Are wildlife houses in gardens common? For what creatures?

7 comments

1. Bird boxes and insect houses are quite common. I can’t tell how many are home made or bought. I know I made some when I was a kid.

2. Yes, these are common. There is a whole section in the garden center to buy these things. You can also buy food for birds so they can survive the cold winter. Besides a several bird houses plus food we have a shrub which attract butterflies in our garden.

3. Birdhouses have long been very popular. It is very traditional to have them in your garden. In later years it has become very popular and trendy to have insect hotels as well. And even more recently, bat houses are also becoming quite popular. A lot of people like to make their own at home – but you can also buy them in garden and hobby stores, or even at larger supermarkets.

   I think partly the popularity has to do with the fact that there has been quite a lot of talk recently about how both insect and bat populations are in decline, so people want to help. But of course, most also do it for personal reasons, because they like to have wild animals and biodiversity around their home. Many Swedes have a great love of nature, gardening and wildlife, and that really shows here.

4. Bird houses are popular since at least 150 years. I built the wooden ones in my garden myself but I think most people just buy them. They are okay. Nuthatches like those concrete houses better than wooden ones so I bought one of those.

   Lately, people also buy so called “Insect hotels” but most of those you can buy are a scam. What solitaire bees really want is a block of dry wood with a few dozen holes of 3-8mm diameter in about 10-20mm distance and about 40-80mm length. That block should be placed before a southern wall but that way that the holes face the wall. So it needs 10-20cm distance to the wall. A roof is a nice add-on.

   Bat-houses have become popular lately. I made one myself years ago but though we have bats here, they don’t seem to like those. I think they sleep in my house’s insulation layer. I will try again with a bat house that has a styrofoam insulation.

   The local hedgehogs are okay with the pile of leaves in the garden, and they nest below the neighbour’s garage.

   I think I will try to lure a bumblebee into a nest box next year. But we have enough mouse nests here. They occupy those usually.

5. “Bee hotels” seem to have become popular in the UK over the last few years, yeah.

6. I don’t know how common they are, but I know people who have bird houses or hedgehog houses, and sometimes both. They buy them at garden centres and the such.

7. Birdhouses are very common, generic ones and species-specific ones too.

   Hedgehog houses are somewhat popular in neighbourhoods with a good established hedgehog population.

   “Bee hotels” have gained some popularity in recent years as well.

   I’m not sure about bat boxes, they’re used quite a bit in woodlands and I imagine in gardens too, but aren’t as common.