Growing Up Green At Home: Bug Hotels for Beneficial Bugs

This week on Growing Up Green At Home, learn how to make a bug hotel for beneficial bugs in your garden!

Our gardens are visited by hundreds of species of bugs. Some of these are pests, the kind you don’t want in your garden because they destroy your flowers and vegetables. But many others are beneficial insects, the kind you want to attract because they provide valued gardening services, working with you to control pests and pollinate flowers. 

That’s right, many insects can be used to battle bugs and also help your garden produce food! Insects like ladybugs, praying mantids, bees and wasps, dragonflies and even ground beetles are some of the beneficial insects you want in your garden. Did you know that Allan Gardens releases beneficial bugs in the greenhouses to combat pests?

Photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coccinella_septempunctata,_larva_eating_aphids.jpg

So how do you attract beneficial bugs into your garden? One way to invite them is to build a bug hotel, offering them a space where they can nest and hunker down for the winter. 

Also known as bug boxes and bug houses, these human-made structures offer several benefits. Placing insect hotels in your garden provides the right kinds of habitats to attract these beneficial insects, increase their numbers, and in turn reduce the need for pesticides. Bug hotels are the optimal bug real estate since the bugs that move in can offer all sorts of gardening services in exchange for room and board!

More beneficial bug activities for you to try at home!

Make a Bee Bath 

https://gardentherapy.ca/bee-bath/

Plant a Pollinator Garden

https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-of-green/create-pollinator-friendly-garden-birds-bees-butterflies/

10 Cute and Crawly Insect Crafts for Kids

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/insect-crafts-for-kids-1249902