Insect Winter Hideaways

I do try to grow more and more plants that will attract the poor insects that we seem to be eliminating with pesticides, lack of habitat and climate change. They still seem to be following the pied piper in swarms and disappearing from our lives. 

So  perhaps plant diversity is not enough. Perhaps they also need  a bug hotel. I have seen some very grand ones which would look ridiculous in my garden. 

                                   

As I was thinking about that the other day, I caught sight of the seep hose I installed a few years ago, which  has never been satisfactory because I don't now how effective it is and anyway I keep piercing it with my garden fork which means it's no longer seeping, but spraying generously and in all the wrong directions. 

                                        

What's more, it gets in the way when I want to plant something new. 

               

             Flower pot with seep hose tubes                                Ladybird investigating a seep hose tube

So why not use it as a safe haven? Or will they be put off by the plastic smell? I tore the whole lot up and cut it into short lengths with my secateurs. Then I fitted them all tightly into a flower pot and hid it under the yew hedge. Only time will tell but I have visions of moving-in parties and neighbourly gossip. It is hardly a posh hotel, but perhaps more like an insect housing estate. 

                            

Apart from that I have some bamboo edging,  which is already being used by various different insects.

                                 

 I also have a pile of yew prunings that I hope provide plenty of hiding places for various creatures and some tiny holes in the brick wall for very small bees and wasps. 

                    

                 Pile of sticks                                        Fox unaware of  insects hiding  in a pile of sticks

• I see that the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has a website with ideas for making your own bug hotel, in which it says not to use plastic, which, of course, is what my seep hose is made of. So perhaps it will be a total failure. Let's hope some of the other things I have done for winter will make up for it.