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Bug Hotels

Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 11,646
in Wildlife gardening
I'm thinking of making a bug hotel using an old wooden chest of drawers, possibly upended on it's side, a la Frances Tophill's seen at GW Live. 
 I've only got two possible locations for it as the garden is on a steep slope.
lst is against a shady wall, under a wisteria/ceanothus with a trellised arbour about a 1 metre in front - so poor flight path perhaps? The 2nd would be  facing west in a more open position, in a gravelled car parking area with a privet hedge at the back of it, garage wall on the left and a native hedge on the right.
Any ideas which would be best please?
North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone

Posts

  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,527
    Well... sounds very big.
    Our bugs are in smaller areas and around the garden and not in one area.
    We have some in front of our summer house on a trellis and then another in our orchard in an enclosed area.
  • FireFire Posts: 17,348
    I would give a thought on what kind of bugs you want. Spiders would be pretty happy with any bug house position. It might be a fun/a good idea to dig out an area under the drawer and fill with logs and earth for beetles. A subterranean home might be good for bumblebees too. (I can give links if you would like to build for bumbles).

    Bees like a south/east facing placemnt as they need warmth to get going first thing. 

    Maybe consider putting some logs under the privet hedge too.

    If you are going to add bits like bamboo or reeds, I recomm adding many different grades of holes - from the tiniest. Deep Logs drilled with small holes can be useful, if the gauge is small enough. You might also want to put chicken wire over the whole thing so that the bits stay in over time.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 11,936
    I have had a look at several articles about building/siting bug hotels, and a lot seems to depend on the type of creatures you're looking to attract.
    This article advises a bit of sun plus a bit of shade, my instinct would to be to go for the shadier of the options you have available if you're going for the more "Creepy crawlies" type of inhabitants. I always envisage them "cooking" if it's too sunny.

      https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-bug-mansion
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