With the rising popularity of organic gardening, providing shelter for insects beneficial for your home garden is crucial. Shelters for bees, the so called bee hotel, can prove to be a real winter paradise! Hang them on trees or place them around the garden bushes, or you can use them as ornaments ont he walls of your home or garden. A suitable bee hotel is usually made of dry twigs, pine cones or even bamboo, where bees seeking shelter from the harsh winter weather can easily hide and wait for warmer times.

Nowadays, insect hotels are available ready-made, but feel free to build your own from scratch! Make sure to cut holes of different sizes in the wood, so that a variety of insects will be able to move in. If there’s some hay or straws lying around your garden, you can use that as well for the comfort of your insect friends!

Keep in mind, though, that insects are very sensitive to artifical paints. Make sure to treat wooden parts of the hotel with organic coloring agents, such as the juices of beetroot, red onion and spinach. Never use varnish or artificial dye even if you’re aiming for a colorful insect hotel. Insects are attracted exclusively to organic, natural places: you wouldn’t want to have a hotel that, while looking amazing, stays empty. Let’s protect those insects beneficial to gardens!

This article was written by Erika Topor, editor-in-chief at Kertportál Magazin.