Insect Hotel - The Crown at Hartest
Insect Hotel - The Crown at Hartest
Today we set about creating a bespoke Insect Hotel for The Crown at Hartest, in the heart of Suffolk.
Why?
1. Broaden your understanding of nature
2. Beneficial insects need love too
Many of your garden’s pollinators are solitary insects like butterflies, moths, ladybugs and solitary bees. These insects do not live in colonies and must find a warm, dry space to build their nests and to hibernate over the winter.
3. Loss of natural habitat
As mankind expands into more and more of the natural spaces these insects call home, they are increasingly at a loss for places to nest and hibernate.
4. Add interest to your garden
5. Provide therapeutic activities for young and old
It was very therapeutic today building our house in beautiful surroundings with Sunny outbreaks. Craig and I both enjoyed the experience, and had a cracking lunch (don’t tell Muddy Jo).
- dead wood and loose bark for creepy crawlies like beetles, centipedes, spiders and woodlice
- holes and small tubes (not plastic) for solitary bees made out of bamboo, reeds and drilled logs
- larger holes with stones and tiles, which provide the cool, damp conditions frogs and toads like – if you put it in the centre you’ll give them a frost-free place to spend the winter (they’ll help eat slugs)
- dry leaves, sticks or straw for ladybirds (they eat aphids) and other beetles and bugs
- corrugated cardboard for lacewings (their larvae eat aphids, too)
- dry leaves which mimic a natural forest floor
- you can even put a hedgehog box into the base of the hotel.
We have built a separate Insect wigwam in the pub grounds with a hedgehog box at the base.
