By Aldona Bird
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
While many of us consider honeybees and pollinators to be synonymous, there are many other insects who pollinate plants.
Most bees and wasps pollinate as do some flies, butterflies and other insects we may rarely notice. Insects can benefit gardens and ecosystems in other ways too, such as keeping other insects in balance.
With pesticide use on monoculture lawns and agriculture destroying much of their habitat, it never hurts to give native bugs a leg up in life.
You can DIY a cute bug hotel for your lawn or garden. There are infinite designs for bug houses.
To make a bug hotel or apartment complex, you will need:
- Wood (one by six or eight work well)
- Nails or screws
- Hammer or drill
- Saw (circular or other)
- Natural materials such as bark, twigs, rocks and reeds
To make a tower-shaped bug house build a six-10-inch tower as tall as you like (three to four feet works well) with one open side. Add shelves at intervals. Do not use painted wood or pressure-treated wood as these chemicals can be harmful to insects.
Furnish each “room” or shelf with dry natural materials. Stack hollow reeds, twigs, bark, rocks and other materials to please different types of guests. You can also drill holes of various sizes and depths into blocks of wood.
For a different design, create honeycomb-shape compartments. Cut sides for these compartments, each two inches wide at the narrower end of a 30-degree angle by four or more inches long. The back piece will be a hexagonal shape — four inches across, sides at 60-degree angles.
Draw and cut the back out (a jigsaw works well for this job). Glue the sides and back together with wood glue and clamp them all together to dry.
Make as many compartments as you like and glue them together.
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