• Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    2 months ago

    Many non-honey bees like to burrow in small tunnels. Preparing such tunnels for them can help them set up camp in your garden. You can do so, by e.g. drilling a few holes into a piece of wood and putting it somewhere where it doesn’t get rained on too much.

    Edit: I just saw that the uppermost picture has in fact one of those hanging on the tree to the right.

    These are referred to as insect/bee hotel.

    • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      51·
      2 months ago

      I was mostly joking on the assumption that it would be impossible, but now I’m fascinated by the idea that I can actually influence butterflies and bees so they’re more abundant in my area. I was aware of the bee hotels, but didn’t know they were anything more than a weird hobby. Do they exist for preying mantises? We sometimes find them in our yard, but they’re endangered and I’d love to have a way to help them propagate.

      • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        Ah, yeah, it certainly is impossible to get only bees. 😅

        I’m not actually a biologist or insect hotel expert myself. You’ll probably get much better advice, if you ask in e.g. !askbiologists@lemmy.world.

        Given their camouflage, though, I imagine, they mostly want bushes to hide/hunt in. Maybe also don’t rake the leaves in autumn right away.
        Well, and you would probably actually want many other insects in your garden, for them as prey.

        • Sizzler@slrpnk.netEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          It’s one of those self-perpetuating behaviours. The more you spend time in the garden improving plantlife, the more animals you see especially on the microscopic level, the greater your interest. Good fun.