When March comes along, we seem to find ourselves itching for sunshine, warmer weather and just being outside. So, this Spring Break, we made it a point to get out of the house (even if it was a bit chilly at times) and get out in nature.

I have been seeing these Bug Houses all over the place lately. They are readily available at almost any store, but considering what they’re for, I felt they were a tad bit pricey. So, of course, I came up with a way to make our own for FREE!

All you need is an old birdhouse (I had a few lying around in the shed) and whatever supplies you can scrounge up from Mother Nature.

I pried the front of the birdhouses off with a mallet and screw driver. It was pretty simple. They were both held on with nails and wood glue, so just be careful. Slow and steady wins the race on this one for sure! One front came off whole, the other broke. But, you don’t need this piece anymore, so it doesn’t really matter.

To make layering the “stuffing” easier and separate the space, we hot glued a few pieces of spare wood along the inside of the birdhouse. This step is totally optional.

The next part is the most fun! We went out in the backyard, we went on a walk and we took a trip to the park to find all of our “stuffing” for the inside. Pine cones, thick fallen sticks, branches and anything else we considered “cool”. When we got home we dumped out our treasures to see what we had. We measured and cut (broke) the sticks to size and I drilled holes in the ends to give a place for the creepy crawly’s to burrow.

The final step was simply placing all of our supplies in the houses. We stuffed them full so there was no room for anything to shift or fall. The plan is to add them around our Frog Pond in a few weeks when it thaws. Hopefully the bugs enjoy their stay at our one-of-a-kind hotel!