Garden writer Susan Mulvihill demonstrates how to build an insect hotel so you can attract pollinators and beneficial insects to your garden. From Susan's in the Garden, SusansintheGarden.com.
One of the better insect hotel videos I’ve seen so far. Appreciate the different aspects you covered such as deterring wasps and about this one being bee specific. Thank you.
What a great video! I wondered about wasps so I'm glad you addressed that. This will be a fun and beneficial project to do with the grandkids. Thank you for sharing the tips
I've now got the perfect gift for when any of my friends move to a new place with a garden. However, I'm not sure everyone shares my love of ecology. 😅
Just watched your video with my kids. The bug hotel is beautiful and functional. We love it that you built it by upcycling. We are going to gather and build one. Thank you Susan!
Love it Susan well done! I've been a fan of yours since i saw you on Growing a Greener World. First timer here, but ill be back. Thanks have a great day and as I like to say, Grow on!! Much Love 💚💚💚👍
thank you so much.it was really nice to watch you make the insect hotel.loved it.i'm thinking of making an insect hotel with my boys.they are 10 and 12 years old.i think they would love to make it with me. i have a tiny garden.and sometimes my boys do come to see my garden.
I don't build a insect home like that I just pile up lots of different wood on top of a compost pile. That dose the trick. I found a nute the other week.
Very nice. I am going to make a insect hotel. I do have a question. I live in Idaho would I bring the hotel into the garage for the winter? Also with this type do I clean it out in the fall and put the bees someplace cold for the winter or do I just leave it alone. Thank you
Are you planning to harvest the Mason Bee cocoons in order to clean them up of any mites so they can stay healthy during the winter before they emerge? If so, how will you be extracting them out of those long holes drilled in the thick branches?
That is a really good question! I don't know of any way to safely extract the cocoons out of the logs so I have an alternative suggestion. After the eggs have hatched, remove the logs from the insect hotel and replace them with fresh logs that have the holes drilled into them.
@@SusansInTheGarden I recommend that you watch this video that explains the need to remove the cocoons from their nesting place, be it tubes, channels in wood blocks. This appears to be a way of giving the cocoons a better chance of surviving their dormancy. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FCmK8P6sWf4.html
@@SusansInTheGarden Yes. Providing a new log with clean holes would benefit the new eggs. But what about the hygiene of the existing cocoons? The female cocoons of Mason Bees are located in the back of the "tunnel". When the female bees chew their way out of their cocoons and emerge, they also have to crawl and chew their way through mud plugs and chambers that are containing dead larvae and bunch of active parasitic mites. This situation could be avoided if you used cardboard tubes or bamboo or wood blocks, that allow you to extract the cocoons to examine them in late fall and to clean them and store them in clean and safe environment over the winter and then place them in an emergent box. They can then use their saved energy to start flying, feeding and mating.
Hi Susan your insect hotel turned out pretty awesome! I'm definitely building one this winter can I repurpose an old medicine cabinet as the structure then add more shelves and nesting material? Thank you 🐝🐝
Hi, Ana. I'm assuming the medicine cabinet is made of metal? If that's the case, I think I would be concerned about using it because it would probably hold moisture rather than providing a dry, safe environment for the insects that want to nest or hibernate in it. I would recommend using a wooden structure instead. Sorry!
@@SusansInTheGarden Hi Susan thanks for responding so quickly..my medicine cabinet it's made out of wood but it's painted white, I was thinking of sanding it down first then assemble once it's ready!!😄
We actually do the "set and forget" routine and here's why: I haven't figured out when I would clean them out because during the summer, fall and winter, the holes are filled with eggs/larvae. And in the spring, the females mate and turn right around to lay eggs. So when is it possible to clean them?! However, if I were using the cardboard tubes for mason bees, I would exchange them at some point, perhaps removing the cocoons for the time being, and going from there.
I agree. Let's all get away from using plastic drinking straws! Sorry I didn't think to clarify that PAPER straws would be much more environmentally-friendly.
How do they get out when they are at the very back? You said the females come out first, does that mean the bee knows which egg is which and sorts them out out something? Or do they climb over one another? I know this is silly but I'm just baffled haha
That's not a silly question at all! It's actually quite a good one. Each egg is laid in a separate chamber, each containing a ball of pollen for the newly-hatched larvae to eat. Afterwards, they spin a cocoon and go through a metamorphosis. When they emerge, they eat through the plug that its cell was closed off with. For more details, I found an interesting article on this for you: extension.psu.edu/orchard-pollination-solitary-mason-bees.
Masterpiece! Just one suggestion if I may: I drilled holes of different diameters on the trunks in order to almost fully exploit the wooden surface exposed to the outside. This allows me to have osmia, insects and solitary wasps from March to August of very different sizes fluttering in front of the hotel (northern Italian latitude so to speak) which use both mud and plant residues as cell closure material. Here's an example: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vg8k07L6-zY.html
Hi there. The timing of cleaning an insect hotel is challenging, to be honest. If you were to clean it at the end of the growing season, you risk removing the eggs that beneficial insects such as solitary bees have already laid. I try to replace the bamboo tubes and hollow stems shortly after the bees have emerged.
@@FrenchieFrench1555 I found some helpful information for you on when and how to clean an insect hotel: pollinators.msu.edu/publications/building-and-managing-bee-hotels-for-wild-bees/. Check out pages 5 & 6 for specifics. Enjoy your weekend!
As I explained in the video, I was recycling a bee hive for the structure. You can use anything you like for the structure itself, and it can be any size you want. Remember: there are just 2 rules: the structure needs a roof, and it should face south or southeast to get the early morning sunlight. Cheers.
There are probably no guarantees! But in the years we’ve had insect hotels, that has never happened. I suppose I should mention that spiders are beneficial insects that we gardeners, despite our fears, should welcome.