Make, Do & Mend - Insect Houses

Submitted by Keely Rendell

Insect Houses - Sweet Potato

Another week gone by and I’ve achieved a little bit more. I managed to find time at the end of March to sow my first veg seeds. Weather was great & son number 2 was willing to help.

Am now picking my cut-n-come-again spinach and other veg are doing well. Plants need certain insects as partners and I loved the idea of Insect Houses in the garden. I wasn’t prepared to pay £20 for something I was sure I could cobble together myself so I came up with my own version as shown below.

My house is near some old sandpits and is used as a dumping ground for all manner of items. I often have a look around to see if I can use any of the items & last year found an old wicker type plant container (complete with dead plant). Eureka! A ready made Insect House. I found another one a few days ago and filled that with old twigs & leaves from my ‘hedgehog pile’. Along with my old coconut doormat which I rolled up & secured, I now have three luxury insect dwellings.

Insect House

You will need:

The wish to encourage insects into your garden

An old discarded container, preferably made from natural material

Or an old coconut doormat

Dead twigs and/or old bamboo canes

Dead leaves

Instructions:

Gradually fill the container with twigs, canes & leaves. I have large piles of twigs in my garden that were originally constructed to encourage hedgehogs so I just raided those piles.

Break the twigs etc to fit in the container and finish when you can’t fit any more in.

Push a few dead leaves in between the twigs if there’s room.

Place the container somewhere off the ground or suspend from a wall or fence.

If you have an old coconut doormat, roll tightly with a few old bamboo canes cut to size in the middle and secure with ‘securing material’ of your choice.

This pic shows the insect house I made last year along with the old rolled up coconut doormat. I don’t intend to inspect them for insect habitation. I’m just hoping that there are some beneficial species in there.

The link below is also a great idea for an insect house. Had I found some discarded bamboo panel, I would have used that.

Link of the week: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/clawclub/insect_house.asp

Moan of the week:

Why can’t both of my cats ask to be let in or to go out at the same time?

Interesting fact of the week:

Pin Money is now used as a term for small amounts of money, but the sum was not always small. In the 14th & 15th centuries pins were very expensive and only allowed to be sold on the first two days of January. Husbands gave their wives money saved for the purchase. As time went by pins became ever cheaper and the money could be spent on other things. However, the expression remained.

Taken from Red Herrings & White Elephants by Albert Jack