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Step 4Adding a Door to the Bug House
For the best results you should use something like a nice oak that will weather well, but in this example I'm going to use some ply I have floating about.
measure mark, measure again to check, then cut your wood for the front of the bug house.
the size of the door panel will depend on how large you box is, and what fraction of the box you want to be bamboo (especially good for bees)....for this box im using 1/3 bamboo as i find this an effective split.
Once your door is cut to the right size, attach a hinge and hook.....or system that suits you, as long as you can open the door to fill the box with dry straw and sticks once a year your good to go.
One the door is fitted your ready for the last part of the build......drilling some holes.
I find marking out a grid with a pencil, then using a few different size drill bits works well, (some shapes of hole will encourage different bugs, holes like these ones are your standard hole and will encourage most bugs you want, But if you wanted to build a house more inclined to ladybirds, thin horizontal slots will work best, and for butterfly (not that beneficial on an allotment!) vertical slots about 4 inches with a inch of dow rod sticking out as a perch at the bottom of each is your best bet.
measure mark, measure again to check, then cut your wood for the front of the bug house.
the size of the door panel will depend on how large you box is, and what fraction of the box you want to be bamboo (especially good for bees)....for this box im using 1/3 bamboo as i find this an effective split.
Once your door is cut to the right size, attach a hinge and hook.....or system that suits you, as long as you can open the door to fill the box with dry straw and sticks once a year your good to go.
One the door is fitted your ready for the last part of the build......drilling some holes.
I find marking out a grid with a pencil, then using a few different size drill bits works well, (some shapes of hole will encourage different bugs, holes like these ones are your standard hole and will encourage most bugs you want, But if you wanted to build a house more inclined to ladybirds, thin horizontal slots will work best, and for butterfly (not that beneficial on an allotment!) vertical slots about 4 inches with a inch of dow rod sticking out as a perch at the bottom of each is your best bet.
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Sep 23, 2009. 6:16 AM79spitfire
says:
Slots also tend to encourage moths, many of which have destructive larvae, such as "cutworms", "hornworms", or worms in your apples!
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