Make your own Rot Spot!

Many minibeasts make their homes in old log. Beetle babes hatch from eggs laid inside them and the grubs feed on the dead wood.

Logs will also be great nibbling dens for all sorts of other minibeasts. And if you’re lucky, hedgehogs and toads will not only enjoy bug dinners, they might also shelter there during the day. Why not help nature’s little rotter with your very own garden rot spot?

Beetle bucket

Ask an adult to drill holes in an old bucket.

Put a few logs or thick branches in the bucket so that they stick out. Then fill your bucket with bark chippings mixed with a little soil and peat-free compost.

Stand your beetle bucket on the patio next to other flowers and watch the beetles move in.

 

Log stack

Collect some logs and ask an adult to drill different-sized holes at different angles into them. Minibeasts are quite choosy about which kind of hole to live in!

Dig a trench about 10cm deep in a shady spot and place a log at either end, so that they are half out of the hole.

Fill your trench with sand. Toads may use this to hibernate in. Place more logs with holes in them on top of your first logs.

Fill in the holes between the logs with leaves and old plant stems.

Add more logs that you can end up with a real stack. Watch your rotters move in. Looks out for woodlice, millipedes, centipedes, spiders, beetles and fungi!

 

For more ways on how to give nature a home in your garden and to download your free guide, visit rspb.org.uk/homes

We all know there is a housing crisis in the UK. Perhaps less well-known, however, is that there is an equally urgent housing crisis facing much of the UK’s threatened wildlife.

The worrying state of things for creatures that call our gardens ‘home’ has encouraged Rightmove to lend our support to the RSPB’s new Giving Nature a Home campaign. The objective is simple: to encourage people across the UK to create a million new homes for nature in their gardens and outdoor spaces.