Nature has a way of taking and giving back life to earth, but sometimes, we can give it a helping hand by encouraging biodiversity. As most gardeners could tell you, our tiny creatures are crucial, and of course, most plants depend on pollinators.

So, we’re going to talk about ‘Bug Houses, Hotels, or any name you wish to give them. A Bug house is beneficial in bringing insects to an outdoor area and gives them a safe space, they also provide a handy use for our spare or leftover materials and stops them from going to waste, “one insects rubbish is another bugs treasure”. An insect, bug, or bee hotel is something most of us have seen before. But, still, many of us ask ourselves the question: how does an insect hotel actually work, and what is the gubbins inside that creates the life cycle, that effectively creates new life and preserves it? The present era of building more and more houses on brownfield land and greenfield land has caused many insect species problems in finding sufficient food sources and hiding places in our countryside. So the idea is to mimic their natural habitats and ensure that we include lots of twigs, small rocks and leaves, inside our bug houses, including, leaving plenty of small crevices where the bugs can feel safe from predators.

At the Lyme Green Community Park, we have made two ‘bug hotels’ out of recycled timber that was sitting doing nothing in my shed. In fact, I now realise that this timber, as with everything else in life, did have a purpose. It had already started new life, as woodlice, spiders, and microscopic bugs were already inhabiting this timber. Now they’ve been transported to a ‘New World’, to the ‘upper echelon’ of Lyme Green Community Park, from the ‘third world’ basement of my shed, it’s called ‘upcycling’🤣. I also included a basement ‘apartment’ for hedgehogs to use. I’m told by residents that hedgehogs are drawn to Langley, Sutton, and Lyme Green area like a magnet. The hedgehogs certainly do seem to like the beautiful gardens that will soon be seen to their best, now that ‘Spring has sprung into action’.

A ‘Bug Hotel’ has several uses. On the one hand, it serves as a shelter for various species of insects. However, on the other hand, reproduction is one of the main tasks inside their comfy accommodation. The various materials of this habitat help in replicating natural shelters, which are normally used by insects as breeding burrows. Thus, these beneficial bug hotels are primarily a nesting aid for insects, just like nesting boxes are used for birds. However, some bug hotel inhabitants also use them as hibernation apartments to get their forty winks.

The local Beaver group led by Faye Mukadam added their own personal touches when filling one of the bug hotels, as you can see in the photo. They spent a week foraging for materials and one evening creating the habitat! Faye said the Beavers thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this adventure and look forward to seeing their work each time they visit the Community Park. What a fabulous piece of work they did. Well done all.👏

Rose and Helen from the Lyme Green Community Park group also used their creative skills with their ‘interior design’ session with their bug hotel – see photo.

Cyril C Benson