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 Make your own bug hotel

This simple creation provides safe hideaways for bugs and other friendly insects, who help pollinate flowers and reduce pests. You can get creative with your materials as insects like most structures that give them nooks and crannies to hibernate in.

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You could use:

Recycled materials

  • Old wooden pallets - ask at your local industrial site or builder yards’ for free ones

  • Plastic bottle or tin can 

  • Broken bricks, tiles or plant pots

  • Corrugated cardboard

Natural stuff

  • Logs and twigs

  • Sticks or bark

  • Pine cones

  • Moss

3 easy steps 

  1. Pick the right spot. Most insects like cool, moist conditions, so a shady area next to a hedge or under the tree works well. Make sure the home has a firm base, because it will end up quite heavy. Choose a spot where the insect home can remain for at least this winter.

  2. Create a structure with pallets. Layer old pallets on top of each other as tall as you’d like the insect home to be. Check that they don’t wobble.

  3. Fill in the gaps to create crooks and crannies. There no rules as to how you fill the empty pallets, but here are some ideas to attract different insects.