An Insect Hotel in the Garden - A Vacation for Bees and Co.

Insects are just as important for the garden as the soil in which plants grow and thrive. Without bees and others, many plants wouldn't exist, and especially without these little fluttering creatures, there would be no food.

New plant breeds often come with nectar-poor or even nectarless flowers. This makes it increasingly difficult for insects to find enough food to survive the winter. An insect hotel provides shelter, a warm place to sleep, and, combined with the right plants, the perfect home for bees and others.

What do bees, earwigs, and other insects do when the days get shorter, the temperatures drop, and the first snow covers the plants? Many of these small helpers retreat into hibernation, some enter winter dormancy or sleep. Bees and other beneficial insects retreat to clay-filled slopes or dead wood to avoid freezing. Piles of leaves and needles are also popular spots. However, this works only if the insects can find and are provided with such shelter. Many garden owners completely clean up their gardens at the end of the season. While this may look neat, it mainly means the destruction of a suitable winter shelter for bees, bumblebees, and others.

If you can’t do without a tidy garden, you can rely on an insect hotel. If the garden is completely cleaned up at the end of the gardening season, with the lawn trimmed short, all the leaves gathered up, and every little corner cleaned, it also increases the maintenance effort of the garden itself. A tidy garden means fewer beneficial insects. It's no surprise, since they feel most at home where they are given the opportunity to thrive. So, if you want a tidy garden and beneficial insects, you can set up an insect hotel. These can either be bought pre-made or easily crafted yourself. An insect hotel provides beneficial insects with a place to settle, hibernate, and stay healthy and strong, helping the garden owner in the new season.

If you want to build your very own insect hotel, you can find many of the nesting materials during a walk through nature. Logs, twigs, pinecones, and even abandoned snail shells are ideal furnishings for the insect hotel. Basically, anything a beneficial insect would like to call home. Once the materials are collected, they can be assembled in a wooden box. Holes are drilled into some wooden blocks, and the cavities are filled with materials like straw or hay. Rabbit wire prevents the contents from falling out, and roofing felt or cut-up tin cans serve as a roof, making the hotel weatherproof. Once hung in the garden, the insect hotel provides the little critters with everything they need to survive. And, on top of that, an insect hotel is also perfect for observing and relaxing.