Here is my instructable for building a ladybird house. These can be bought from garden centres and various supermarkets ranging from around £6 upto £13. My idea is virtually the same design as the bought examples but cheaper. The materials that I used are 5mm plywood, pva glue, small nails 10mm long, hammer, measuring tape and pencil.

First I started with a sketch of how I wanted it to look and made a quick drawing of the box sides and sizes.

Mark these sizes onto your wood ready to cut out.

Step 1: Building the Box

This is where all the parts have been cut to size and starting to glue and nail the sides onto the bottom.

Step 2: Fitting the Top

This is where to top section gets glued on and nailed, just to secure it while the glue dries.

Step 3: Fitting the Tubes

These two pictures show the tubes cut to 140mm long and fitted loosely into the box. I started using bamboo canes but ran out of material so I had a trip to the woods and brought back some Mother Die (Cow Parsley) stems. These stems are hollow just like bamboo and when dried out turn brown and look just like bamboo canes.

The cover piece at the top was an afterthought and is just a strip of plywood left over and glued into place. It seems to make the finished product look more professional.

This is then placed outdoors near bushes where the ladybirds can over-winter in your garden. The following spring they will emerge and go hunting for bugs, lay eggs and then the ladybird larvae will continue to eat the unwelcome bugs in your garden. These will then change into ladybirds and then find the ladybird house to over-winter in again and the cycle repeats itself.