How to attract other types of bees

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kazmcc

Queen Bee
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I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this in, feel free to move it if not admin :)

I have been given the job of helping the children fill the " insect hotel " I will try and post a picture of it. I am looking for advice on what to fill it with. The school would like it to have different materials on each compartment if possible, but I think that might be a stretch, but the more ideas I get the better. It has to be easy to do, with a range of ages from 5 - 11 actually doing the collecting and fitting. I thought of bamboo rods, but the shape of the pots slope outwards - it should still be possible though using different sized sticks. Any other ideas would be useful. Any ideas other than sticks and moss would be welcome, the more interesting and unusual the better :)

Thanks in advance.

A little info on what each method would attract and why would be handy too.
 
rolled up cardboard is good for lace-wings (and earwigs) 'hotels'
 
If the kids can find any old mouse nests put them in the pots that have their base outwards they will attract bumble bees.

Good luck with the project. Mike
 
rolled up cardboard is good for lace-wings (and earwigs) 'hotels'

Thanks Tony, that's a nice easy one for the kids to collect. Would you renew it when it pulps down or just leave it and let the insects do their thing?
 
If the kids can find any old mouse nests put them in the pots that have their base outwards they will attract bumble bees.

Good luck with the project. Mike

Thanks MJ, This is the type of thing we are trying to attract.

I forgot to mention, the insect hotel is sited right behind the bee enclosure, so we don't want to attract anything that would bother the main attraction ;)
 
Have you got space for a small pond? Even a decent sized bowl with water and duck weed attracts many insects, frogs pond skaters and such like.
 
We did have a pond in the plan, but it was taken out as the place is to be used by a school and it was deemed too dangerous ( even though we wanted a grill over the top ) and too high maintainance. I am the one who usually gets stuck looking after this type of thing, and soon won't have as much time on my hands so i suppose it was a good thing. There are ponds on the allotments and a stream running through, so there is no shortage of water wildlife there. A few ducks even come this far up from the duck pond in the nearby park to have their ducklings :)
 
Hollow stems eg cow parsley should be good for lacewings. A mix of diameters should mean at least some of them are right, and others may be good for other things. Difficult to wedge in a tapered pot- but if they tie up bundles then put them in, that should mean the ends are down and shed water. If you can find old dry ones from last year all the better, if not cut some now and get them drying.
 
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