Build an insect hotel - PEP BB animal.sand.insect

These are in-progress photos of my insect hotel!





These are a couple more progress pictures of my insect hotel construction.





I made a couple holders on the sides, so that I can hang the insect hotel up.



This is my finished insect hotel. The top layer is for solitary bees; the middle layer is for ladybugs, and the bottom layer is for grass-cutter wasps. That's what I am hoping will inhabit the hotel I built.



This is my finished insect hotel in its final location.



I included sticks my insect hotel to facilitate ladybugs; I included wood with holes in it for solitary bees. For grass-carrying wasps, I put some grass in a section of the hotel.

The habitat tha ladybugs enjoy seems to inlude sticks:

Ladybugs require surprisingly little in order to thrive, only really needing their prey (aphids), a little water and some sticks and branches to shelter under and climb on.

Solitary bee habitat seems to include wodo with holes in it:

Cavity nesters lay their eggs in small holes–like those in wood made by birds and insects, or in dried hollow reeds or stems.

Grass-carrying wasp habitat appears to include grass, so I made a section with grass in it:

Grass-carrying wasps prefer to lay their eggs in nests made above ground, unlike some other solitary wasps...The brood cells are prepared with a lining of grass and provisions of tree crickets for the larvae to feed on.

What incredibly creative designs! I will start building mine this week. Thank you for the Inspiration.

Mike Haasl wrote:This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the sand badge in Animal Care.

In this Badge Bit you will make a hotel for beneficial insects.  If you use pallets, do not use the blue ones.  They are covered in toxic ick.




To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
  - it must facilitate at least three different critters
  - it must be designed to do a halfway decent job of protecting them from rain
  - natural materials and steel/wood fasteners (no glue, plywood, stain, paint)

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
  - post a pic under construction
  - post a pic of your finished insect hotel in its final location
  - describe what critters you facilitate and how

Just completed my Pollinator's Palace! Walk, crawl or walk in! All materials used are what was lying around the property. No screws, nail or glue. Looking forward to welcoming my first guests.

im actually pretty proud of this one. it took me some time and a lot of work but it turned out really well. i decided to put it behind my trellis (you can see my raised bed garden in the background).

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
 - it must facilitate at least three different critters
 - it must be designed to do a halfway decent job of protecting them from rain
 - natural materials and steel/wood fasteners (no glue, plywood, stain, paint)

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
 - post a pic under construction
 - post a pic of your finished insect hotel in its final location
 - describe what critters you facilitate and how

See pictures '01_Before' and '02_During' to see insect hotel under construction.  I ended up moving the pallets from the original location to not shade out a plant.
See picture '03_After' to see finished insect hotel in final location
1) There are bundles of garden canes to facilitate solitary bees
2) There are sticks for ladybugs
3) Grass for grass-carrying wasps
4) Pine cones, bark, leaves, for other insects

To protect from rain:  The hotel is under the canopy of a tree.  There is a larger pallet on top for an overhang.  On top of the uppermost pallet are flat rocks and some extra bark to keep it dry below.  The top two pallets are jam packed with leaves, both for habitat and to keep the hotel below it dry.  The pallets are also raised up off the ground sitting on bricks.  There are rocks between the ground and bottom of pallet.

There is now vacancy at the hotel!

Started our first bug hotel with some left over wood scraps and a brick I found digging in our back yard.
We added the brick for solitary bees, sticks and twigs for ladybugs, pine cones for beetles and moths, and some dead leaves and bark for other insects.

The top overhangs to shelter it from rain.

Put together with screws, and tension where possible, no glue.

I found a website where they built a HUGE one at the Smithsonian. Those are goals.