 Hi, my name is Gail Wilson. I'm a Colorado master gardener with Jefferson County. And today I would like to talk to you a little bit about insect hotels, also known as bug houses. They have the trend with the gardeners everywhere, but why would you be interested in doing it? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First of all, you'd be giving homes to both pollinators as well as beneficials. The pollinator I talk about is the solitary bee, not the honey bee. There are 90% of the bees out there are solitary, and rumor has it. They do 10 times more work than that honey bee. But they need a home. They like to live in cracks, crevices, and little holes similar to this. The beneficials I talk about would be, say, a ladybug. The ladybug needs a place to overwinter. They get together in little groups and they like to live, say, here in bark, where it's protected. But one of the reasons I really like these insect hotels is just the artwork. Take a look at this. I mean, isn't this magnificent? This is the one we call the suburban apartment complex, because it's so neat and trim, and all these little houses everywhere. This particular complex is a good example of how deep a bug house should be. It should be 6.5 to 7 inches deep. It should have this kind of a roof to protect it from the weather. It should have a backing like a fence. I'd even seen them on the side of a shed. But don't let this one fool you. There's a multitude of designs that you can do. So next, I'm going to show you another design. Now, tell me, what insect wouldn't want to live in this beautiful circular urban condominium? Each apartment is different, and they're set apart by their eclectic little furnishings. What you'll also notice with this particular insect home is it shows good structure and good placement. It's again placed up against the fence like it should be. It'll get the morning sun. It is really close to other flowers, as you can see, as well as mud for making homes. And it's away from bird feeders. It's just the perfect insect hotel. Now, onto our third hotel. Our third structure is this unbelievably creative country-polacial estate. Look at this. This is actually a dresser that's been dropped onto its side and stained. It shows a really good example of how creative you can be of the use of all the different natural materials. Let me show you some of the stuff that you've used in here. The creator has used pine cones there sitting here nestled in a piece of wiring above it. We've got some papers that have been whirled together into some mason bee houses, and it's got a lid. We have a nice block of wood with some holes drilled into it. With that grass, we've got some bark and some wood. Right down here, we even have some bricks. And if you look way up here on the top, you'll see some fencing, some read fencing, but it's been added to it. And this whole idea creates just a wonderful home for insects. Now if you'd like to have one of these homes, which you're really not ready to invest the time or the energy to create one, you can also have, by already made one, they're online, and next I'll show you one of those. Take a look at this cute little example. The rectangular portion of the wood portion is an example of a mason bee home that was purchased online, and the owner of this one creatively tucked it into an old birdhouse structure. You know, it doesn't really matter whether your hotel is man-made or ready-made. What you need to know is that both you and your garden will love all the new pollinators that come to visit. Hopefully today's video has inspired you to either build or buy yourself an insect hotel for your backyard. There is a wealth of information online, as far as the how-tos and covers the supplies, but we have also created a second video, and we've entitled that one insect hotels more details, and that'll show you the materials we've used, some construction ideas, as well as the product itself. Thank you for watching, and see you in the garden.