Bed and Breakfasts for Bugs?

Whether you’re human, animal, or insect, you need some place to sleep and get some R & R. We humans might think that all other species are able to somehow find a place to settle down in the great outdoors, but with our need for space and land to live on and use for our own purposes, many beneficial insects now lack a place to call home. Now, I’m not suggesting you take in the local termites and let them destroy your own abode so they can have a place to put their feet up at the end of the day. However, there are many things that beneficial insects do for us that might just earn them a little sympathy and some help when it comes to finding a home.

Thankfully, insects are pretty simple folk and don’t require a five star hotel. You can build a swanky insect hotel with items found outdoors and around your house. Kelly Allsup, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator, has kindly provided some helpful suggestions for how to build your own insect hotel. “Insect hotels are a place for beneficial insects and pollinators to survive the winter chill and provide nesting sites during the spring and summer,” Allsup said.

Allsup suggest digging through recycled materials, pallets, bricks, old logs, and drain tiles to find sturdy material to construct your insect hotel. For the inside rooms of the hotel, use materials that mimic an insect’s natural habitat such as grass, sunflowers, leaf debris, corrugated paper, straw, and mulch.

Have you ever built a habitat for another animal such as a birds or insects? What did you use to build it?