Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Bug Hotels

Making a bug hotel to protect insects during the winter can help
children learn about the natural environment, while also building
physical and team skills. Viv Hampshire explains.

Insects need safe places all year round, but particularly in winter when they are at their most vulnerable. One way to help protect them is by building a bug hotel, a sheltered purpose-built structure designed to accommodate a variety of insects and other invertebrates in as natural a habitat as possible.

This offers children the opportunity not only to get involved in its construction but to learn more about their environment, as they collect and handle natural materials and observe the local wildlife in all weathers and at close range.

UK gardening charity The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) believes that everyone should have access to life-enhancing gardening experiences, whatever their age or level of ability. Late last year, in association with The Wildlife Trusts, it launched its Give a Bug a Home competition to encourage individuals, schools and community groups to build a bug hotel and to forward their photos for judging.

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