Competition organised by Whitchurch In Bloom in collaboration with Wildlife of Whitchurch.
There are three categories:
- Most creative design Boutique Hotel (30cm and under)
- Most creative design Luxury Hotel (above 30cm high)
- Best Hotel name
The competition will run from 1st March – 31st May 2025, so get your entries submitted by 8pm on Saturday 31st May.
Judging will take place in June, and the results and fantastic prizes will be awarded on 30th June 2025.
Prizes will be given to the first and second place for each category. Prizes will be announced in due course.
Judging will take place in June and winners of the fantastic prizes will be notified on 30th June 2025.
HOW TO ENTER
- Once you have created your beautiful bug hotel you will need to take photos of it in situ. You can provide up to 3 photos per entry.
- Give details of the dimensions (height, width and depth)
- A brief description of how you went about designing and building your hotel and materials used. How many recycled materials were you able to incorporate into your design?
- Don’t forget to name your hotel
Submit your entry by 8pm on Saturday 31st May
Email your entry with your name and contact details to: whitchurchinbloom@gmail.com
If you would prefer you can post or deliver hard copies of your entry to:
Whitchurch In Bloom Beautiful Bug Hotel Competition
c/o Kathy Hardy
68, Winchester Street
Whitchurch
RG28 7HP
Don’t forget to add your contact details!
Even if you are unable to create a bug hotel you can still enter your suggestion for an original, quirky bug hotel name for a chance to win the prize for Best Bug Hotel Name.
Email your entry with your name and contact details to: whitchurchinbloom@gmail.com or post to the above address.
GOOD LUCK!
Why We Want Your Bug Hotels
Bug hotels bring many advantages to the garden ecosystem. They attract and provide homes for various insects and in so doing increase the biodiversity in your garden. This creates a healthier and more balanced ecosystem.
Bug hotels also help hedgehogs by providing a food source as they attract beetles and other critters that hedgehogs like to eat. Bug hotels are good for pest control as they give ladybirds a home and they in turn eat aphids( greenfly). Did you know that a ladybird can eat 25 aphids a day!
Decaying wood will give woodlice a home. Stones and old roofing tiles placed in the centre of a hotel situated in a shady spot will provide cool conditions for amphibians such as frogs and toads who will eat the slugs in your garden.
Bug hotels provide overwintering sites for bees and wasps (wasps are great pollinators too!)
Bug hotels can be designed to provide a nesting place for hedgehogs. Hedgehogs can travel up to a mile each night. To help hedgehogs to get into your garden they need to be able to access and leave it through either gaps under your fence or by creating a hole the size of a CD case. If you can encourage your neighbours to do the same you will have helped to create a hedgehog highway making it easier for hedgehogs to travel around safely with less need for them to cross dangerous roads. Many thousands of hedgehogs are killed on our roads each year and their numbers are in rapid decline so we need to do all that we can to help them. For more information on how you can help hedgehogs visit: www.hedgehogstreet.org
TYPES OF MATERIALS TO USE
- Dead wood is essential for the larvae of wood boring beetles. Centipedes and woodlice like it as well.
- Hollow stems of plants and old bamboo canes or holes drilled in wood make good nesting sites for solitary bees and other insects.
- Stones and old tiles placed near the ground and in the centre of a bug hotel situated in a shady spot will provide a frost free habitat for amphibians.
- Straw and hay
- Dry leaves
- Loose bark (many insects like to hide underneath it and in the crevices)
- Corrugated cardboard rolled up and placed in a waterproof cylinder or recycled plastic bottle to create a home for lacewings
- Dry sticks and pine cones are great for ladybirds to hibernate in.
- Pack a flower pot with sticks and leaves.
- Do not use metal or tin containers as they will rust and get hot in the sun!
- Even if you don’t have much space you can still make a small bug hotel in a pot or planter. A bug hotel on a stake? The possibilities are endless so put your creative thinking caps on and get building!
- Bug hotels not only benefit insects and other wildlife they are a great way of recycling unwanted materials and so help our planet. How many recycled items can you find to use? How about an old tyre! Look at this one that Lisa one of our “Bloomers” made.
Sources of reference to help with building your bug hotel:
- The Wildlife Trusts
- Woodland Trust
- RSPB
- RHS Campaign for school gardening
- Buglife
- WWF