“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
With insect habitat being threatened, insects are running out of places to call home. When I was first introduced to this project, I knew that I wanted to make a sanctuary for specifically water born insects in Estabrook Park. I frequently fly fish in the Milwaukee River and my favorite spot is right by the Capital Drive Bridge that intersects Estabrook. Seeing how there is really no way to create structure out of wood that would be able to resist the elements and stay intact for any amount of time, I targeted a species of insect that primarily lives in the water but comes out for a brief time period out of the year to mate.
The Mayfly.
Mayflies are native to Wisconsin and play a vital role in our ecosystem.
The Mayfly eggs are laid in the water where they then hatch and spend most of there entire life, until summer, when they climb out of the water and develop into their adult fly forms.
Usually there are large groups of Mayflies that develop at the same time, called a “hatch”. The hatch only lasts a few days, but during that short time period, the Mayflies will congregate into large swarms and mate before they die.
I wanted my project to give Adult Mayflies a place to colonize and swarm during their short time out of the water, so initially, I designed a smaller screened in box on a single stilt with a roof. I planned for the inside of the screened in part to be filled with sticks and debris to simulate a natural habitat.
Once I started to cut pieces of wood and assemble my Bug Motel, I realized that there was a big difference between drawing and assembling. A lot went wrong for me at first. Certain angles weren’t cut to dimension; issues with stability came into play and a lot more. Seeing how we had a deadline, I decided to go off of my original plan and start to focus more on function. The first thing I realized that was wrong with this was that my support needed to be put at an angle to support the heavy roof. This also meant that I would not be able to put the double-‐layered roof inside. I also saw potential for more room to store debris and sticks in my project.