What are insect hotels? Hotels for insects also started to appear in Satu Mare. The first were placed on the pollinator meadow on Odoreului street. Such constructions have become commonplace in city parks, given that 40% of insect populations worldwide are threatened with extinction.
After Garden Design, the company that deals with the arrangement of several green spaces in Satu Mare, set up a pollinating meadow on Odoreului Street, it has now placed the first hotel for insects on public space in the same area.
“Out of concern for the environment, we set up 1357 square meters of pollinating meadows in Satu Mare, on Odoreului street. From now on, they also have a “hotel” for pollinating insects”, informed the local authorities of Satu Mare in an information on the Facebook page of the Satu Mare City Hall.
Insect hotels are no longer a novelty for nature lovers, but especially for garden owners, who have become accustomed to making or buying ready-made such houses intended primarily to promote biodiversity but also to prevent the disappearance of pollinating insects .
What are insect hotels?
Made of wood, reeds, but also stones, bricks, leaves, bamboo tubes or reeds, insect hotels can have different shapes, depending on the species for which they are intended. Most often, they are made to protect bees, butterflies, but also beneficial bugs, including ladybugs, which feed on other harmful insects, but also to keep out spiders, which also help reduce the population of invasive insects.
What are insect hotels – Good for biodiversity and pollinators
Insect hotels are very popular with gardening enthusiasts. Horticulturists say they not only promote pollination, but also impact soil quality, while supporting biodiversity and helping to control pests.
Some of the hotels are specially designed to provide hibernation sites for beneficial insects such as ladybugs.
According to entomologists, the houses must be cleaned every winter or redone every spring, to get rid of possible fly larvae or mites.
What are insect hotels – where should they be located?
If you also want to make such houses, it is important that the insect hotels are placed in such a way that they face the sun, especially at the beginning of the day, and have their backs to the prevailing winds. Insect hotels should be located near areas with wild flowers or cultivated gardens and be at least 30 cm high from the ground, safe from calamities.
What are insect hotels – controversies
Several recent studies have shown that, in some cases, insect hotels can harm endemic bee populations because they can harbor parasitic wasp species. Also, in some areas, the endemic species of bees have been affected by new species of bees brought to the area, which have changed the balance of the ecosystem. Studies have also shown that if they are placed too close to each other, but also if they are not maintained, insect hotels can contribute to the spread of diseases among insect populations.
What you need to pay attention to if you want to design an insect hotel
In nature, insect habitats appear as small separate nests, and large hotels pose a risk of disease and parasitism for the insects that live in high density inside.
It has been observed that the large number of artificial nesting sites, poorly designed, contribute to the death of bees due to parasitism.
Parasitism occurs when kleptoparasites lay their eggs in tubes or cells occupied by bee larvae. Their larvae will hatch, consume the stored pollen and kill the bee larvae inside. Examples are parasitic wasps (Melittobia this and Coelopencyrtus sp.) and the parasitic fly (Cacoxenus indicator) which attacks bees.
When left untreated, the parasites end up spreading throughout the rooms of the bug house and continue to attack in subsequent seasons.
Similarly, mold brings disease to insects, which occurs when moisture condenses and becomes trapped in plastic materials such as tubes.
If you want to encourage the presence of bees, for example, you need to make sure that the tubes have a size between 2 and 10 millimeters in diameter.
