Insect protection in your own garden? With an insect hotel you can support numerous beneficial insects in the garden.
The protection of native insects in our garden is becoming an increasingly important issue. Many insect species only find insufficient food sources and hiding places here. To support the beneficial insects, more and more people are setting up insect hotels in the garden. But does an insect hotel really make sense? What do you have to look out for in a species-appropriate insect hotel? In our article you will learn everything you need to know about insect nesting aids.
Insect Hotel: How do insect houses work?
Most gardeners have already seen an insect or bee hotel. But many ask themselves the question: How does an insect hotel actually work? In fact, the insect house has several uses. On the one hand, it serves as a shelter for various insect species. However, reproduction is one of the main tasks of the insect hotel. The different materials of the insect nesting aid simulate natural shelters, which are normally used by the insects as breeding caves. The beneficial insect hotel is primarily a nesting aid for insects, as is known from nest boxes for birds, for example. However, some insect hotel residents also use these as a hibernation aid.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of insect hotels?
It is clear at first glance that an insect hotel has a benefit for its inhabitants. But does it also have advantages for your own garden? In fact, an insect hotel can enrich the garden: if it offers wild bees and other pollinators a suitable shelter, they are lured into the garden and do an important job there as pollinators. This can significantly increase the yield in the orchard and vegetable garden. If ladybirds, lacewings or parasitic wasps are attracted to the insect hotel, they decimate aphids and other pests. In addition, by building and setting up an insect hotel, you can playfully arouse children's interest in nature conservation and the local animal world.
Insect hotels don't have any disadvantages. But not all insect hotels are suitable for bees and other garden dwellers: Unfortunately, there are always models on offer that do not correspond to the image of a species-appropriate insect hotel.
In particular, choosing the wrong materials can do more harm than good to insects. For example, wild bees can injure their wings in the nesting aid if the wood is too rough or the wrong material is used. Even transparent plastic or glass tubes can become a death trap. Although these are often offered in insect hotels, as they allow very good observations, the bee brood often fungus due to the high humidity inside. Therefore, always make sure to set up an insect hotel that is as species-appropriate as possible.
Allergy sufferers should also be careful about the location of the insect hotel: there are often more bees in the vicinity, so the possibility of being stung increases. However, wild bees sting much less frequently than honey bees and often cannot even penetrate our skin with their often very weak stingers. But if you still want to be on the safe side, you should avoid placing the nesting aid for insects where you often spend time (e.g. next to the terrace). If you still don't want to do without an insect hotel in the garden, you should place it in a more secluded spot in the garden.
Here are the advantages of an insect hotel at a glance:
Advantage:
- Help with nature and species conservation
- Higher yield in kitchen gardens through improved pollination
- Low population of pests due to larger population of beneficials
- Children's interest in conservation through play
But be careful:
- Wrong materials and workmanship can harm insects instead of benefit
Insect hotel residents: Which insects are worth the hotel for?
If an insect hotel is well received, you will quickly hear it humming and humming. But which insects go into an insect hotel? If you take a closer look, you will notice that numerous different animals can be observed. We have put together an overview of the most common inhabitants of the insect hotel for you here.
Wild bees: Wild bees in the nesting aid are probably the most popular guests. The almost 600 different species have some very special onesPeculiarities, which is why not all nesting aids accept them. However, a nesting aid can be a great favor for some species. Bees can use different areas in the insect hotel: some species prefer empty plant stems, while others prefer to nest in small holes in clay or wood. Cardboard tubes or reed stalks are also a popular place for mason bees in hotels. By the way, you can often tell whether bees have moved in by looking at the holes in the insect hotel: If these are closed with clay, small stones or resin, the brood of a wild bee is probably lying behind them.
Ladybirds: Nesting aids are often very well accepted by ladybirds. In contrast to other types of insects, however, the insect hotel for ladybugs is not used as a breeding ground (the eggs are laid on plants), but much more as a place of retreat in bad weather. Boxes with wood shavings or dry leaves are particularly popular with ladybirds.
Lacewings: If you can find lacewings in your hotel, you can be happy: The small inhabitants are important beneficial insects for us, because their larvae feed mainly on aphids. The elf-like lacewings with the translucent, veined wings are mainly active at dusk and hide under foliage and leaves during the day. The lacewing also hides in boxes with wood shavings or dry leaves in the insect hotel.
Earwigs: If you look closely, you can find earwigs in many insect hotels. The brown creatures with the pincers are extremely useful because they have an appetite for aphids and the eggs of many other pests. Wood wool or straw are ideal as quarters for the small animals and really attract the beneficial insects. However, earwigs are also pollen thieves. If bees are also to live in the insect hotel, it is therefore advisable to place a separate insect hotel for earwigs elsewhere in the garden. Wild bees build up pollen supplies for their brood, which earwigs tend to steal. In the worst case, there will not be enough food for the offspring, so the brood will starve.
Parasitic wasps: At just five to ten millimeters in size, parasitic wasps are among the smallest inhabitants of the insect hotel. Despite their small size, they are very popular with gardeners as they are known to be reliable pest controllers. Many representatives of the more than 3300 different species of parasitic wasps use itInsect hotels as shelter or for hibernation. Ichneumon wasps are useful because they can be used for biological pest control: the female parasitic wasps lay their eggs in other insects or their eggs and larvae. Once hatched, the parasitic wasp carven eat their way through their host, killing them.
Butterfly: Butterflies are among the few animals that use the insect hotel for the winter. Some butterflies hibernate as adults, visiting sheltered sites for this purpose. A box filled with brushwood as a seat with narrow slits for the entrance makes the insect hotel the ideal hibernation option for butterflies. Optionally, the butterflies can be offered not only the insect hotel, but also a self-built butterfly house.
The right location for an insect hotel
The right location at the insect hotel is a decisive factor in whether the beneficial insects accept the insect house or not. Ideally, it should be in a location that is exposed to the sun: the heat of the sun reduces the risk of fungal infestation and rot and is needed by the hard-working animals for their brood. The best location for an insect hotel is also a place that is protected from wind and precipitation. But the orientation is also crucial: the insect hotel should be set up in the south direction if possible - this is how the nesting aid gets the most sun. On the other hand, an insect hotel should definitely not be oriented to the north-west, because this is usually the weather side in Germany. So the insect hotel runs the risk of being hit by rain and wind. A height of at least 75 cm or higher is ideal for hanging up the insect hotel.
Where to put an insect hotel?
But where is the best place to set up an insect hotel? There is no universal answer here: If you pay attention to a sunny, sheltered location, you can set up the insect hotel on a house wall, as well as free-standing in the garden or on the balcony. The proximity of people is not a problem for most insects. However, it is important to pay attention to the location of the insect hotel to ensure that there is sufficient food nearby: insect-friendly perennials and shrubs as well as insect-friendly flowers should not be usedmore than 300 meters away from the nesting aid so that the animals feel comfortable. The following applies: the more different insect-friendly plants are offered, the better. Diverse seed mixtures, such as the Plantura beneficial insect magnet, are suitable here. Due to their diversity, they serve as a food source for various insects. In addition, wild bees in particular need sufficient raw materials such as water, sand and clay in the immediate vicinity for the expansion of the brood caves. If you do not have these raw materials in your garden yourself or would like to set up the insect hotel on the balcony, you can also provide the required natural materials on flat bowls nearby.
Where to put the bug hotel?
- Location: sunny, warm, protected from the weather
- Orientation: South
- Height: 75 cm or higher
- Forage plants: insect-friendly plants within a radius of 300 m
- Environment: Provide clay, water and sand in shallow bowls
Protect insect hotel from birds
Whether you have to protect your insect hotel from birds always depends on the location and the circumstances. But if you have already observed how voracious birds peck for food there, it makes sense to attach a bird protection to the insect hotel. A good solution for protection against birds is to equip your insect hotel with a protective screen. A mesh size of three by three centimeters is ideal because this allows insects to pass through the bird protection while birds are reliably kept away. If you want to protect your insect house with wire or equip it with a bird guard, always observe the necessary distance: The protective barrier should be at least five, preferably ten centimeters away from the nesting aid. This is the only way that long-beaked bird species such as the woodpecker cannot get close to the insects.
Care and maintenance
Many owners of an insect hotel wonder if it needs regular maintenance. In fact, regular maintenance of the insect hotel is not necessary. Instead, you should leave the hotel as undisturbed as possible, as the hard-working little animals use the nesting aid almost all year round. Bee hotel care therefore only includes regular checks for ailing or rotten components or moldy filling material - these should be replaced. You can also carefully remove cobwebs that are directly in front of the holes in the insect hotelcondition. Under no circumstances should you open closed burrows - living brood could still be hiding here. Even in winter it does not require any special care. Never bring the bee hotel indoors in winter. If insects actually hibernate in the nesting aid, the rapid rise in temperature can cause them to wake up from their hibernation and use up their energy reserves.
Insect hotel not accepted?
You have set up an insect hotel and after a while you realize that there are still no residents to be found? Unfortunately, this happens again and again, because various sources of error can ensure that the nesting aid becomes unattractive to insects. Now it is important to recognize which factor disturbs the colonization of their insect house. The most common mistakes when building and installing an insect hotel are as follows:
1. Wrong material used: Plastic, glass tubes, pine cones or fresh wood are poorly or not at all accepted by most insect species. Softwoods are also not ideal for many wild bee species. Hardwoods such as oak, elm, oak, beech, hazelnut, chestnut or fruit wood are therefore better suited for building an insect hotel.
2. Wrong hole size: If the holes are too big or too small, no new residents will come to the insect hotel. Thumb-thick holes are far too big for bees and other insects, optimally the holes have varying diameters between 2 and 9 millimeters.
3. Wrong location: If an insect hotel is hung at the wrong height or facing the wrong side, it becomes unattractive to insects. Therefore always pay attention to the right location for the insect hotel.
4. No food: The best insect hotel is useless if the busy beneficial insects can't find any food nearby. So be sure to plant insect-friendly flowers nearby.
For a detailed explanation of how to avoid mistakes in making an insect hotel and what to look out for when building one, see our article on wild bee nesting boxes.