Building an hotel

Info sheet

Happy hotel criteria

Your hotel should: • use smooth, cylindrical objects with a hole at one end

• incorporate holes 3–9mm in diameter and 15cm long

• use natural non-toxic materials

• be sheltered from strong sun and rain, ideally facing northeast with a roof to protect the entrance

• be sited 1–2 metres off the ground

• be kept stable, not able to swing in the breeze.

Materials

The hotel frame e.g. wooden box, small cupboard.

The “rooms”: bamboo, hose offcuts, wood offcuts, matchstick blind offcuts, pots, cans, bundles of sticks, Why build an insect hotel? pithy stems (e.g. fennel, grape vines, blackberry), holes poked into clay packed into a can or garden pot, clay • An insect hotel provides protection from predators pipes. and habitat for to rest and lay eggs. Building materials: twine, screws, screwdriver or drill • The hotel will increase biodiversity in your garden and attract beneficial insects that help control “pest” Steps insects. 1. Collect materials. • Building an insect hotel is a fun, creative project. 2. Make the frame or set up existing frame. • A global scientific review found that 40% of insect 3. Collate materials and build “rooms”. For example, species are declining and one third of insect species tie a bundle of sticks together using twine, use a are endangered. pencil to make 8mm diameter, 15cm deep holes • They are essential food for other insects, birds, fish, in clay packed into a can or pot (ideal for blue reptiles and mammals. banded ). • Insects pollinate one third of our food crops and 80% 4. Fill the hotel frame with the rooms. of all flowering plants. 5. Fill gaps with sticks or bamboo. • Insects eat dead plants, animals and manure; thereby recycling nutrients. Who will check into my hotel?

Your “guests” will include: native bees such as the blue banded , cutter bees, resin bees; stingless ; lacewings; hover flies; lady birds; native ; beetles and spiders.

www.actsmart.act.gov.au

What about pests in my hotel? Materials such as pinecones, seed pods and dry grass may encourage insects that compete with native bees so avoid using these materials. Brush spiderwebs away to avoid trapping your hotel residents. Be aware of the risk pests bring and provide appropriate supervision of students near the hotel.

What else can I do? Plant insect-friendly plants in your garden to attract and feed insects. FAQs Avoid pesticides, insecticides and herbicides.

What is an insect? References/Further reading Insects are invertebrates with hard exoskeletons, which is why they can be hard to squash. They have Sustainable Australia on insect 3 body parts (head, thorax and abdomen), 3 pairs of hotels: https://www.sgaonline.org.au/insect- jointed legs and 1 pair of antennae. Most adult insects hotels/ have at least 1 pair of wings. Spiders are not insects. Costa builds an insect hotel: What is a bug? https://www.facebook.com/gardeningaustralia/ Bugs belong to Hemiptera, a subset of insects that have videos/how-to-build-a-bug- sucking or piercing mouthparts. hotel/1632434346849428 How many species of insects are there? Sophie from Gardening Australia builds an insect hotel using an old TV: Australia has 60 000 described species of insects; https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/b however, there may be 200 000 species. Insects are the ee-hotel/9440586 most diverse animal group in the world. There are 1 million species described but the estimated number of Good article with further links to explore about species worldwide is 5–80 million. insect hotels: https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/goodliving What will I notice? /posts/2018/10/insect-hotels Buzzing sounds inside the hotel indicate there are Beautiful video showing construction of large insects in your hotel. Holes plugged with clay, resin or insect hotel: other material show native bees have moved in. https://permaculturenews.org/2013/10/08/buildi Materials will break down and need to be replaced. ng-insect-hotel/ Observe insects. They may prefer certain “rooms”. Modify your hotel over time to provide more or less habitat for Canberra-based website about saving bees: these species. https://actforbees.org/ Do native bees sting? Australian website with lots of information about native bees: Native bees are mostly solitary and only sting if you grab https://www.aussiebee.com.au/ onto them. There are 11 species of social, stingless native bees that produce honey and live in the subtropics and Article about worldwide decline in insect tropics. In total, there are 1500 species of native bees in populations and species: Australia that all have an important role. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0006320718313636 Will European stinging bees move into my hotel? Crawford, Denis. 2015. Garden Pests, Diseases No. and Good Bugs. Harper Collins, Sydney. Valuable reference book about pests and diseases written for Australia by an Australian.