Ladybug house. How to attract beneficial insects to the site? "Hotel" for insects

Pest control takes a lot of time and effort. Try to go the other way and attract beneficial insects to the site! Not everyone knows that seemingly harmless ladybugs are actually voracious predators that exterminate aphids. Both adults and larvae have a good appetite.

Where is your home?

For the summer period, insects do not need housing. But to spend the winter, you need a shelter. Purpose-built houses will help insects survive the cold and stay in your garden. Houses can be of any shape and size. Some are intended only for one type of insect, others are a real "hostel". Tiny, birdhouse-like houses are not suitable for a real wintering of insects, but they can decorate the garden. For a full-fledged shelter for the winter, a more impressive building is needed.

With all conviniences

The basis of the house for insects is wooden frame divided into sections. You can not even knock down the box, but simply stack the boards, layering them with bricks and logs, or put wooden pallets on top of each other from under building materials. Having prepared the basis, proceed to its filling.

In nature, insects seek out secluded places for wintering among leaf litter, under the bark of dry trees, in woodpiles. To mimic natural conditions, sections of the house are filled with stems of dry plants, pieces of bark, cones, straw, large shavings, wood chips and even corrugated cardboard. The material should not hang freely, but it should not be stuffed tightly either - the main thing is to leave gaps where insects could hide. To prevent the contents of the house from falling out, it is fixed with a large mesh. The building is protected from rain by a roof.

To each his own

Logs with holes drilled are for ladybugs. Trellised boxes with bark will be chosen by wintering butterflies. Solitary bees and small wasps will gladly settle in hollow bricks. In the hollow stems of plants, they willingly lay their eggs. The dwelling for hoverflies and lacewings may look different, but hay is always put inside. Clay pots with straw will be appreciated by earwigs (once the aphids have been eaten, the pots will need to be removed).

House for BEETLE

1. Knock down the frame for the house from the boards - a box with several partitions for different "stuffing".

A hotel for garden insects a few years ago could hardly be called a popular landscape object. Performing both practical and decorative functions, such an artificially created refuge for beneficial insects was not at all familiar to many gardeners. Thanks to the efforts of designers who paid attention to the possibilities of developing art objects that serve as a home for the smallest inhabitants of the garden, insect houses have become fashionable. But despite all their unique artistic merit, the main goal is to increase the number of useful fauna in your garden and preserve valuable insects in general.

augerb

Why do we need houses for beneficial insects?

The garden is filled with life by its invisible and largely underestimated inhabitants - birds, insects, various animals. If everyone takes care of attracting birds to the garden, they are fed and provided with additional food in the cold season, then insects are often forgotten. But these modest useful helpers solve many problems in the garden. They not only pollinate plants, but also participate in the invisible fight against pests and even diseases. And beneficial insects should be attracted to the garden no less than butterflies or animals, even if you do not even think about collecting your own honey.

In Europe, and throughout the world, they have long been loudly shouting about the problem of preserving bees, whose populations have been catastrophically reduced, and parks, gardens, and zoos are invariably equipped with insect houses. In our country, almost no one has heard of an ecological catastrophe, which is threatened by a reduction in the number of beneficial insects. Meanwhile, everyone can and should fight against the trouble. And for this there is only one way - to create special shelters - houses, which are called hotels for beneficial insects or simply hotels for bugs.

Yersinia

What is a bug hotel?

A house for beneficial insects, a hotel for bugs, or an insect house is any special building, a small accumulation of materials or a house in which beneficial insects, honey plants and other enemies of garden pests - lacewings, ladybugs, riders, hoverflies, ground beetles, etc. This is a comprehensive solution to the problem of attracting beneficial insects to your site and preserving their population in nature.

Universal cute houses, which are actually a warehouse of materials where useful insects can equip their homes, are among the objects of small architecture, along with garden sculpture or gazebos. They really can turn into a modern, stylish and very original decoration garden. Each such house for insects is unique in its own way and will become a bright individual touch in the design of the garden as a whole.

shastan

Such hotels are traditionally given a decorative form of a house like birdhouses, but more large size, filling the interior space with floors of cells in which insects can settle. But it is not necessary to build a house. You can use old boxes, old plant containers that are no longer needed, leftover boards, pallets and just bricks with cavities - holes.

Materials can be folded into a pyramid, laid out in the form of a wall, construct original structures or make a full-fledged frame of a house or cottage. The main thing is that the hotel has a roof and walls that will serve as reliable protection from wind and precipitation. It all depends on your imagination and time. And, of course, the desire to create not just a functional, but also an attractive object that will become a real decoration of the site.

In fact, even modest specially laid out bunches of brushwood can be called a hotel for insects. But usually in designs they go much further, realizing their fantasies and tastes. Most often, hotels are made of wood, but any non-synthetic materials will do (and you need to choose a tree that is not coniferous).

You can make a full-fledged house with rooms, or you can simply knock down a triangle from the boards, dividing the interior space into sections and sections with partitions. By placing different materials in which insects usually live in each zone inside the hotel, from porous stone and brick to brushwood and bark, choosing filler with holes of different sizes, you will create all the conditions for bees and other beneficial insects to master such a house over time and turned it into a real shelter under the roof.

To protect against birds, sometimes the house is covered with a net on top.

Janet Roberts

How to make a house for beneficial insects?

The most important thing in setting up a bug hotel is to collect materials in which beneficial insects can make their home. You can use the same type of filler. But only a certain kind of insects will be tempted by them, and not different inhabitants of the garden. So if you want to build a real hotel, then you should make sure that under one roof and in one structure there are a variety of materials with holes of various shapes and sizes. You can use for garden insect helpers:

drilled pieces of wood with vertical or horizontal strokes;
small remains of boards and logs;
cones;
straw;
large sawdust;
bark;
a variety of plant residues, dry inflorescences or vines;
stones and pebbles;
spikelets;
hollow stems (cereals, bamboo, reeds, sunflowers, corn):
clay bricks with holes, etc.

Clive Barker

The materials are applied tightly or smeared with clay so that it does not crumble over time. For bees, the main thing is holes in stones and hollow drilled holes or empty stems so that they can safely hide, settle, lay eggs and, having easily closed the hiding place, expect the offspring to appear. Completely harmless and very useful osmium bees are attracted to the site by thatched roofs, marsh reeds and other tubular hollow stems in which they create nests for themselves. But they will also settle in drilled long holes on a piece of wood. For ladybugs, materials are best sprayed with sugar syrup. And lacewings love cones and dry stems of various vines.

The hotel for insects is always placed in a place protected from precipitation and always on a warm sunny site. In the shade, beneficial insects will not be tempted by your shelter. In the warm season, insect houses are more of an art object than truly functional baits for beneficial insects. They perform their real functions, first of all, in the cold season. In regions with mild winters, they can be placed at any height. But where the winters are harsh, garden hotels for beneficial insects are placed so that in winter they can be covered with snow - at a maximum height of a meter or on the ground. Or provide for the possibility of renting a hotel and lowering it to the ground.

The ladybug is a useful insect for the gardener because it can eat about 5,000 aphids in its short life. Attentive gardeners have noticed that it turns out that ladybugs hibernate in shelters of cracks in the bark of trees, in fallen leaves, all kinds of holes where they can warm up. and the birds will not be able to reach them with their beaks. Preservation of wildlife is the main priority in ecology environment. A person can help save the life of even such tiny creatures as ladybugs. Let's build a ladybug's house in our garden, involving the whole family in the creative process. Here is another method for you environmental education do-it-yourself crafts for younger schoolchildren.
Ecohouse for a small resident
I found the idea of creating a house in the magazine "Landscape. Favorite cottage" in the section Garden workshop / flowerbed. I will share with you unique tips from the country edition. The house will also decorate your landscape design in the garden. For a 20x30 house, we need the following environmental items:
pine or spruce block
1 young
1 sedum
2 ivy
Churban - a dead tree is very important for wildlife, it gives shelter to many insects. Pick up a part of an even trunk with preserved bark with a diameter of at least 20 cm. Pine or spruce is best because they rot more slowly, are the most even and round. Of all types of wood, pine and spruce have healing environmental properties. Young are rosettes of colorful leaves in bright yellow, green, purple, orange and brown shades of the plant. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that they do not lose their attractiveness in winter and retain their properties of a "warm place". Various forms and varieties of youth give a wave of fantasy and imagination for creativity. Ivy is a plant that will provide a pleasant neighborhood for other types of plants, as its foliage will maintain the necessary humidity and hide the ugly imperfections of your craft. Ivy will add extra charm to the chump and ladybugs will rejoice. Stonecrop - ornamental plant with creeping shoots. They tolerate a lack of moisture and are undemanding to the soil. A variety of its shapes and colors will allow you to decorate in various variations and create a unique composition.
We build with our own hands
Stage 1. Let dad drill holes all over the surface of the saw cut of different depths and diameters in different directions. Let the holes intersect inside the wood. The resulting labyrinths like ladybugs. Stage 2. On the surface of the block, you need to make a recess for planting plants. Again, have dad lay the log on its side and drill a few holes of the largest diameter. Using a hammer and chisel, you need to chip off a piece of wood, thereby connecting the holes together. Thus, a recess is obtained for planting compositions from existing plants. Don't forget to drill drainage holes. Stage 3. Difficult physical work is over, mom is joining. Now you need to fill the hole with compost soil, not forgetting that you also need to plant plants. Stage 4. Plant stonecrops and juveniles at the very top, they will grow well in such soil. Place climbing plants around the edges so that they cover the bark. Stage 5 Water the flora of the house and put it in the prepared place in the garden. Stage 6 Now connect your child to an exciting activity. Find a ladybug together and plant it in a house.
Decoration of the house in the form of young and climbing plants can not be done, this is so, for design. It is enough to drill holes, you can nail the "Roof" on top, or you can leave it like that. The main thing is housing!

That's all. A house made with a soul will protect a ladybug and other settled insects from the cold. And we will show children by example how to take care of animals.

Ladybugs hibernate under the bark of trees.

And some ladybugs hibernate in the refrigerator.

Yes, yes, you heard right. Some gardeners collect ladybugs wherever possible in the fall, store them dormant in the refrigerator. And in the spring they release them into their garden so that they eat aphids.

http://boja-korovka.ucoz.ru/publ/domiki_dlja_bozhikh_korovok/1-1-0-12

Houses for ladybugs and other beneficial insects of our summer cottages - of extraordinary beauty! It's also easy to do it yourself. Look! this is a site of ladybug lovers, it turns out there are such.

Build a house for insects from scrap materials, this will help to balance the wide range of your plants and increase on your site.

This simple design will help attract beneficial insects to your site, which will bring invaluable help in pest control.

Building an insect house

1 - Start by collecting natural materials, to build an insect shelter: roundwood, brick, straw, tubular stems. Choose from improvised local materials that offer more or less large openings to suit different insect preferences.

2 - Make a wooden frame strong enough to support a considerable amount of weight. Use sustainable woods: oak, larch, chestnut... Estimate the size of your house in terms of the amount of materials you have. Put the heaviest materials on the bottom.

3 - Provide a waterproof lid construction (slate for example).

4 - Install the frame on your permanent place before filling (due to weight if the house is large). Raise it 20cm off the ground to keep it out of moisture (and so your dog doesn't nest there). To protect the house from strong winds, hammer stakes around the perimeter and strengthen the house on them, for example.

5 - cut the material to desired length and fill in each opening in the structure.

Tip: If you can install the house in a place protected from the wind and sun, you can leave it open on both sides. Otherwise, it is better to close the back side so as not to disturb the insects too much with air currents.

What materials, for what insects?

1. Straw or wood: This material will attract lacewings, whose larvae feed on many pests: aphids, powdery mildew, whiteflies, mite eggs.

2. bamboo sticks: provide shelter for solitary bees that pollinate the first flowers of fruit trees from March

3 inverted pots filled with hay: it attracts earwigs that love pests like aphids

4 boards hidden behind these metal plates: attract insects involved in the decomposition of dead wood

5 drilled decks: These will become a popular home to many very beneficial pollinators such as bees and solitary wasps whose larvae feed on aphids.

6. tubular stems: such as blackthorn, elderberry, will provide housing for hoverflies and other hymenoptera. 7. Brick: valued by solitary bees. 8. Small cells closed from each other: they attract ladybugs that come to spend the winter. Their larvae destroy a lot of aphids.

Place this house near your garden and it will provide you with pollination of your herbs, vegetables, and flowers and you will help to contribute to the health of your local ecosystem. Just remember to move slowly and not threateningly near the house, and not to disturb the alert residents.

If you liked this material, then we offer you a selection of the most the best materials of our site according to our readers. You can find a selection - TOP about existing eco-settlements, family homesteads, their history of creation and everything about eco-houses where it is most convenient for you

The basis of most insect houses is a simple hardwood box (plastic and pine boards are not good). The size and shape of the insect houses do not matter, but a small box is easier to fill, easy to carry around the site, and can be hung from a tree. But a large house for mosquitoes looks like the effect of it, and it’s more interesting to decorate it.
It is important that the bottom and walls are without cracks, so that there are no drafts in the house, and when it rains, water does not flood.
If there is no box, you can use shelving, pallets and old birdhouses. Or take ordinary boards, dream up a little and create an architectural masterpiece according to your own sketches.
Interesting houses for insects can be made from ordinary logs or stumps. All you need to do is drill more holes in them. different diameter at a slight upward angle.

Who needs insect houses?

Almost all insects will gladly settle in such houses. In the warm season, such dwellings will be clean for you. decorative element, and in the fall they will certainly serve you - with a cold snap, all insects begin to seek shelter for themselves. The main thing is that the “rooms” are filled different materials. After all, it is very difficult to predict what kind of shelter insects will like. The same ladybugs hide in the most unexpected places - some in the garden under the leaves, others clog in the cracks of the house, between window frames, in the folds of curtains or under a pile of newspapers.
Bumblebees like to settle in holey logs - ideal pollinators of garden plants.

Insect house furnishing

Last year's hay, straw, moss can serve as a filler - many bugs love soft bedding. Dry hollow cane or hogweed shoots, bamboo, thin tubes from an old newspaper will do. Opened cones, a bunch of dry branches, bark will be a good shelter for insects.
You can use more solid materials: bricks, stones, flower pots, cracked ceramic dishes. Remember that teapot with a pricked spout and without a lid, which you can’t use, but it’s a pity to throw it away - it’s very beautiful? Here in the house he will be the place!

Protection system

The structure is filled loosely and tightly at the same time: there should be gaps between the fillers where insects can hide. But at the same time, the material must be well fixed so that it does not crumble and is not blown away by the wind. After the box is full, a metal mesh is nailed on the open side, otherwise your beneficial insects will be destroyed by birds. It is useful to strengthen the roof of the house with a sheet of iron, a piece of slate or tiles - this will protect the structure from bad weather. In summer, insect houses can show off anywhere, but at the end of the season they need to be put on the ground so that they are under the snow in winter. Otherwise, useful insects will freeze.