Angeline Weidensee

“Insects, worms, and other small animals that carry out vital functions for life on earth have declined by 45 percent average over 35 years, threatening human water quality and food supplies…”

– Steve Connor, “Vital invertebrates decline 45 percent, study finds,” idependent.co.uk. July 2014

Research Proposal & Introduction

In this project, I built a permanent home for insects to live in due to the rapidly decreasing rates of insects in urban and suburban areas. Habitats of insects are being destroyed at rapid rates, even though they are a vital part of the ecosystem. An insect hotel gives insects a safe place to rest and breed. I was instructed to create an insect hotel that would be functional, lasting, and visually appealing to the public.

Research

There has been a 90-95% drop in insects in suburban areas. This is due to the destruction of habitats and the widespread use of insecticides. A lot of people do not realize that insects are vanishing, because they get little to no attention. Most of what people hear about is just the honeybee decreasing, but in reality, there has been a 45% reduction in invertebrates worldwide.

This in turn affects the birds and animals that eat insects, or the flowers that used to be pollinated by insects. This is why insect hotels are important in providing a safe home for the insects to live in.

Digital Design

I used Google Sketch-up to create a three-dimensional model of my design. I decided to make the roof a little bigger than I had previously imagined. The roof was definitely the most complicated piece, since the rest of the hotel is just made of boxes. Everything in the sketch was made to scale and would have looked like the final product, but changes were made in the building process.

Cardboard Model

My cardboard model ended up being bigger than my final design since I had to scale the final product down. The roof is also bigger in the cardboard model than the final design and I took out the middle triangle piece in my final product.

Reflection

This project was much more challenging than I had previously anticipated. The cardboard model was easy, but working with the actual wood was a lot more difficult. I did not have as much material to work with as I had anticipated, so I had to scale down my model a bit. I also had to simplify the two boxes at the bottom into one bumblebee box with a door instead of a drawer like I had wanted. The roof proved to be a challenge, as wood does not bend like cardboard does. I had to be creative with the roof in order to get the curve that I wanted. I am also bad at measuring things, so some of the measurements were off and I had to work around that. I added a wood burned design around the sides of the piece to make it visually interesting on all sides.

Maintenance

Every spring the materials inside the box should be replaced and the bumblebee box should be cleaned. In the top hole inside the roof, hay or long pine needles should be put in. In the second hole, small, hollow bamboo rods should be placed and the old blocked up ones should be disposed of. The third box holds pinecones, which should be replaced if necessary.

The last box is the bumblebee box, which is an empty box with a hinged door. The door should be opened and any bee cells or other debris should be removed.

 

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