole range of the animal kingdom. I'm personally not afraid of the 'wrong bugs and parasites'. As long as you make a lot of them, make them big enough or create a lot of small ones, there will be an ecological balance. The more you have of them and by using many techniques, the more biomass you attract/create and the more ecological complexity there will be. Many birds, lizzards, hedgehogs and so on, will be attracted to this richeness and they all poo in your garden for free!

I encourage you not to make insecthotels but insectcCITIES!



This one I created on my piece of land in the northern of France and is about 6 yards long, 2 yards high and 1 yard deep, so more of a "Insect Metropole. All in all  have about 30 cubic yards of "piles" on the property. Even snakes are wellcome because they are rare and harmlous. And I don't have any problems with rats either because they are pretty harmlous too.



Some recent beds with extra animal accomodation:



My 'gate' also attracts insect because the wood is full of holes from larvae and caterpillars:



Your structures are incredible! I hope you’ll post updates since it’s been a decade since these were posted. It would be wonderful to see how long these held up and how you’ve maintained or built new ones.

Insect lives and needs are complex, just like nature. As you said— we must try to mimic the variety in nature and provide habitat for all otherwise we’ll never have a balanced ecosystem.

Bravo! Love these! Thanks for posting them.
 
gardener
Posts: 956
Location: Zone 5
425
ancestral skills forest garden foraging composting toilet fiber arts bike medical herbs seed writing ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Just this morning I saw this happening. A steel garden ornament that I use to trellis the yam, has a sunflower-style metal flower, and inside this flower the wasps have built a little home. Previously they were trying to build one on my door (which is waterproofed with beeswax) but they were thwarted and frustrated with all the opening and closing. (I didn’t do anything about them and they didn’t hurt me. I even made peace with the yellowjackets in the potato patch once they got used to me! I think we could benefit from less fear and more respect when it comes to insects. )
 
Tiffaney Dex
Posts: 83
Location: La Bretagne
20
homeschooling solar rocket stoves
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Nina Surya wrote:

Tiffaney Dex wrote:
...Our place is an LPO refuge (League pour la Protection des Oiseaux, translation: bird protection league) and there statistics is that well over half of the hedgehogs have disappeared in France during the past two years. Ours are gone, along with all of our friends, and the slug population is thriving aa a result. That's also why the price of Indian Runners has skyrocketed.



That's alarming news, Tiffaney. I thought I saw less hedgehogs than in the past, but I didn't realize it might be a common problem. Is there any data or theory on why they are disappearing? With that knowledge we could perhaps turn the tide?


We get biweekly updates from the LPO and I know that they are concerned about it, but they haven't mentioned what is killing them.  My husband is still cutting wood from Ciaran and he comes across their carcasses still, along with rabbits. The rabbits all died because they got the hemorrhagic disease. But I haven't learned of what got the hedgehogs still.
 
Tiffaney Dex
Posts: 83
Location: La Bretagne
20
homeschooling solar rocket stoves
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Phil Stevens wrote:I wish I could send you all of ours. I really dislike having to dispatch something that cute, but they are a pest species here and cause all kinds of havoc.


If you have European hedgehogs, I also really wish you could send some breeding pairs here.
 
pollinator
Posts: 69
Location: SE France
21
fungi trees food preservation medical herbs wood heat composting
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Saluti tutti,
Same situation in these parts with the disappearance of hedgehogs. It’s been many years since there was hedgehog presence here. They used to visit making an incredible racket announcing their arrival. There particular interest was under the table to check for food. There was access to water principally for cats and dogs and whoever.
These days one doesn’t even see them as roadkill.

As for insects, there are dry hollow stems of various annuals, mounds of wood to colonise with a noticeable increase in the number of creative wasps, building their nests anywhere and everywhere.

We all just get on with it as best we can.

I have mentioned world domination raspberries in various posts. They are doing very well, thank you.
Insects are enjoying their sweetness with evryone else.

Strange weather blessings to us all
 
Character is the architect of achievements - Mark Twain / tiny ad
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic