This week I decided I should finally get round to it and make a bug hotel. I’ve written about how to have an insect friendly garden so I have to take my own advice! I don’t have a job at the moment so the cheapest way I could do this the better!
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First thing I did was to take a look round the garden and the house to see if there were any materials I could use. I found a piece of skirting board and an old fence post in the garden. They looked as though they’d been there for years so hopefully my landlord won’t miss them! There were also lots of old bamboo poles that were old and falling a little bit apart.
I’d like to say that these materials were perfect, and maybe for someone slightly more skilled than me they would be. In an ideal world I’d have found a normal plank of wood, as that would have been much easier to use. However if I had to go and buy the materials it would have been way easier (and probably cheaper) to actually buy a ready made bug hotel from my local garden centre or from amazon.
I made some basic measurements, knew exactly what I wanted in my head and got to work with my old and fairly blunt hacksaw.
I wish I could tell you that I was a very focussed person and meticulous planner, but I’m not. I got my measurements all wrong the first time but I ended up with 3 pieces of skirting board that were pretty much the same size. The 4th piece I cut by accident. It was the correct length to be used for the back of the bug hotel, but I forgot that I was actually going to make a nice slanted roof with 2 pieces of the skirting board. Ah well, not to worry, I’ll just have to change my plan slightly. I cut the fence post and used that for the back of the bug hotel instead.
I occasionally had to stop and pet my cat so it took me longer to make than it should have.
The plan had originally been to nail the bug hotel together, but I’d underestimated how difficult it would be with a piece of skirting board. It had bumps and ridges on both sides, making it tricky to figure out how to attach it altogether. I’m afraid I cheated and used glue.
After the glue dried I did use nails to make it more stable.
After nailing it I stood back to admire my handiwork. Hmm…
I figure the insects would just be happy with somewhere to chill out and probably wouldn’t be as bothered as I was at how unsymmetrical it was! At this point I started cutting up the bamboo poles. There were quite a few of them, but I quickly realised it was not going to be enough to fill my creation. I went on another hunt around the house and garden and ended up finding 4 pieces of wood which used to be part of an old shed at my neighbours house.
I chopped up the pieces of wood and drilled holes into them and it started to resemble bug hotels that I’ve seen online.
To keep the bamboo poles in place I used old toilet roll holders and I filled my bug hotel with the drilled wood and the bamboo. I filled in some of the spaces with other bits of wood offcuts. It’s still wonky but I’m not as ashamed of it as I was to begin with!
This side view does show you how oddly shaped the pieces of wood I used were, so you hopefully understand why it looks the way it does!
Now all I had to do was find somewhere to put it. I’ll be honest, I was convinced that it would fall apart if I tried to nail it to something through the (rotting) old fence posts I’d used for the back. I have a pergola in the back garden so I found a little space that I could wedge it between the pergola and a very sturdy rose, where it should be safe from windy days!
Now all I have to do is wait for the first guests to stay at the bug hotel. Let’s hope I do get some and they’re not put off by its rather primitive look.
PIN ME
