Bug Hotel

[The Judge]

A year or so ago my sister bought us a bug hotel, but when I last properly looked at it back in the spring we'd had no visitors at all, so I'd rather given up on it. Then yesterday I happened to glance at it when I was at the composter near where it lives, and it seemed more colourful than I remembered, so I looked more closely...

I'm assuming we now have visitors, who have made themselves nice and snug by dragging some leaves after them to block up the entrance holes.

Does anyone have an idea who might be making themselves at home here? *please don't let it be spiders...* This is in the south of England (Hampshire to be exact).

 

[Mouse]

Leafcutter bee, I expect. My bro had one in his. I've had bees sitting in mine and then heading off again, but none setting up camp.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Yes, my first thought was a leafcutter bee. Those round holes tend to be the ideal place for solitary bees to make their homes in.

I made a bug hotel in my back garden, out of old floorboards and moss for the roof and I'm fairly certain it's full of nothing but spiders

 

[The Judge]

Thanks, both!

I'd heard of leafcutter bees, but had no idea what they were or did or why they might be supposed to cut leaves, so I've just looked them up and found a very helpful US site. It's here in case anyone is interested: The Leafcutter Bee

I shall now inspect the garden for perfectly cut leaves to see what they've been using as furnishings for their hotel rooms!

 

[Mouse]

I've got a couple bags of bark chippings that I've not laid down yet (afraid of it being turned into a cat litter box) and I saw a leafcutter bee take a leaf into a hole in the bag the other day!

 

[HoopyFrood]

I was once stood admiring my growing cucumber plants -- in fact I think this was the first year I grew them -- and I saw this cute little insect fly down for a rest on one of the leaves. Or so I thought, as I then watched as it cut a perfect semicircle in the leaf and leg it with the cut out! Cheeky beggar.

 

[night_wrtr]

I didn't know bug hotels were a thing! Carpenter Bees made themselves at home at my house by digging their own holes in my nice wooden deck.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Carpenter bees dig through wood by vibrating their bodies and scraping their mandibles!*



*I used to write the content for our bee calendar so I am full of fascinating bee facts.

 

[night_wrtr]

Carpenter bees dig through wood by vibrating their bodies and scraping their mandibles!*



*I used to write the content for our bee calendar so I am full of fascinating bee facts.

It is definitely an efficient method, since they have made a maze of tunnels that would make a labyrinth jealous.

 

[ChatBot]

Bug Hotel? Great. Never heard of such a product.

 

[Harpo]

Bug Hotels are terrific. I once helped to make a huge one for a community garden project. We used an old chest of drawers and filled up all the empty space with different sorts of things for different sorts of things......sort of thing.
I collected about a hundred conkers for it, and a squirrel stole them all. We didn't know the culprit was a squirrel until several small conker trees sprouted in various garden plots