Insect hotel
Some elaborately designed insect hotels may also be attractions in their own right and, increasingly, can be found in pub gardens and various tourist locations.
Impacts can be seen in the form of better soil quality, increased pollination, elevated ecosystem diversity, and reductions in the populations of detrimental insects.
[citation needed] Good materials to build insect hotels with can include using dry stone walls or old tiles.
A common type of bee hotel is created from a wooden log, portion of a cut tree trunk or a stone block in which holes are drilled of different sizes (e.g. 2, 4, 6 and 8 mm) with the openings a few centimeters apart.
The holes are slightly tilted upwards from the opening so rainwater can drain out, and are drilled about 10 cm into the material, while keeping the end solid.
The entrances to these burrows must be smooth enough so that the delicate bodies of the insects are not damaged, with the exterior of wooden bee hotels being frequently sanded.
In all three cases, healthy cocoons are removed to an emergence box, kept cool over winter, and put out as spring buds break.
A simple bundle of bamboo or reeds, tied or put in an old tin can and hung in a warm place, may be suitable for some solitary bees.
Butterflies that hibernate prefer sheltered places such as crevices in houses and sheds, or enclosed spaces such as those in bundles of leaves.
A terracotta flower pot hung upside-down, filled with bundles of straw or wood wool is an ideal house for earwigs.
Ladybirds are easy to cater for by placing many twigs within an open wooden box on its side to provide many small cavities.
Over half of North America's native wild bees face similar difficulties, and the actual number is possibly greater due to insufficient data on certain species.
[8] Special attention must be given to the details of insect hotels, such as the diameter of the holes, as this is a key factor in which insects are attracted to the hotel - a variation in diameter of just 1 mm can make the difference between providing habitat for native bees with more specialized habitat needs, or the more generalist adaptable introduced bees they compete with.
