Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, bugs need places to hang out,
Speaker 1: just like everybody else. If you're a garden or yard
Speaker 1: has a little bit of fallow ground, you could give
Speaker 1: some insects a place to lay down their weary head
Speaker 1: and thorax and everything else. Populations of terrestrial insects all
Speaker 1: over the world are declining at a rate that has
Speaker 1: alarmed scientists. In a German study found that the overall
Speaker 1: biomass of flying insects has declined by up to seventy
Speaker 1: worldwide in the past thirty years, for reasons that aren't
Speaker 1: yet completely understood. A study published in January one in
Speaker 1: the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirmed
Speaker 1: the same conclusion. Bugs are in trouble, which doesn't bode
Speaker 1: well for the rest of us. However, assigned is studying
Speaker 1: the decline recommend protecting wild habitats and spaces friendly to
Speaker 1: insects while they figure it out. Enter insect hotels. These
Speaker 1: are structures that give bugs protection from predators as well
Speaker 1: as a place to overwinter, nest, lay eggs, and care
Speaker 1: for their young. Although it's helpful to know exactly what
Speaker 1: sorts of insects you want to lower to your yard
Speaker 1: or garden before creating your insect hotel. There are a
Speaker 1: few types to consider as you're designing structure. One of
Speaker 1: the groups of insects hit hardest in the past few
Speaker 1: decades is solitary bees, which are important pollinators and most
Speaker 1: often stingless. We tend to think of bees as social
Speaker 1: and moderately threatening, but most be species nest alone in
Speaker 1: holes in the ground of The diameter of the preferred
Speaker 1: hole varies between species. Meanwhile, centipedes, which eat garden slugs,
Speaker 1: garden spiders which control other pests would lie and beetles
Speaker 1: love rotting logs, pollinating hoverflies and avid eating ladybugs prefer
Speaker 1: bundles of twigs and sticks, while lacewings, which eat many
Speaker 1: different garden pests from scale insects to mites, like to
Speaker 1: nest and straw dried grass or rolled up cardboard. Insect
Speaker 1: hotels are a favor to our many legged friends, but
Speaker 1: are definitely an art project as well. The Guinness World
Speaker 1: Record for the biggest bug hotel, awarded in March of
Speaker 1: two in the Scottish Highlands, is one ninety nine point
Speaker 1: nine cubic meters in volume that's seven thousand and fifty
Speaker 1: nine cubic feet. It's fashioned from a fallen spruce, bricks,
Speaker 1: bamboo canes, wood chips, bark, wildflower seeds, clay pipes, and
Speaker 1: strawberry netting, but any collection of rotting logs, lichens, cinder blocks,
Speaker 1: wood palettes, and wooden blocks will make many different species happy.
Speaker 1: The trick is to drill or construct your setup with
Speaker 1: various sized holes of different depths between about a quarter
Speaker 1: two half an inch in diameter that's about half to
Speaker 1: one centimeter, plus some hollow twigs and stems. It's important
Speaker 1: to not use plastic sheeting in your insect hotel because
Speaker 1: moisture can lead to mold that can harm insects. As
Speaker 1: insects often like sheltered areas, where you locate your insect
Speaker 1: hotel is an important consideration. Many insects like relatively damn conditions,
Speaker 1: but solitary bees prefer direct sun and low humidity. It's
Speaker 1: also important to clean out and restock and refurbish your
Speaker 1: insect hotel from time to time, using great care not
Speaker 1: to disturb any eggs or remaining residents. This will keep
Speaker 1: your little buddies healthy and coming back to stay. There
Speaker 1: are lots of guides online to help you build something
Speaker 1: appropriate for your local critters. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article Insect Hotels roll out the Welcome that for
Speaker 1: Bugs of all kinds on how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: written by Joslyn Shields. The brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: Our Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: and it is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts
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