Mrs Morgan (Senior School Eco Coordinator)

You may have seen this week’s TV documentary Prince William: A Planet for Us All and the endeavours of a school in Liverpool to help the local insect community through building an insect house, wittily called ‘Bugingham Palace’.

At BGS, we too have been constructing our own ‘Bugingham Palace’ to provide a haven and boost insect numbers in our patch. Each week a different Year Group is offered the opportunity to build a layer of the insect house, using waste or left over materials. The foundations are simply wooden pallets stacked on top of bricks and stones, with the centre filled with leaves and old plastic bottles filled with twigs and bamboo, scrunched up cardboard and pine cones – making a cosy refuge for spiders, beetles, solitary bees and many other bugs.

Insects play a vital role in keeping the planet’s soil fertile, decomposing rubbish, pollinating our flowers and trees as well as a key component of the food chain, but research has shown the UK has seen a massive decline in the insect population largely a result of habitat change and an increase in use of pesticides. Building an insect house might be just a small action, but a very important one in making sure we have insects around forever. Why not try having a go at building an insect house in your garden at home using the RSPB’s helpful guide Build a Bug Hotel.