Make an Insect House

What to do during the summer holidays? Well here's a project for children and adults. There are many different ways of making a bug house - basically you can't go wrong but to maximise the number of residents in your new home there are some steps you can take - the RSPB have a good page on how to make insect houses - see here - and the BBC Breathing Places website also has some advice here.

Photos: The Incredible Edible Todmorden is a great project - they have a photo of this first insect tower on their website. Clearly it doesn't have to be this big! The other photos below are of a stack of pallets made into an insect house with old bricks, slate and more for a wildlife garden in the corner of a large allotment site in Exmouth that I visited. However you can also make it in a log like the other photo or indeed pretty well anything.

The holes may be used by solitary bees such as Mason Bees or Leafcutter Bees, which are non aggressive and excellent for pollinating in the garden, helping to increase fruit yields. A durable roof and more solid timber or insulation materials will give excellent insulation for over wintering Ladybirds and Lacewings.

Folk who read this blog regularly will know about my wonderment at the leafcutter bees who took up residence in the beehouse I made - see movie of bee with leaf here, plus How to make a bee house.