Properly planning an insect hotel - tips wanted

Went to buy wood today. The plan is to build a replica of this: [ATTACH alt="insektenhotel.jpg"]42356[/ATTACH] In the size 70 x 70, so probably a bit smaller and not quite as tall. Costs: Just the wood and the screws over €250. Oof!

What did you buy exactly? Maybe as a packing list to "attach".

What did you all buy? Maybe as a packing list to "attach".

I think everyone has to gather that themselves anyway. We made quite a few changes on site, simply because the hardware store only had the wood in 3m or 2m lengths, etc.

Just want to give a quick update: My husband is tinkering. Unfortunately, I injured my finger. That is sooooo unfortunate! Now he has to do everything alone.

tssss.... I also prefer to let the man do it alone or do it myself alone... we are both doers, although he is very precise and picky, and with me things are allowed to go wrong sometimes. Our working styles just don't match - so if we work together, I say nothing and only move my fingers on exact instructions - otherwise it ends in a huge quarrel

Just like with us, only the other way around. I want it neat and my husband just starts sawing. On the other hand, he really enjoys it, and I just want to finally set the thing up.

When the scaffold is finished, I would then move on to the interior and gradually fill it up. We would start with hardwoods with holes - nicely deburred of course and drilled perpendicular to the grain.

Mmh, I’m casually watching the videos of Werner David. It’s a bit sobering. I haven’t seen or read everything yet but I have the impression that the hotel is really only worthwhile for bees. Lacewings don’t care about a "home". For them, only food in the form of aphids counts. Beetles, centipedes, ants, and other crawlers prefer dead wood or stones. So everything that just rots away on the ground – ok, I can pile that around. That leaves ladybugs or butterflies – I haven’t read any information about those yet.

For the bees, it would also be important to be able to change the tubes regularly, otherwise there is a permanent risk of mites. So you should be able to put the wooden blocks in the oven once a year or simply use cardboard tubes that are then destroyed. That’s why oven-friendly sizes are produced.

So for the bees there are 2 floors and the entire ground floor is "decorated" with dead wood and stones. There is a water source in the form of an old wine barrel next door. It stands directly on the cistern, where a hand pump with a lever is supposed to go. The whole thing is framed by the nutrient-poor meadow, which hopefully then brings enough flowering plants.

Well, and what do I put in the remaining 2 floors? I’m still a bit clueless. ops: