Insect House

that's a bargain Amy, love these little bug houses :-)

I've never heard of these before , do I need to get out more ?

That's great Amy!!!

Great price Amy, make sure it goes in a warm place and not too high up, it will attract bees and if you find any of the holes filled up with mud at the ends then you have bees! Not until about June time though.

Hopefully ladybirds will come to live there and eat all the aphids.

I've seen specialised ladybird houses and lacewing houses - and hedgehog and frog, come to that. But that's a bargain indeed.

please let us know if you notice any taking up residence, Amy.

Thanks everyone , it's another way of helping our insect population Driad every little helps .. Thanks for the info Grandmage I will do as you say , does it need to be near foliage or can it be placed on a wall ? Fran I will let you all know if I have any residents in the future months :o)

Hope you do get residents, Amy . . . as you say, a real bargain. Hopefully you'll see the insects exploring. Our ladybird house is a bit silly because it's enclosed, so we don't know if it's lived in! Plenty in the garden though, so I think they've decided they prefer living rough. :))

A wall will be fine Amy, but not too high as I said, these little mason bees will love it and they go off and find their own source of food and mud to plug up the cells with, I have kept them for years and they are very successful, will do a blog soon to encourage everyone.

Great price, Amy. I hope you get squatters in there very soon :)

Excellent purchase Amy. :o)

lol everyone should rush to their local M... in case there's any left

I hope I have some squatters ,I'm looking forward to watching it with interest ...Your ladybirds might be having a party in there Sheila :o) this insect house was the only one left on the shelf I imagine they sold out quickly so you had better get your skates on girls :o))

I haven't seen these at M....ns Amy,or else I would have bought one too..I will keep a look out for one...Do you know which way it should face,weatherwise,or doesn't it make any difference ? I wondered if it is the same as a bird box,or not..maybe G.mage will know,with already having one..

I didn't think to ask that Sandra ,we will wait today to see if Grandmage answers if not I will send her a PM ....... I'm going to put some Linseed oil on mine today to make it last longer !

Thanks Amy..maybe G.mage will let us know when she post her blog.?..or she may read these comments...It is a real bargain...:o)

Sorry girls just seen your comments, they need to be in a warm place, somewhere where the sun shines most of the day but the main thing is that they are kept dry, they cannot get wet, I have mine on our garage shelf which gets the morning sun, up til midday and during the winter I put them in the garage to keep nice and dry but not warm!(winter only) then out they come again the following spring. I will do a blog, sometime!! They call these boxes 'insect' boxes but to my mind they are really for the bees, although you might get a little creature taking a rest. Went to our Mrsons. today and they had none either:~(

Thanks Grandmage I have a window ledge under the summerhouse that will be nice and dry and sunny it gets the sun for most of the day . I could put them inside the summerhouse for the winter .. Just a thought do the Bees /Insects stay inside the box for the whole of the winter .. I was lucky to get my box Gm . it was the only one on the shelf .........

cute and cheap to , you should soon get your money back when they start paying rent Amy haha

LOL I hadn't thought of that San , they could pay me in pots of Honey :o)

lol great idea Amy, quids in ;o))

Amy, the bees pupate for about nine months then when it gets warmer march/april time, you put the tubes out again and then they will start to hatch out, if your bamboo stick has a mud plug at the open end this will suddenly open and the process starts all over again. You might have to be patient, I didnt get any bees the first year then the following year they started. I suppose they need to get to know that their is a home for them, they are clever little things. They are safe around children too my grandson loves to watch them working away.

The only concern I would have,about keeping it the shed
over winter,is them coming out earlier,if we have warmer days like the ones we have had this month..I wouldn't want to be greeted by a swarm of them flying around inside,frantic to get out ..and then putting the house outside,and it coming really cold again..which is a possibility....also trapping the stragglers in the shed without their house...Oh dear,I sound so pessimistic...I can be a bit of a "what if" person! ..but only because I would hate to distress them...

No B. they wont come out until they feel the sunshine on the tubes and that is not until April/ish. Honestly keeping them is stress free and so enjoyable knowing you are helping them. Mine have been in the garage all winter from about Nov. time I put them on a shelf in there and forget about them. It is mainly to keep them dry and cool, I suppose its like caterpillars they pupate and live in the soil until they come out into the warmth as a butterfly. Try it and see, it is really easy and the bees need us!

Thanks for all that info Gr. I'm looking forward to getting it out and started now ... I'm sure they will be fine Sandra they are able to take care of themselves and best of all don't need feeding ;o)

or burping, feeding, nappy changing or rocking to sleep !! :~)

Lol..even better...just had another thought..wonder if I could keep it in the plastic growhouse instead of the shed..My plants have survived in there,as I have thick layers of fleece on the top shelf,and plants on the lower ones underneath..what do you think,Amy and G.mage ?

Yes that would be fine, as long as it is not in direct sun (ha ha, in winter) and waterproof, you could always cover them over with some bubble wrap too. They need to be kept cool, some folk keep them in the fridge!!!! eeeekk.

The fridge !! golly can you imagine them waking up and you opening the door ? Yikes !

That wouldnt happen Amy Lol, but yes I can imagine, they need the warm sunshine to wake up!

Amazon has one similar for about £16.00 - think it might be cheaper to make one's own then ...

It would at that price Fran , it would be easy peasy for you with your carpenters skills :o))

lolol! what skills? just get various thicknesses of bamboo, cut 'em up so they have one open end, jam 'em into a frame and put a lid on it.

I agree with Sheila, but still, I love Englishmen for making houses for ladybirds and other bugs. That is lovely :) :)

well, it's easier than keeping caged birds or racing pigeons! *s* and we need more friednly insects, or at last need tohelp them more, given what's been done to them by pesticides and "blanket-bombing" insect killers

Lol. What is blanket-bombing? Some trademark of insecticides?

I think Fran means when they swoop down over the fields with small planes spraying anything and everything in sight Kat .. a friend of ours was cycling back to work one day when one came out of nowhere and sprayed him , He went straight back home got on the phone and reported them !

nods, should have said carpet-bombing - covering a whole area to make sure you get the target at centre of it - like using a sledgehammer to crack a very small nut. Fog of poison over entire field systems and the people around them - even when it's not on purpose!

Good for him, Amy - hope the "funster" got well and truly grounded!

I am not surprised, Amy. That is very dangerous. Can cause lymphomas in people - this carpet bombing by stupids. Long time ago they did it over our house regularly (we are close to fields), but at least warned people several days before.

they didn't give any warnings to the locals here Kat ,our friend was livid and soaked with the stuff ! I will have to ask him what the outcome of his complaint was Fran ....

thanks, Amy; I'd be interested

Read Grandmage's comments about the bees using these lovely little shelters. Until four or five years ago I didn't know that there were singular bees... I thought all bees were communal. But when I was clued to it I took a closer look in my garden and found them! Some of the beneficial wasps in the garden will definitely enjoy your hospitality too, Amy.
We are having a plague of the Eastern Lady Beetles over here. they tend to be larger than the indigenous ones and will infest houses...clustering in windows and under fascia and siding. Not sure how efficient they are as predators either.They can out compete our little ladies for habitat..and it makes me sad to see that once again, good intentions have caused a serious problem for our local fauna.
It seems that for every good intention there are at least five unexpected and probably nasty complications.

most imported species outperfrom native ones, whether they're introduced on purpose or by accident, as passengers in cargo, for instance. taken out of their natural habitat, with its natural checks and balances, they explode into the new niches they've been given because their natural predators aren't brought in with them. In Australia, they're trying to bring in predators for the cane toad, which was imported to keep down insect pests, I think, and proved a disaster.

i really love this brilliant idea!

I've only seen native ladybirds here over the last few days of warmth,and think perhaps that the very cold winter just over a year ago killed a lot of the foreign ladybirds with the orange legs. Nice and reasonable insect home.