[Music]
hello I'm Susan Mill this is an insect
hotel and my husband and I just made it
the purpose is to attract more
pollinators and beneficial insects to
the Garden we made a very rustic looking
one with all kinds of natural materials
inside that will attract them I'd like
to show you how it went together and
maybe you might be interested to making
one for your own
garden I saw my first insect hotel in
Switzerland it was in the middle of a
botanical garden and I thought it was so
cool
looking I saw more insect Hotel ideas at
this year's Northwest Flower and Garden
Show in Seattle which really got me
thinking about building one for our
garden
now if you're like me I want a recipe
for how to do things it doesn't matter
if I'm cooking something or creating
something I just find it easier if
someone else will tell me how to do it
but the most important thing you need to
know about building your own insect
hotel is that it doesn't have to be a
specific size it just needs a roof to
shelter insects and the materials inside
from the weather and should face South a
sunny location is best
okay so how did we build our insect
Hotel well my husband bill and I were
determined to recycle scraps of lumber
and other materials rather than buy new
materials the only expense I had for our
project was the purchase of a long drill
bit for drilling holes in the
logs we used old rough cut fence boards
and based on what we had available we
decided on a structure that is 36 in
tall by 20 26 in wide by 18 in deep but
don't let that influence the size of
your
project here it is starting to come
together we use screws to secure
everything now the roof is going
on then some supports for the two
shelves that would go inside after that
we screwed on the bottom and carried it
to the Garden we placed it on two
concrete blocks that would provide a
level Sur surface yep those blocks were
recycled
too we pounded a metal fence post down
the back side of the structure and
attached it with a couple of screws this
was just to ensure it couldn't fall over
in high winds although it's fairly
sheltered in our
garden Bill recycled some old shingles
for the roof to make it more
weathertight then it was time to start
assembling all of the materials that
insects will find appealing for nesting
in Andor hibernating this included loose
sheets of pine bark pine cones bamboo
tubes Mason be tubes pine needles old
logs and so
on while looking for materials I
discovered that the stocks of my Autumn
Joy sedums are Hollow so they should
make some ideal nesting tubes for
solitary bees and
such I also rolled up some sheets of
cardboard stuffed them with pine needles
and tied the bundles together with twine
those should be appealing to
ladybugs bill was a trooper when it came
to drilling holes in some old logs
because that part was a bit
tedious once we had our materials
together we started filling up all of
the nooks and crannies in our insect
hotel we put some old hardware cloth in
front of the section containing the pine
cones so they wouldn't fall
out then we stuffed the last of the
openings between the materials with more
pine needles and plant
stocks here are some close-ups of the
materials and builds handiwork with the
holes in the logs which can be anywhere
from 1/4 in to 5/16 inch in diameter by
the way we even stuffed branches in the
openings in the concrete blocks on the
bottom the bamboo tubes came from my
sister's
garden and bill was creative by stuffing
a clay pot with dry leaves and then
custom cutting a thick piece of bark
that had a knot hole in it for the
solitary bees to nest in I'm really
pleased with how well this project
turned out and how inexpensive it was as
a matter of fact it was so much fun we
are thinking about building another one
well or maybe two for other areas of our
garden I hope you found this interesting
and that you'll make an insect hotel to
attract pollinators and benefit icial
insects to your own garden happy
gardening
[Music]