Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Insect Hotels

These are some of the ideas we have developed for insect hotels in Gordon St. As the area has a storm drain running through the middle, it seems appropriate to use some concrete pipes. We are still working on various size options, the square culverts and large round pipes look good, but they will take a lot of filling with insect friendly materials. One option is to get lots of hollow bamboo pieces to fill them, they would look great but take a lot of work to complete, it may be a case of experimenting to see how it works. We shall try out various other materials and monitor which insects like what material best.

The square culverts are used round here for cattle underpasses, amongst other things, but maybe a little on the expensive side, unless we can find some old ones somewhere? One set on the photo are actually a Donald Judd sculpture, not concrete culverts, but no doubt they would be even more expensive.