Insect Mansion

Description from Crocus

This Neudorff insect hotel not only looks at home in any garden but also provides an ideal habitat for lots of useful insects that are beneficial for the plants in your garden. Its provides a place for nesting in the summer and a suitable winter habitat for colder months.

Each nesting room is ideal for different beneficial garden insects:

• Ladybirds – The top and bottom rooms are ideal for them as they prefer nesting in dense materials and they will use this as a hiding place at night. They are great at regulating unwanted pests such as greenfly and blackfly.
• Mason bees – The room with the hollowed out wood provides ideal breeding tubes. They will shut themselves away in the winter and come out in the spring ready to help pollenate your plants.
• Digger wasps – The two rooms with the smaller bamboo tubes are ideal for digger wasps who are extremely useful in the battle against greenfly, blackfly and leaf beetle larve.
• Wild bees – They also make use of the rooms with the smaller bamboo tubes as a suitable nesting space and can be out ready for polinating in early spring or summer.
• Butterflies – Species such as Brimstone, Peacock, Small tortoise-shell and Admiral use the middle room as a winter habitat and shelter during periods of bad weather ready for pollinating in spring/summer.
• Green lacewing – The bottom room is perfect for them as they love loosly stacked natural materials to take shelter in. These lacewing feed on aphids, thrips and mealy bugs as well as honeydew and nectar from herbs.