A few weeks ago I mentioned how we started work building our own bug hotel. The kids love learning about all the different animals they see in the garden so we thought a bug hotel would be fun.
What we used to build a Bug Hotel
bricks
flower pot
corrugated cardboard
bamboo sticks
cardboard tubes
How to build a bug hotel
A bug hotel can be as simple of complicated as you want. Our garden is quite small but we found a quiet corner we thought would be perfect. We roughly measured where we wanted the bug hotel to go. It was already on small stones but we cleared it of weeds.
We had de-constructed our wooden pallet so took 3 of the wooden slats from the pallet and cut them to the same length, placing the first one down on the ground. My 7 year old placed bricks on top and started experimenting with the structure. We wanted to use plenty of different materials, as well as make big and small spaces, to attract all kinds of insects.
We tried to re-use as much of the pallet as we could and were able to use some of the wooden blocks from the pallet. These were perfect for holding everything in place as we could nail through the pallet slats and blocks and it held everything together really well.
We also used an old plant pot to make a smaller bug hotel. This was stuffed with pieces of bamboo and sticks from the garden.
You can see from the photos that our bug hotel started to come together quite quickly. We had some items from our recycling bin, such as a huge cardboard tube, as well as an old plant pot which was cut in half. These were great for filling in gaps and providing all sorts of nooks and crannies.
Or Bug Hotel tuned out quite thin which is why it was important that the structure was solid. We kept nailing the different levels together to make sure it wouldn’t get blown or pushed over. When we had made it as high as we wanted we finished it off with a roof. This was made from more pieces of wood from the wooden pallet, hinged with a piece of lead. My husband always surprises me with the things he can produce from his shed!
This is our finished Bug Hotel and it had been in our garden for 6 weeks now. The children finished it off with chalk signs which I thought was quite cute! Both the children have really wanted to lift up bricks to see if any bugs have moved in and that’s been the only downside. We don’t want to move things around but the children want to see what creatures are living in it!
I hope you like our Bug Hotel. Have you ever made one? If so please leave me a link so I can come and see.
Despite being 31 I know my other half would LOVE to build a bug hotel! I’m going to show him this post 🙂
That is a great bug hotel. When we stayed at Bluestone Wales they had one there. It’s a a brilliant idea to link to the science curriculum too
This is a great idea. My nanny children would love to do this. I just need to find the bits needed first!
I would really like to do this with Pickle – thank you for showing me how 🙂 Kaz x
What a lovely idea. It’s great for children to do as they love this sort of thing. Mine love anything to do with bugs.
I love it! Yours has turned out amazing! I wish we had the room to make a large hotel like this!
I don’t have any kids but my little cousins would love this! Will have to give it a try soon 😊
Amanda | https://ldnrose.com
This is pretty cool and looks like a fun outdoor activity for the summer.
Can you make a hotel for the ants who keep making our house their home lol All jokes aside though the bug hotel is a very cool concept x
This is such a cool bug hotel. If I was a bug a I would choose to live there for sure!
I definitely like your bug hotel but have never tried making one myself. You’re indeed very creative and this is a great idea!
This looks absolutely amazing. My two year old would love it. If the weather holds out next week, it might be a project for us. I’ll Tweet you the photos if we have go!