Bee Hotels
While working on the silver award, we made two different types of bee hotels. Both are great options that can house many different kinds of solitary bees (to learn more, visit our pollinator subpage!).
Our wooden bee hotel is a more permanent option, but can also take more time and resources to make.
You simply have to construct a wooden box, and put bamboo or blocks of wood with drilled holes. We found that the bees preferred the wood with drilled holes. We made two bee houses (shown above) for Magnolia Park in Arlington.
The plastic bottle bee hotel is a very easy way to provide housing for local solitary bees, and also helps reuse plastic water bottles.
To make these bee hotels, you simple have to cut off the head of the water bottle, and put in Japanese knot weed of a similar length to the water bottle. Then, hang up the bee hotel outside about 5-7 feet above the ground. The bee hotel should be placed away from a busy road, and preferably close to native plants.