Building a Bug Hotel

 26 - 27 Feb 2021

Lovely warm sunny days, the special days when the sun isn’t searingly hot and it’s nice to sit out.

As it was Friday (even though all days are alike in lockdown), we had an afternoon bonfire, getting rid of perhaps a third of the remaining waste wood, as well as several tins of cider and some stuffed mushrooms.

On Saturday we finally got on with a long-delayed project: building a bug hotel.  These are very trendy, but serve a useful purpose in collecting together various bits and pieces that creatures like to live in, and putting them in a designated spot where they should remain undisturbed.

Our starting point was this ancient cat kennel we made when the kittens first arrived - long ago when they were going to be yard cats.  They never liked it, and after we moved into the house they followed us in. As there were no walls for the first five years it was very difficult to set boundaries and in the end we built the house around them (and us).

So the cat kennel is robust and waterproof.  First I removed the two boards at the front, as they weren’t structural, and then started collecting nesting materials.  Small sticks, logs, moss, bamboo, roof tiles, pine cones, bricks with holes in, and the legs of two ancient tables which every year are targeted by carpenter bees for nest holes.

Dave drilled holes in the larger logs for solo bees and wasps, and anything else that likes them

The completed ‘hotel’, after several hours of packing and prodding and wedging and jamming.

The basement is a toad house.

In location, close to the beach at the pond. 

I expect it won’t be long before tiny sun beds and umbrellas will appear.