What Insects Do You Want in Your Garden?

When you've spent years cultivating a beautiful insects garden and enjoy the scent and sight of bright colours throughout the year, the last thing you want is to suffer from invading mites destroying your plants!

The good news is that a bugs house is a simple, low-cost and natural way to protect your flowers with zero chemicals or pesticides.

In this guide, AllPetSolutions summarises some of the best minibeasts to have in a bugs hotel and the benefits they bring to your garden.

The Benefits of Bug Hotels for Pest Control

While you can treat your garden to avoid insect damage, artificial substances are potential hazards, not least the concern about dangers to dogs, cats, birds and other wildlife.

Bug houses are hugely effective, inviting the below species to your insects garden:

• Ladybirds - which efficiently devour greenfly, blackfly and every other type of aphid.
• Lacewing - these delicate creatures are fierce predators, eating aphids and aphid larvae, especially black flies (a massive problem for veg plots!).
• Hoverflies - not to be mistaken for a wasp, hoverflies cannot sting and munch on caterpillars, thrips and aphids, while also being excellent pollinators.

Get any of these hard-working creatures in your bugs house, and your garden will be pest-free!

How Can a Bug Hotel Support Flowering Plants?

Bug houses are also excellent to ensure sufficient pollination and sustain a range of bright flowers.

The top bug hotel guests are bees, which are important for fruit crops and the environment.

Pesticides are a key problem in helping bees flourish, so a safe, warm bugs hotel will ensure they return to your garden, spreading fresh pollen wherever they travel.

Reducing Slugs With a Bugs House

Last but not least, slugs and snails are a persistent pain and can cause a significant amount of damage to even the best-loved garden.

Buying bug houses for centipedes, ground beetles, rover beetles, and soldier beetles will keep your slug population under strict control, inviting garden allies to reside in your bugs hotel throughout the summer.