“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,” independent.co.uk, July 2014

Research Proposal & Brief Introduction

I initially created an insect motel as simply a project that I was told that I had to accomplish as a part of my grade for my art class. It turned into something that I truly enjoyed doing. I was told to create a home for insects to live and that is exactly what I did. I even turned it into an actual house.

Issue Research 

In the state of Wisconsin, we have many different types of insects. Even in just the city of Milwaukee we have a large variety of insects. I chose to not just simply focus on one specific type of insect but a large group of them instead. Through my research, I discovered that there 323 different types of insects in the state of Wisconsin. So why not just make a home for most of them instead of only a select few!

Initial Sketches and Final Preparatory Drawing

In my initial sketch, I thought about doing something that would hang on a wall or a tree. I realized that this would be impossible and not a part of what was being asked I did start out thinking that I was only going to make a home for endangered insects such as Hine’s emerald dragonfly, Karner blue butterfly, or the Rusty patched bumble bee. And that design intermingled each habitat with one another. But as I continued to design and redesign I discovered that I did want to make something that was nonspecific. Which then turned into an actual home for all insects. When I think of something that things live in I think of a house. So, I made a house for insects. In the end, I stuck to my main idea and it worked out perfect.

Final thoughts / Reflection

I absolutely love how my project turned out. It works with the environment to support many different types of insects. I think that with the other insect motels we will be able to create a home for both specific insects and a variety all at once. And although every insect motel looks great in will always think that mine is something unique because is looks like house.

Maintenance

There shouldn’t been too much maintenance needed. Every so often it will be needed to be completely cleaned out and new food can be put in. Because it is for a variety of insects anything that they would like could be put back in.