The ladybug is a beneficial insect for the gardener because it can eat about 5,000 aphids in its short life. Attentive gardeners have noticed that it turns out ladybugs They overwinter in shelters of cracks in the bark of trees, in fallen leaves, and in all sorts of holes where they can warm up. and the birds will not be able to reach them with their beaks. Conservation of wildlife is the main priority in ecology environment. A person can help save the lives of even such tiny creatures as ladybugs. Let's build a ladybug house in our garden, involving the whole family in the creative process. Here is another method of environmental education for younger schoolchildren - DIY crafts.
Eco-house for a little resident
I found the idea for creating a house in the magazine "Landscape. Favorite Dacha" under the heading Garden workshop/flower bed. I will share with you unique tips from the dacha publication. The house will also decorate yours landscape design in the garden. For a house measuring 20?30 we will need the following environmental items:
block of pine or spruce
1 was young
1 sedum
2 ivy
Chunk - a dead tree is very important for wildlife; it provides shelter for many insects. Select a part of a smooth trunk with preserved bark with a diameter of at least 20 cm. Pine or spruce are best suited, because they rot more slowly, are the most even and round. Of all types of wood, pine and spruce have healing environmental properties. Juveniles 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 as a “warm place”. Various forms and varieties of juveniles give a boost to fantasy and imagination for creativity. Ivy is a plant that will provide pleasant neighborhood other types of plants, since its foliage will maintain the necessary humidity and hide ugly flaws your craft. Ivy will add additional charm to the log and the ladybugs will rejoice. Sedum - ornamental plant with creeping shoots. They tolerate a lack of moisture and are undemanding to the soil. The variety of its shapes and colors will allow you to decorate it in various variations and create a unique composition.
We build with our own hands
Stage 1. Let dad drill holes across the entire surface of the cut of different depths and diameters in different directions. Let the holes intersect inside the wood. Ladybugs like the resulting labyrinths. Stage 2. On the surface of the log you need to make a depression for planting plants. Again, have dad lay the log on its side and drill several holes of the largest diameter. Using a hammer and chisel, you need to break off a piece of wood, thereby connecting the holes together. This creates a recess for planting compositions from existing plants. Don't forget to drill drainage holes. Stage 3. Complex physical labor finished, mom joins in. Now you need to fill the hole with compost soil, not forgetting that you also need to plant plants. Stage 4. Plant sedums and sedums in the very top part, they will grow well in such soil. Place climbing plants along the edges so that they cover the bark. Stage 5. Water the flora of the house and place it in a prepared place in the garden. Stage 6. Now involve your child in an exciting activity. Find a ladybug together and put it in the house.
House decoration in the form of young and climbing plants You don’t have to do it, it’s just for design. It’s enough to drill holes, you can nail the “Roof” on top, or you can leave it like that. The main thing is there is housing!

That's all. A well-built house will protect the ladybug and other resident insects from the cold. And we will show children by example how to treat animals with care.

Ladybugs overwinter under the bark of trees and hibernate.

And some ladybugs overwinter in the refrigerator.

Yes, yes, you heard right. Some gardeners collect ladybugs wherever possible in the fall and 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 in our dachas are of extraordinary beauty! It's also easy to do yourself. Look! This is a site for ladybug lovers, it turns out there are others like that.

Just a few years ago, a hotel for garden insects 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 abode for the smallest inhabitants of the garden, houses for insects have become fashionable. But despite all their unique artistic merits main task is to increase the amount of beneficial fauna in your garden and preserve valuable insects in general.

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, feeding them and providing additional nutrition during 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 don’t 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 declined catastrophically, and parks, gardens, and zoos are invariably equipped with houses for insects. In our country, almost no one has heard about the environmental disaster that is threatened by a reduction in the number of beneficial insects. Meanwhile, everyone can and should fight adversity. And for this there is only one way - to create special shelters - houses, which are called hotels for beneficial insects or simply hotels for beetles.

What is a bug hotel?

A house for beneficial insects, a hotel for beetles, or an insect house is any special structure, a small accumulation of materials or a house in which beneficial insects, honey plants and other enemies can live garden pests– lacewings, ladybugs, ichneumon wasps, hoverflies, ground beetles, etc. These are comprehensive solution problems of attracting beneficial insects to your site and maintaining their population in nature.

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

Such hotels are traditionally given decorative form houses like birdhouses, but larger, filling inner space floors of cells in which insects can settle. But it is not necessary to build a house. You can use old boxes, unnecessary old containers for plants, leftover boards, pallets and just bricks with cavities-holes.

Materials can be folded into a pyramid, laid out in the form of a wall, or built original designs 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 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 bundles of brushwood, specially laid out, can be called a hotel for insects. But usually they go much further in their designs, realizing their fantasies and tastes. Most often, hotels are made of wood, but any non-synthetic materials will do (and the wood you should choose is not coniferous).

You can make a full-fledged house with rooms, or you can simply make a triangle out of boards, dividing the internal space into sections and sections with partitions. Located in each zone inside the hotel different materials, in which insects usually live, from porous stone and brick to brushwood and bark, by selecting filler with holes of different sizes, you will create all the conditions so that over time bees and other beneficial insects will master such a house and turn it into a real shelter under the roof .

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

How to make a house for beneficial insects?

The most important thing in setting up a hotel for beetles is to collect materials in which beneficial insects can set up their shelter. You can also use the same type of filler. But only a certain type of insect will be tempted by it, 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 various shapes and magnitude. You can use garden helper insects:

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

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 reliably hide, settle, lay eggs and, easily closing the hiding place, await the appearance of offspring. 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 long holes drilled on a piece of wood. For ladybugs, it is better to spray the materials with sugar syrup. And lacewings adore cones and dry stems of various vines.

A hotel for insects is always placed in a place protected from precipitation and always on a warm, sunny area. In the shade, beneficial insects will not be tempted by your shelter. In the warm season, insect houses are more like art objects than truly functional baits for beneficial insects. They perform their real functions primarily in the cold season. In regions with mild winters they can be placed at any height. But where winters are harsh, garden hotels for beneficial insects are placed so that in winter they can be covered with snow - at most at a meter height or on the ground. Or they provide the opportunity to rent a hotel and lower it to the ground.

Not long ago we wrote a note about which insects are not harmful, but on the contrary help summer residents by destroying their voracious fellows for other people's harvests (you can find it).

You can attract beneficial insects to the garden, first of all, by planting aromatic plants. But in order for as many of them as possible to decide to stay in your garden, you need to approach the issue more carefully and also take care of housing for our little brothers.

In much the same way as we build birdhouses and titmice, we can build houses for beneficial insects. However, they will, of course, look somewhat different.

It's no secret that in many European countries Beneficial insects are specially bred and sold via the Internet and regular stores to summer residents. This destination is very popular among environmentally conscious and natural-seeking Europeans.

And of course, such demand creates supply for housing for new residents. Everything to make them feel comfortable and comfortable.

In our country, they do not yet sell either insects or houses for them (at least we have not encountered such a thing). But take care of comfortable conditions for little helpers you can do it yourself. And it's not difficult at all. And now it’s especially important, because autumn and winter are just around the corner, when insects need reliable shelter more than ever.

Most beneficial insects choose shelters for wintering from fallen leaves, bark, old boards piled up... Use all this for the house. Various sticks and twigs and straw are also perfect.

Shelters can be placed in piles in the garden, or they can be arranged decoratively by placing them in boxes and crates and placing them in the garden.

Even more interesting ideas for building houses for ladybugs, lacewings and ground beetles - watch our video:

Build a bug house from scrap materials to help balance your wide variety of plants and increase biodiversity in your yard.

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


1 - Start by collecting natural materials, to build a shelter for insects: Round forest, brick, straw, tubular stems. Choose from locally available materials that offer larger or smaller openings to suit different insect preferences.

2 - Do it wooden frame, strong enough to support significant weight. Use durable wood: oak, larch, chestnut... Estimate the size of your house based on the amount of materials you have. Put the most heavy materials, to the bottom

3 - Provide a waterproof cover structure (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 away from moisture (and to prevent your dog from roosting there). To protect the house from strong winds, drive stakes around the perimeter and strengthen the house on them, for example.

5 - cut the material to required length and fill every opening in the structure.

Advice: If you can install the house in a place protected from 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, whitefly, mite eggs.

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

3. inverted pots filled with hay: this attracts earwigs, which love pests such as aphids

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

5. Drilled logs: These will become a popular home for 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: prized by solitary bees.


8. Small cells are closed from each other: they attract ladybugs that fly in to spend the winter. Their larvae destroy many aphids.

Place this house near your garden and it will pollinate your herbs, vegetables, and flowers and help contribute to the health of your local ecosystem. Just remember to move slowly and non-threateningly near the house, and not disturb the wary residents.

How to grow and protect crops without chemicals? How to get rid of harmful insects that destroy our work and appropriate the harvest for themselves?

One of the most environmentally friendly ways is to provide accommodation and normal development other insects - beneficial ones, which are natural destroyers of “harmful” ones. And for this it is necessary to build houses for beneficial insects.

We all went to school and know that for every “harmful” insect there is its opposite – a beneficial insect – the orderly. It is an axiom that ladybugs destroy aphids. The lacewing is generally a super beneficial insect. She eats many varieties small pests: aphids, scale insects, mites. Lacewing larvae are even bred in some countries. But there are many other beneficial insects that need our help.

What are insect houses?

To attract wild bees and other beneficial insects, there should be nectar-bearing plants around the site: willow, wildflowers, oregano, phacelia, clover, dill and others.

You all know when in the spring we all go together to make and install birdhouses, titmouses and bird feeders. Those. We have learned to attract birds and take care of them. We understand that birds are our helpers.

This is how you need to make houses (sort of hotels) for insects. Thus, we attract them to our garden, help them survive the winter in unfavorable conditions, and raise the necessary offspring to maintain the population.

Abroad in many national parks Similar hotels are being built in botanical gardens. In Russia, not enough attention is paid to this.

How to make such a house?

We will consider several options for building such houses.

Option 1

You will need:

• clay,
• straw,
• metal rod.

Mix clay with water and straw to make bricks or cube blocks from the mixture. While they are still wet, pierce them with a metal rod or tree branches, and let the bricks dry for a few days. Next, before everything is completely dry, remove the rods and rods. The remaining holes will be homes for bees.

Option 2

Take clay, corn or sunflower stalks, or other plants that have a hollow stem. These can be dill, trumpet weed stems, grape vines, raspberry stems, etc. Cut into 20-30cm lengths and tie the stems into a bundle. Make a “hotel” frame and secure these bundles in it. To make everything stick better and look beautiful, you can coat the bunches with clay.

Option 3

You will need wooden box, open on one side, which you will attach to sunny side fence or wall. Fill it with blocks of wood or small logs, in which you drill small holes different diameters(usually 2-10mm, no more). The open ends of the holes should face outwards and be smooth, without nicks or splinters of wood. They can be cleaned with sandpaper or another method. You should also thoroughly clean the holes from sawdust. A variety of insects and solitary bees will use these tunnels as nests.
The box should not be deeper than 20-30cm. It should have a roof with an overhang to protect it from rain. Can be used as a box old furniture: chest of drawers, kitchen table, cabinet, etc.

Place the insect house on the sunny side, facing south or southeast, at a height of about a meter from the ground. There should be no tall vegetation in front of it so as not to obscure the entrances to the tunnels. It is important that the sun has the opportunity to warm them in the first half of the day.

If houses are chosen by solitary wild bees, then it is important for them to leave an island of land so that they can use it to build their nests. They use it as a plaster to wall up the entrances to the house.

Option 4

Insect houses can be an excellent dining room for various birds, woodpeckers in particular. Therefore, it would be a good idea to protect your pets by securing a metal mesh in front of the entrance tunnels.

This project can be done with children. You will have fun and useful time together. There is a huge selection of different natural materials in the garden or in the forest. These can be fir cones, dry branches, various dried flowers, dry corn and sunflower stalks, leaves, moss. You can come up with many different various designs. The creative process is only limited by your imagination. Children also like to see how insects inhabit the home and watch them in nature.

But these are no longer just houses for insects, but entire hotels and look very decorative. This design can undoubtedly be an excellent decoration for your site and one of the solutions for landscape composition.