Five tips to create your own bug hotel in 2024.
Whilst it’s easy to assume that to make a tangible difference to the climate crisis, the changes need to be made at a governmental level.
But there are small changes we can all make to encourage biodiversity in our local areas. Starting with our gardens, allotments, balconies, or any outside area we have. Small collective changes lead to big actions.
With that in mind, Our Consultancy Director, Martin Osman has designed an ecosphere, our take on a traditional bug hotel.
The ecosphere is designed with bugs in mind. It’s spherical, meaning the insects, creepy crawlies and wildlife can enter the structure at any point they discover it, rather than the traditional bug hotels where they must move round to the entrance.
As part of our commitment to sustainability, our ecospheres reuse green waste taken from your garden or outdoor areas.
Each section of the ecosphere is filled with varied materials, they are ever evolving so if you see one type of material is particularly popular, but another section isn’t being used at all, you can refill the unused section with more of the popular materials. The design enables the ecospheres to be scaled up or down, depending on the size of location available.
You can download the design plans here to use as a guide to create your own.
Below are a few tips to get you started with your build...
Tip one - Location
Have a look at the area you have available. You want to find somewhere that is flat to enable a stable base for your ecosphere. The space you want to find would ideally have some sun for at least part of the day. Once you know where you’re going to build your bug hotel, you know what size you can build, matching the size to the space you have available.
Tip two – Materials
Start gathering your materials and green waste. What do you already have lying around? Good materials include:
- Bricks
- Bamboo
- Dry leaves
- Logs
- Sticks and branches
- Stones
- Hay or straw
- Wood chip
- Foliage
- Corrugated cardboard
In the different sections of your ecosphere, you can add the varied materials to create areas that will appeal to the various species of wildlife, bugs and insects that are in your garden.
You want to create a variety of interesting areas, including nooks and crannies, tunnels, holes, and cozy areas.
Tip three – Keep it covered
Once you’ve built the ecosphere, add a roof to it. This provides shelter for the bugs and keeps the areas dark, shady, and dry.
Tip four – Monitor and update it
Once it’s built, keep an eye on it. Are there areas more popular than others? The beauty of the design is that it’s straight-forward to change out the varied materials.
What insects are you finding in there? Keep a log of which creepy crawlies are using your ecosphere and when.
Tip five - Share it!
Don’t forget to take photos of your ecosphere. Share your creation on your social media and encourage your friends and family to create their own biodiverse habitat by building an ecosphere. You could even take photos of your ecosphere into school and encourage your school to build an ecosphere on their grounds. Insect monitoring is great for data collection and maths skills!
The more ecospheres and bug hotels we can get in the wild, the better it’s going to be for biodiversity and our planet.
Don’t forget to tag us on Facebook or Instagram @ChevronGreenServices in your posts or send in your photos to Consultancy@ChevronGS.com to feature on this page.
