How to build an insect hotel

Nuestro próximo proyecto sobre los animales

What is an insect hotel?

Not only is it a fun science project for kids, it’s also beneficial to your garden! Insect hotels provide a place for insects, particularly pollinators, to hibernate during the upcoming winter and are a way to encourage insect pollination in your yard. They also can attract helpful insects who will naturally prey upon pests and therefore keep your garden pesticide free.

Build an Insect Hotel

Materials

• Wood box 
• White glue
• Bug friendly nesting materials: newspaper scraps, sticks, bark, bamboo, pebbles/rocks, leaves, dried flowers, straw, yarn, burlap, wool

Instructions

• Step One Ask your kids to go on a hunt for buggy materials!
• Step Two Gather your materials and saw or break them into smaller pieces.
• Step Three Make sure your materials fit tightly in a compartment before gluing them in.
• Step Four Put a layer of white glue in each compartment and glue in your objects. 

• Step Five Let glue dry for a few days.

 A good idea is to place your bug hotel near a vegetable garden as it will hopefully attract pollinators like bees and pest controllers like ladybugs and earwigs.

Tips for building your Insect Hotel

1. Avoid plastic materials. They can harbor mold which is detrimental to insects.
2. Smaller is better. Big hotels are incredible but run the risk of parasitic insects moving in and their larvae devouring the larvae of other insects (especially bees).
3. Pick the species you are building for. When possible design your hotel around a specific insects that you wish to house. Research the materials they need to nesting and use those in your design.