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Plastic bottle with leaves in it

How To Make A Bug Hotel

Help your kids build a bug for hotels. With a few recycled materials you can easily spark their insect interest.

With a little help from the great outdoors, let's make a home for a few of nature's finest – bugs!

HOW TO MAKE A BUG HOTEL

  • Grab these materials…

  • Empty, clear  bottle

  • Sticky tape

  • Scissors

  • Old tights 

  • Foam sheets

  • Glue

  • Leaves, pebbles, sticks, moss

START BY…

Giving your empty bottle a scrub removing the label. Then rinse thoroughly. With the help of an adult, cut a rectangle shape out of one side. 

Person cutting up plastic bottle

NEXT YOU…

Make a bug oasis! Gently place your pebbles making a base and add the rest of your leaves, sticks and so on.

Person putting leaves in plastic bottle

THEN…

 Carefully cut out a piece from the tights. You'll need a square big enough to cover the open rectangle in your bottle. Sticky tape the stocking piece around the edges of your cut out section of the bottle. 

Person cutting tights
Person putting tights on a bottle

AFTER THAT..

Cut a foam rectangle that's bigger than the hole in the bottle. Then cut out a smaller rectangle from that piece of foam to make a frame. 

Person cutting out a yellow square

FINALLY…

Take the foam frame and glue it over the edges of your piece of tights. Remove the lid of the bottle and put it outdoors somewhere bugs would go. Come back the next day to see who's come to stay! 

Person gluing square
Person glueing square

HERE'S A TRICK

Make a bug spotting book and visit your bug hotel each day to see which new visitors have checked in. Your kids will love it.