Insect hotels or insect houses, more rarely also referred to as insect shelters, insect walls, insect boxes or beneficial insect hotels, are artificially created shelter, nesting and hibernation aids for insects. The designations are either used as generic terms for the different insect group-specific designs (such as wild bee hotels, earwig hotels, etc.) or are intended to characterize a design as a combination model for different insect groups.
The first wild bee boxes were built by private individuals in England as early as 1840. At that time, these were used for observation purposes, but can be considered the forerunners of insect hotels suitable for several groups of insects. Insect hotels have been increasingly used since the 1990s, especially among natural gardeners and in school biology. As insect protection measures that can be implemented by practically anyone with little effort, the facilities have been made known in particular by numerous European nature conservation associations, and they also play an important role in the context of permaculture.
Insect hotels are built by do-it-yourselfers or are commercially available in various sizes and with different equipment as kits or ready-made models. The variety of shapes ranges from small, creative individual structures to large, mostly wall- or cupboard-like models. Large and individually designed insect hotels are often built by nature conservation groups or the like. B. implemented by companies in gardening and landscaping or workshops for the disabled. Large insect hotels are built free-standing or leaned against trees or existing building walls or built in front of them. The term insect hotel came about colloquially in reference to the house-like appearance of modern facilities, which stand out due to their free-standing, multi-storey construction and - to protect them from the weather - distinctive roof structures