How to attract beneficial insects to the site? Housing for beneficial insects How to make such a house

A hotel for garden insects a few years ago could hardly be called a popular landscape object. Performing both practical and decorative functions, such an artificially created refuge for beneficial insects was not at all familiar to many gardeners. Thanks to the efforts of designers who paid attention to the possibilities of developing art objects that serve as a home for the smallest inhabitants of the garden, insect houses have become fashionable. But despite all their unique artistic merit, the main goal is to increase the number of useful fauna in your garden and preserve valuable insects in general.

augerb

Why do we need houses for beneficial insects?

The garden is filled with life by its invisible and largely underestimated inhabitants - birds, insects, various animals. If everyone takes care of attracting birds to the garden, they are fed and provided with additional food in the cold season, then insects are often forgotten. But these modest useful helpers solve many problems in the garden. They not only pollinate plants, but also participate in the invisible fight against pests and even diseases. And beneficial insects should be attracted to the garden no less than butterflies or animals, even if you do not even think about collecting your own honey.

In Europe, and throughout the world, they have long been loudly shouting about the problem of preserving bees, whose populations have been catastrophically reduced, and parks, gardens, zoos are invariably equipped with houses for insects. In our country, almost no one has heard of an ecological catastrophe, which is threatened by a reduction in the number of beneficial insects. Meanwhile, everyone can and should fight against the trouble. And for this there is only one way - to create special shelters - houses, which are called hotels for beneficial insects or simply hotels for bugs.

Yersinia

What is a bug hotel?

A house for beneficial insects, a hotel for bugs, or an insect house is any special building, a small accumulation of materials or a house in which beneficial insects, honey plants and other enemies of garden pests - lacewings, ladybugs, riders, hoverflies, ground beetles, etc. This is a comprehensive solution to the problem of attracting beneficial insects to your site and preserving their population in nature.

Universal cute houses, which are actually a warehouse of materials where beneficial insects can equip their homes, are among the objects of small architecture, along with garden sculpture or gazebos. They really can turn into a modern, stylish and very original decoration garden. Each such house for insects is unique in its own way and will become a bright individual touch in the design of the garden as a whole.

shastan

Such hotels are traditionally given decorative form houses like birdhouses, but larger, filling the interior with floors of cells in which insects can live. But it is not necessary to build a house. You can use old boxes, old plant containers that are no longer needed, leftover boards, pallets and just bricks with cavities - holes.

Materials can be folded into a pyramid, laid out in the form of a wall, construct original structures or make a full-fledged frame of a house or cottage. The main thing is that the hotel has a roof and walls that will serve reliable protection from wind and precipitation. It all depends on your imagination and time. And, of course, the desire to create not just a functional, but also an attractive object that will become a real decoration of the site.

In fact, even modest specially laid out bunches of brushwood can be called a hotel for insects. But usually in designs they go much further, realizing their fantasies and tastes. Most often, hotels are made of wood, but any non-synthetic materials will do (and you need to choose a tree that is not coniferous).

You can make a full-fledged house with rooms, or you can simply knock down a triangle from the boards, dividing the interior space into sections and sections with partitions. Located in each zone inside the hotel different materials, in which insects usually settle, from porous stone and brick to brushwood and bark, choosing filler with holes of different sizes, you will create all the conditions so that, over time, bees and other beneficial insects master such a house and turn it into a real shelter under the roof .

To protect against birds, sometimes the house is covered with a net on top.

Janet Roberts

How to make a house for beneficial insects?

The most important thing in setting up a bug hotel is to collect materials in which beneficial insects can make their home. You can use the same type of filler. But only a certain kind of insects will be tempted by them, and not different inhabitants of the garden. So if you want to build a real hotel, then you should make sure that under one roof and in one structure there are a variety of materials with holes. various shapes and magnitude. You can use for garden insect helpers:

• drilled pieces of wood with vertical or horizontal strokes;
• small remains of boards and logs;
• cones;
• straw;
• large sawdust;
• bark;
• a variety of plant residues, dry inflorescences or vines;
• stones and pebbles;
• spikelets;
• hollow stems (cereals, bamboo, reeds, sunflowers, corn):
• clay bricks with holes, etc.

Clive Barker

The materials are applied tightly or smeared with clay so that it does not crumble over time. For bees, the main thing is holes in stones and hollow drilled holes or empty stems so that they can safely hide, settle, lay eggs and, having easily closed the hiding place, expect the offspring to appear. Completely harmless and very useful osmium bees are attracted to the site by thatched roofs, marsh reeds and other tubular hollow stems in which they create nests for themselves. But they will also settle in drilled long holes on a piece of wood. For ladybugs, materials are best sprayed with sugar syrup. And lacewings love cones and dry stems of various vines.

The hotel for insects is always placed in a place protected from precipitation and always on a warm sunny site. In the shade, beneficial insects will not be tempted by your shelter. In the warm season, insect houses are more of an art object than truly functional baits for beneficial insects. They perform their real functions, first of all, in the cold season. In regions with mild winters, they can be placed at any height. But where the winters are harsh, garden hotels for beneficial insects are placed so that in winter they can be covered with snow - at a maximum height of a meter or on the ground. Or provide for the possibility of renting a hotel and lowering it to the ground.

Build an insect house with scrap materials to help balance your wide variety of plants and increase biodiversity in your yard.

This simple design will help attract beneficial insects to your site, which will bring invaluable help in pest control.


1 - Start by collecting natural materials to build an insect shelter: roundwood, brick, straw, tubular stems. Choose from improvised local materials that offer more or less large openings to suit different insect preferences.

2 - Make wooden frame strong enough to support considerable weight. Use sustainable woods: oak, larch, chestnut... Estimate the size of your house in terms of the amount of materials you have. Put the heaviest materials on the bottom.

3 - Provide a waterproof cover design (slate for example).

4 - Install the frame in its permanent place before filling (due to weight if the house is large). Raise it 20cm off the ground to keep it out of moisture (and so your dog doesn't nest there). To protect the house from strong winds, hammer stakes around the perimeter and strengthen the house on them, for example.

5 - cut the material to the desired length and fill each opening in the structure.

Advice: If you can install the house in a place protected from the wind and sun, you can leave it open on both sides. Otherwise, it is better to close the back side so as not to disturb the insects too much with air currents.

What materials, for what insects?

1. straw or wood: this material will attract lacewings, whose larvae feed on many pests: aphids, powdery mildew, whitefly, mite eggs.

2. bamboo sticks: provide shelter for solitary bees that pollinate the first flowers fruit trees starting from March

3. inverted pots filled with hay: it attracts earwigs that love pests such as aphids

4. boards hidden behind these metal plates: attract insects involved in the decomposition of dead wood

5. drilled decks: these will become a popular home to many very beneficial pollinators such as bees and solitary wasps whose larvae feed on aphids.

6. tubular stems: such as blackthorn, elderberry, will provide housing for hoverflies and other hymenoptera.

7. Brick: valued by solitary bees.


8. Small cells closed from each other: they attract ladybugs that come to spend the winter. Their larvae destroy a lot of aphids.

Place this house near your garden and it will provide you with pollination of your herbs, vegetables, and flowers and you will help to contribute to the health of your local ecosystem. Just remember to move slowly and not threateningly near the house, and not to disturb the alert residents.

Build a house for insects from scrap materials, this will help to balance the wide range of your plants and increase on your site.

This simple design will help attract beneficial insects to your site, which will bring invaluable help in pest control.

Building an insect house

1 - Start by collecting natural materials to build an insect shelter: Roundwood, brick, straw, tubular stalks. Choose from improvised local materials that offer more or less large openings to suit different insect preferences.

2 - Make a wooden frame strong enough to support a considerable amount of weight. Use sustainable woods: oak, larch, chestnut... Estimate the size of your house in terms of the amount of materials you have. Put the heaviest materials on the bottom.

3 - Provide a waterproof lid construction (slate for example).

4 - Install the frame in its permanent place before filling (due to weight if the house is large). Raise it 20cm off the ground to keep it out of moisture (and so your dog doesn't nest there). To protect the house from strong winds, hammer stakes around the perimeter and strengthen the house on them, for example.

5 - cut the material to the desired length and fill each opening in the structure.

Tip: If you can install the house in a place protected from the wind and sun, you can leave it open on both sides. Otherwise, it is better to close the back side so as not to disturb the insects too much with air currents.

What materials, for what insects?

1. Straw or wood: This material will attract lacewings, whose larvae feed on many pests: aphids, powdery mildew, whiteflies, mite eggs.

2. bamboo sticks: provide shelter for solitary bees that pollinate the first flowers of fruit trees from March

3 inverted pots filled with hay: it attracts earwigs that love pests like aphids

4 boards hidden behind these metal plates: attract insects involved in the decomposition of dead wood

5 drilled decks: These will become a popular home to many very beneficial pollinators such as bees and solitary wasps whose larvae feed on aphids.

6. tubular stems: such as blackthorn, elderberry, will provide housing for hoverflies and other hymenoptera. 7. Brick: valued by solitary bees. 8. Small cells closed from each other: they attract ladybugs that come to spend the winter. Their larvae destroy a lot of aphids.

Place this house near your garden and it will provide you with pollination of your herbs, vegetables, and flowers and you will help to contribute to the health of your local ecosystem. Just remember to move slowly and not threateningly near the house, and not to disturb the alert residents.

If you liked this material, then we offer you a selection of the most the best materials of our site according to our readers. You can find a selection - TOP about existing eco-settlements, family homesteads, their history of creation and everything about eco-houses where it is most convenient for you

How to make an insect house in 5 steps

Build an insect house with scrap materials to help balance your wide variety of plants and increase biodiversity in your yard.

This simple design will help attract beneficial insects to your site, which will bring invaluable help in pest control.

Building a house for insects (photo 1)

1 - Start by collecting natural materials to build an insect shelter: Roundwood, brick, straw, tubular stalks. Choose from improvised local materials that offer more or less large openings to suit different insect preferences.

2 - Make a wooden frame strong enough to support a considerable amount of weight. Use sustainable woods: oak, larch, chestnut... Estimate the size of your house in terms of the amount of materials you have. Put the heaviest materials on the bottom. (photo 2)

3 - Provide a waterproof lid construction (slate for example).

4 - Install the frame in its permanent place before filling (due to weight if the house is large). Raise it 20cm off the ground to keep it out of moisture (and so your dog doesn't nest there). To protect the house from strong winds, hammer stakes around the perimeter and strengthen the house on them, for example.

5 - cut the material to the desired length and fill each opening in the structure (photo 3)

Tip: If you can install the house in a place protected from the wind and sun, you can leave it open on both sides. Otherwise, it is better to close the back side so as not to disturb the insects too much with air currents.

What materials, for what insects? (photo 4)

1. Straw or wood: This material will attract lacewings, whose larvae feed on many pests: aphids, powdery mildew, whiteflies, mite eggs.

2. bamboo sticks: provide shelter for solitary bees that pollinate the first flowers of fruit trees from March

3 inverted pots filled with hay: it attracts earwigs that love pests such as aphids (photo 5)

4 boards hidden behind these metal plates: attract insects involved in the decomposition of dead wood

5 drilled decks: These will become a popular home to many very beneficial pollinators such as bees and solitary wasps whose larvae feed on aphids. (photo 6)

6. tubular stems: such as blackthorn, elderberry, will provide housing for hoverflies and other hymenoptera.

7. Brick: valued by solitary bees.

8. Small cells closed from each other: they attract ladybugs that come to spend the winter. Their larvae destroy a lot of aphids. (photo 7)

Place this house near your garden and it will provide you with pollination of your herbs, vegetables, and flowers and you will help to contribute to the health of your local ecosystem. Just remember to move slowly and not threateningly near the house, and not to disturb the alert residents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EfPmbADIcM

This is probably what you will ask when you hear such a combination, and you will be even more surprised if you learn that "insect houses" and "insect hotels" are not only children's fun, but adults also do it. Why are such houses needed on the site?

This "invention" is now especially popular with gardeners in Europe: such "birdhouses", not only for birds, but for insects, are made as full-fledged art objects and decorate the garden by themselves. In addition, the "hotels" for insects shown in these pictures are too high above the ground. In our climate, in order for insects to settle into rooms and overwinter with the onset of cold weather, it is necessary that it be covered under a layer of snow.

You probably know that in addition to their importunity, insects (not all, but there are many) help get rid of garden pests. If everything is clear with bees, wasps and bumblebees - who, if not they, are doing all this gigantic work of pollinating flowers? - then the six other workers and fighters of the garden look like this:

Such a neighborhood, as we see, will be very desirable - why not invite them to winter safely, so that in the spring they rush with renewed vigor into the battle with garden pests?

The basic principles of creating a house for insects are extremely simple - even easier than making a birdhouse.

1) it is necessary to create protection from wind, moisture and, in fact, cold - recesses that you will drill in wood, and the width of the dwelling itself must be deep enough not to freeze in winter;

2) when creating a house, do not use coniferous wood and synthetic materials, as well as fiberboard, chipboard - materials obtained by pressing sawdust and glue;

3) if “rooms” with filler are provided in the house, do not use foliage: mold and other harmful fungi can settle on it, which the inhabitants of the hotel will spread throughout the site;

4) all elements must be securely fixed: in this way you will strengthen the structure and create additional protection from birds that will gladly feast on the inhabitants of the "nest".

Branches, bricks with pores and voids, bark, straw or hay, moss, hollow tubes of dry plants, pebbles, ceramics, wood logs, branches and other similar things are suitable as elements.

Can, in addition to beneficial insects, pests settle in the house? Hardly: how will they get along with their natural enemies?