Insect House (English)
30-60 min
Ages 8+
What Will You Make?
We are going to create a home for insects and bugs, to help conserve the biodiversity of our environment.
What Will You Learn?
This project explains the ethical, aesthetic, ecological and cultural importance of the biodiversity with which we live. It also raises awareness of how we treat nature and help conserve biodiversity.
Gather your materials...let's get started!
Step 1
Go out to the garden, park or field and look for natural materials such as twigs, flowers and pine cones, collect anything you think you could use.
Step 2
Bug houses come in many shapes and sizes, take your plastic bottle and cut a window into one of its sides.
Here’s a tip: You must have it outside in the open air.
Build your house
Step 3
Start building your home, with all the elements you collected, be creative.
We will create three parts inside our home for insects. We will use a piece of cardboard to divide the bottle.
First we will place the pine cones, they will be a refuge for beetles, lacewings and ladybugs will also like it because of the high cellulose content of the pine needles.
For the next floor we will place the branches, remember to cut them to the length of your bottle, we must place them under pressure so that they do not move, the spaces between the branches will be for different insects such as solitary bees and wasps.
Next we will take a piece of cardboard and cut long strips, to roll it up leaving a little space where our insects such as beetles can hide. We put the cardboard rolls on the next floor, this will house different insects.
When it’s full enough, take a step back and admire your handiwork, let’s move on to the next step.
Find a home for your insect house
Step 4
Find a place for your insect home, it can be in the garden. The location and position are very important, it must be at least one meter above the ground, in a sunny place and the environment must be natural for the insects to find their new home, for example there must be many plants rich in nectar and pollen nearby , so that the insects have access to enough food.
Step 5
Remember to go check it out after a few weeks and see what bugs are in it, just remember to be very careful not to scare them away, we don’t want them moving out after we’ve made it so cozy
Finished Insect House Samples
What Is Happening Here?
Insect Diversity, Soil Formation, Pollination, Nutrient Recycling
Resources
Media
What Is Next?
Brainstorm other ways you can help biodiversity. For example, where else would it be good to put a house for insects.
Also, check out these other projects featured in Make Magazine:
About MoonMakers
MoonMakers — led by Camila and Diego Luna — are a community of creators passionate about knowledge. A Makerspace, an open space with different digital manufacturing machines. And a YouTube channel where we promote science, technology and the maker movement.
MoonMakers have collaborated with companies such as: Sesame Street, Make Community and in Mexico with Educational Television and Fundación Televisa, creating educational content.
We have given workshops throughout the Mexican Republic with: Talent Land, Secretary of Education in Jalisco, Conacyt, Centro Cultural España.
Materials:
- 1 cardboard box like the one for milk or a plastic bottle
- Scissors
- cardboard
- pine needles, twigs, flowers, leaves, etc.
