Building a Bug Hotel - 24/5/2015

I'd been thinking about building a bug hotel for some time and whilst looking at ideas on the internet I came across a 'How to Build a Bug Hotel' video on YouTube by the Wildlife Gadget Man.

http://wildlifegadgetman.com

click here to see his video

After watching his video I was inspired to build something very similar and over the course of a few months I gathered together all the materials I would need to make it.  

Once I had my materials I then set about building it. I've documented the building process here in this post, I hope it serves to help inspire others into building a Bug Hotel in their garden.

 Main Materials

20 x Grey Reconstituted 

Stone Concrete Common Bricks
(H)65mm x (W)103mm x (L)215mm

5 x sheets of Plyboard

(L)430mm x (W) 380mm (w) x (H)9mm

Other Materials
in no particular order

Some old Tree Roots removed from Garden

Some small rocks

Some Chinese Rainbow cobbles

Some Wooden Blocks

with varous size holes drilled into them

Bamboo Cane of various sizes 
cut and crammed 
into some old square drainpipe

Plenty of Drinking Straws 
crammed into old plastic piping

My girls agreed to trim the straws

 for me if I gave each of them a pound coin

Here is my youngest Daughter

making sure the straws are all the same length

Plenty of trimmed straws now

The last few straws and a pound well earned!

Some Wildflower Seed
for the top of the Bug Hotel

Some old Toilet Roll Tubes

Straws cut, some offcut of carpet rolled up, 

some corrogated cardboard 

rolled up into some pieces of 

old square drainpipe and a plastic bottle.

Building the Bug Hotel

Bottom Bricks layed down on flat surface

Bottom Layer consists of

Small Rocks and Pine Cones

Next Layer consists of

Old Tree Roots, grass and leaves

Here is my eldest Daughter adding

the old tree roots whilst trying
not to put her foot into Wildlife Pond Project #1

Next Layer consists of

Some Rolled up Carpet, Stacked Slate, 

Grass and an Heavy Duty Rubble Sack

Next Layer consists of

Drink Straws, Pine Cones, Sawdust, 

Grass and old Toilet Roll Tubes

Next Layer consists of

Bamboo Canes, Wood Blocks

 and Rolled up Corrogated Cardboard

Here my daughter is filling

in the gaps with leaves and grass

Leaves now added

Grass now added

Hey up we are being watched!

The top layer consisting of

a planter tray screwed to the plyboard, 

filled with compost and topped off

with a sprinkling of some wildflower seed mix.

We added the cobbles 

to help weigh the top down.

The final result

A closer view

A view of the Bug Hotel from the Garden