Habitat loss and agricultural chemical use are linked to the alarming decline in our native bee populations. Many homeowners are practicing good stewardship with organic methods, stopping the use of all insecticides and herbicides, and trying to maintain the garden with an eye toward promoting wildlife with nest boxes, wood and brush piles, and native plants. But we can do more. Bees are in danger. They need places to shelter and raise young and our communities are less and less hospitable to them.
Insect hotels are manmade structures meant to offer nesting sites for a range of beneficial insects. They come in a lot of different styles - you can make your own or buy one to install in the garden.
Below: These were on display at London’s Chelsea Flower Show in 2009 - the first ones I’d encountered.
Various sizes of reeds, grasses, and bamboo are cut to fit the boxes. Slate chips make an interesting pattern coming down one side below a birdhouse and the plantings are meadow-like.
Below: This unique Maison des Insectes is in a corner of Luxembourg Gardens in the middle of Paris near a large beehive apiary. This is quite a fancy hotel with lots of unique rooms.
Look close and you can see it includes straw and grass, stone, cut logs, branches, small clay pots and mud filled blocks, all held in place with chicken wire.
Below: A unique insect hotel with a green roof at Knoll Gardens in Wimborne, England. This nursery has outstanding display gardens showcasing ornamental grasses and perennials; I love how the hotel is planted with dwarf grasses that can be touched as visitors walk by.
At around 5’ in height and positioned in an open area of a display garden it makes a striking focal point, a piece of utilitarian sculpture with an environmental message.
It has a shed style roof which helps with drainage.
Below: Another focal point installation, this one at the Montreal Botanic Garden, shows visitors the importance of supporting biodiversity and helping insects find homes.
Below: A similar design found in Washington D.C. in the gardens of the Smithsonian Museum. It’s situated in the back of a display bed near a wall where presumably the guests won’t bother the public as they move in and out of the hotel.
And on a wall nearby you can see another type of hotel mounted on a fence. This one would be easier for the average homeowner to mount and install I think!
Christopher Leahy, Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology for Mass Audubon, writes in a recent article, “the conservation-minded gardener should embrace counterintuitive strategies of encouraging the presence of insects.” The article appears on the Native Plant Trust website and urges us to support the birds and the bees, to be more messy, and build habitat.
Take a look at all the options for insect hotel kits online. Is this the year to add one?