I foraged about Bug Hotel efficiency for insect conservation as it seem to be consensual among gardeners, teachers and other people who want to quickly build something visible for local biodiversity (and indeed positive results are often visible).
However
Do you know any controversies (attract pest, favoring inhabiting predators eating the neighbors species, etc.).
Or no discussion: BUG HOTELS ARE GOOD TOOLS in any cases...?
One problem is related to solitary bees hosted and the probability of the increase of their parasitoids and the spreading of disease. Secondly, it is important that the bug hotel is built in open space, no wind area, south exposed, and other environmental factors that depending on the peculiarity of the site or of the species. Most of the bug hotel does not stand alone: each year should be checked and cleaned when necessary.
Here some interesting opinion about risks with some references shttps://entomologistlounge.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/insect-hotels-a-refuge-or-a-fad/
I believe most of stored products pests, scavengers and saprophytic organisms could be problematic in bug hotels so they must be considered as potential harmful factors as well.
What do you mean by insect hotels? is it the same as insect gardens? or Insect rearing?
This study found they attract more invasive bee species than native ones in an urban context, even worse, the abundance of wild native bees is negatively related to the presence of the most abundant invansive bee species at the bee hotels.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1146609X20300485
One important thing is that the "insect hotel" itself will not contribute to the possible increase of biodiversity. It will only get functional if the bees have the required plants/flowers available nearby to store the collected pollen inside the cavities as food-source for the larvae. So without the correct plants in the vicinity, there won`t be a lot of bees in the "hotel".
Here you can find a pro and a lot of cons on bug hotels (unfortunately in German language):
https://wildbee.ch/wildbienen/nisthilfen
Very interesting discussion.
We tried here in Russia to work on the Insect hotels/ houses for several years now. In big cities like St. Petersburg where I'm, it seems like has no any sense to use.
And the German site posted by Mr. Mayer above is looks to had a very professionally built analysis of their past activity they had with "hotels" to conserved wild bees.
Here is a example I found for use of them in 5 big cities:
1. Waldorf Astoria New York On a rooftop 20 stories above Park Avenue in New York, some 360,000 bees produce more than 136 kilograms (300 pounds) of honey, harvested annually, which not only finds its way into the hotel's menus, but also into treatments at the hotel's Guerlain Spa. Twice weekly, the hotel's Historical Tour stops off at the garden to see the hives and its more than 60 types of herbs, fruit, vegetables and edible flowers. 2. Mandarin Oriental, Paris Paris has been a pesticide-free zone for the past 10 years, making the capital of France an attractive urban environment for honey bees. With the help of local organisation Apiterra, 50,000 bees reside in the Mandarin Oriental rooftop beehive, with last year's sweet haul totalling 25 kilograms. 3. W Taipei Following a good eight months of prep work, W Taipei became the first urban beekeeping establishment in Taiwan when it opened up its 32nd floor rooftop to host some 150,000 busy bees in partnership with Syin Lu Social Welfare Foundation. After six months and two harvests from the Sweet Reward program, the bee colonies were moved to another downtown building as part of the foundation's larger urban beekeeping project. 4. Fairmont Waterfront, Vancouver The pioneer of in-house honeybee production and supporting global bee health is Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, whose Bee Sustainable program comprises honeybee apiaries at more than 20 properties across the world. In June this year, the Fairmont Waterfront became one of the first hotels in the group to build a solitary pollinator bee hotel (aptly named Bee & Bee) designed to give busy bees a break between pollination missions. Image below. The hotel also hosts 500,000 resident honeybees in the 195 square meter herb garden on the third floor terrace, which forage over 67 square kilometres and 60 different plants (particular favourites being the pollens from blackberry blossoms and American bamboo blossoms). 5. St. Ermin's Hotel, London St. Ermin's has been keeping bees for some four years now, first on the main rooftop and later expanding the installation to include a specially planted wildflower terrace where a new bee hotel — the first hotel in the UK to have one — now resides. The hotel in London had their own honey analysed, with results showing their bees gather nectar from over 50 different plants and trees within their three-mile forage radius (which includes Buckingham Palace Gardens and St. James' Park).
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Note also that almost everywhere, except for the "hotels" themselves, they pay attention to the plants and other biodiversity around, as well as to the environment in general (in Paris, for example, the pesticide-free zone has been around for more than 10 years).
Johannes Mayer David Beaune
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