Insect Hotel Construction Complete

Doing the final construction of the insect hotel was definitely the fun part.  Assembling all the parts, building boxes, drilling holes - all very tedious and time consuming.  Especially since I had a deadline to meet!  Bumble bee queens emerge in February and I ordered some Mason Bees by mail.

The first pieces to go in were the shelving units.  Once they were secure, it was just a matter of placing everything.  The big rounds were the first to go in.

Ed helped by building the gable.  He also did all the cedar shake siding and roofing.

The pots of coconut fiber were tucked in.

Hopefully something will find these irresistible.

While I was putting it together I was buzzed several times.  The mason bees went right to the bamboo pieces and started building their nests.  A couple of lady bugs inspected holes too.

Now that it is up I visit it nearly every day.  I have almost a dozen mud-plugged holes now.  Today I noticed that the wasps were in the yard - hopefully they'll find a home in here too.

I am having so much fun with this!  My heart just leaps every time I discover a new nest.  As the new bees hatch I hope they stick around and start a family of their own.  I plan on cleaning the bamboo pieces and the nest boxes I purchased (only one hole taken so far) to keep mites from killing my bees.  No one has moved into the bumblebee nest yet, but a hornet was buzzing around today.  Hopefully she/he will move on down the road - don't really want a hornets nest.  But, like all superintendents, sometimes you don't get to pick your tenants!

Fit for a Queen

The first step to building my insect hotel was to research what future residents I could hope to attract here in my central Texas yard.  I already have toads, wasps and lady bugs, but want more bees and lacewings.

I learned that most of the native bees in Texas are ground dwellers.  That meant that whatever nest I built would need to be very low.  I learned that bumblebees like to nest in old mouse holes.  On the Internet I found a lot of sites in the UK that sell bumblebee houses and a lot of chatter about their effectiveness.  Apparently the queen is not easily amused.  Here are the two best websites I found for constructing a nest.  http://tomclothier.hort.net/page38.html.  http://www.insecthouse.co.uk/insect-house-designs/bee-houses/

I had some old shelving and thought that it would make a good start for the project.  The bottom shelf of this unit was about the right dimensions for the two-chamber design.

I cut a piece of plywood for the back and front.  The idea is that the front will be hinged so I can clean it out when necessary.


Then I cut a block to divide the two chambers and drilled a hole in it.  This is what the queen can use to enter the nest.

I cut a piece of 1/2" pvc and painted it brown.  Then attached it with glue in between to blocks.  This will help simulate a dark mouse hole.

I drilled a hole in the door for the mouse hole entrance.  Of course I didn't get this lined up perfectly and had to chisel out the hole.  GRRR.

I used a screen door latch for the door.  And installed hinges with the tiniest screws.  I had to improvise to find a bit small enough to handle them.

Finally I drilled some ventilation holes and stapled some mesh over them to keep other bugs out.  I cut up an old bag I had for the squares.

I installed the shelving in between the two posts I had placed in the herb garden.  I made sure that it was facing southeast and four inches from the ground, as recommended.

I saved shavings from the front yard tree removal and put them in one side of the box.  I also threw in some cat hair - mouse holes are hairy, right?

Now I just have to wait.  Bumblebee queens start looking for housing in February.  I haven't seen any out in the yard - in fact I have rarely seen any bumblebees in the three years I have lived here.  I planted lavender next to the box to try to entice them in years to come.  If I can make the backyard a destination, perhaps some day her highness will deign to grant me the magnificence of her presence and raise a regal brood.

Building A House On My Own

Journey back with me, if you will, to 1982 to when I was 22 years old and teaching high school vocational agriculture.  I had talked my advisory board and principal into letting me build a greenhouse.

Oh mother, what did I get myself into.  I'd never really built anything outside of a chicken coop or two and here I was in a small rural high school trying to show people that a vo-ag teacher who ovulated was just as good as a man.  Better even.

So my Advanced Ag class and I set out to raise the roof on our greenhouse.  And we did it.  But oh, the sleepless nights I had working out structural problems and trying to brainstorm our next step.  The steps to erect it were simple enough, but lacking the discipline of making things level and straight, the boys and I had quite a time of it.  Eventually one of the neighboring farmers sent his foreman over to help me correct some mistakes.  He was very kind about it.  "Geez Sheryl, I can't believe you haven't asked for help!  You have your hands full with those boys.  You've done a great job.  Let me send my man over to help you square it up and you'll be done!"  Bless you Perry.

We did it get erected.  And the door closed.  And the heater working.  And the lights on.  And the fan inflated the walls to make the whole thing rigid and tight as a drum.  Success.  "We did it Ms Williams!"  We all stood and gawked at it, silently amazed that each of us could do such a thing.  It was a great moment and one that still makes me smile.

We soon had that greenhouse humming and stuffed full of plants.  My boys would drop in on the Horticulture class I taught to tell everyone that THEY had built the greenhouse.  "Remember Ms Williams when we put those hoops up?  And had to screw them together?"  We would laugh.  Silly us should have done it in the shop instead of on top of a ladder.  "Remember when we almost dropped the heater?  You should have seen the look on Ms Williams' face!" they would say.

I miss them.  And why this recollection?  Well, I'm building another house, but by myself this time.  I'm building an insect hotel.  Hopefully it will be something between this more rustic abode.

Photo from welshwildlife.org

And this swanky chateau from the Jardin des Plantes.

Photo from foodfromthesky.org.uk

I don't have a set of plans, just a series of photos and descriptions (in French of course, thank you Google Translate!)  Plenty for me to obsess about as I toss and turn.  But this time it will be different.  I am making sure things are level, that they fit together properly, and that the engineering makes sense.  Those long ago fall days with my ag boys have taught me to be a better builder.  Even if it's just for bugs.

As I dig my post holes and drill into blocks of wood, my eye catches some nearby movement.  It's my mockingbird friends who are wondering what I'm up to.  Do you think I could teach them to hold a measuring tape?  Looks like I'm not alone after all.

Animal Slave

Animals have enslaved me.

Over the past couple of years there have been some interesting programs on PBS and articles in Psychology today by Nigel Barber, Ph.D. about humans domesticating animals. Dr. Barber writes that dogs and humans domesticated each other, producing a symbiotic relationship that benefited both species.

Symbiotic. Right. Tell that to my cat and the birds that bully me in my yard.

I am quite the attraction in my neighborhood for bird opportunists. I have several projects that require a lot of digging, and as I am moving soil around, I uncover a lot of grubs. Big white juicy grubs.

At first I just squished them, but there were so many that I started packing a cottage cheese container to toss them into. My thinking was that I would drown them and then just add them to the compost.

However, there was a Robin that started hanging out. Pretty soon I was just tossing the grubs to her. She started following me around like a chicken and ended up building her nest in my front tree.

Last summer a Cardinal and a Blue Jay regularly patrolled my vegetables and ate up the cabbage worms that kept attacking my cole crops. In an attempt to save my cabbage, I installed a row cover. As I was clipping it into place the Blue Jay flew over and started scolding me for covering up the groceries. The language he used! Turns out I should of listened because I lost the crop despite my best efforts.

This weekend I began digging out an area for a flagstone patio. As soon as the first spade full of soil hit the wheelbarrow, a Mockingbird flew in to investigate. Yes, you guessed it, pretty soon I’m tossing grubs to him. When I stopped to take a break he flew onto the clothesline and started yelling at me to get back to work.

So much for mankind being the dominant species. It’s kind of humbling, really, to think that I am so easily domesticated by my feathered friends. I try to find some dignity in that at least I don’t spend hundreds of dollars on birdseed like other folks I know. There has to be limits to how far we humans should go in accommodating the beast of field and air.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must sign off. The cat wants to be scratched.

Let there be dragons and other monsters

There are monsters in my yard.

Every day in the garden is a complete adventure because I am constantly discovering creatures I have never seen, or have never seen such a variety of, before. Dragonflies are an example. The breadth of dragon and damselflies is simply amazing. I have never encountered such colors: carmine, bottle green, lipstick red, orange, Sapphire blue, white, and variations in between. I am constantly running to the house for the camera and the computer to try to figure out what I am seeing. Check out this website that has over 100 listed just for Travis County! Yesterday I saw a new one that just knocked me over. My digital camera just won't focus on these guys, so click here to see a picture of this male Plathemis lydia. I have the females too but they don't have that stunning white abdomen.

There are also a plethora of caterpillars that are munching various plants to the ground. The only one I knew by sight was the swallowtails. Imagine my horror when I saw these monsters chowing down my citrus trees! They are HUGE. I'd never seen such a thing. Turns out they are swallowtails too. They are a type of black swallowtail that specializes in citrus trees. I have them everywhere and it is very, very, hard to allow them to stay. My poor trees are still just recovering from the freeze and don't have a lot of leaves to spare. One of my limes died back to the graft, so I allowed the rootstock to go ahead and grow. My thinking was that I could use it as a swallowtail cafeteria and move the other caterpillars off my good trees. Well, that was a good idea that lasted for about a week. The new growth couldn't keep up with all the "relocated" creatures. Now I am picking them off and rotating them around to whatever is growing most robustly at the moment. Thank goodness the cardinals, blue jays, and anole lizards are helping me keep the population in check so I don't have to resort to caterpillar-cide.

There are also all kinds of interesting bees and wasps that hang about. They are very brightly colored also and vary in size. I found a dead wasp in the garden that makes the largest hornet I've ever seen look like a ladybug. Between them and the giant cockroaches, I can see a nightmare cooking some hot restless night. Right now I also have a swarm of leaf-footed bugs in my black-eyed peas. Every time I go to pick them I get thwacked in the face with a rapidly flying-away bug. They are about a half inch long and have a long needle snout for boring into things. Lovely creatures. Here's a link if you want to marvel at them yourself. They are also known as "stink bugs" so they aren't one I want to handle for a photo.

When the air warms up in spring, the air becomes resplendent with the sound of cicadas. Their chittering can be quite a cacophony during the day and I am always amazed at how they call to each other from tree to tree. Since they are high overhead, you usually don't see them unless a bird has dropped one. I was lucky to catch this newly hatched one underneath the front yard rain barrel. It is called a Superb Green Cicada and I don't think it could be more aptly named. It really is a pretty thing for such a big bug. Their white grubs are commonly found in lawns. I'm always finding them as I dig ditches or turn over soil. I usually just throw them out in the road so they can become street food for the jays and mocking birds that are always supervising me.

I think my fascination with all of this is mainly because they are so new to me. I've always been interested in things in nature and discovering all these new creatures sends me back to Mrs. Holdridges third grade classroom. It was there that we used to do science projects and hatch out Monarchs in jars. I find that same sense of joy and wonder bubbles out of me as I drag poor Ed out of the house to look at some new thing I've found.

Why just yesterday I was out weeding and came across a tiny reddish-brown toad. We also had hawks nest in the neighbor's tree and their two chicks have fledged. Ed and I watched them chase two tomato-thieving squirrels, and then later one landed on my patio trellis. I tell you, all this wildlife sure saves on zoo admissions!