Home - Garden
The Soup Can DIY That Can Lure Beneficial Pollinators To Your Yard
By LINDSAY DONALDSON
Welcome in the beneficial pollinators that help make your garden grow by upcycling your leftover soup cans into solitary bee hotels, where they can build their nests and lay eggs.
Solitary bees make up around 90% of the bee species found in North America, and they pollinate many plant varieties. However, their survival is at risk due to habitat loss.
Soup can bee hotels are ideal for solitary mason or leafcutter bees, but they won't appeal to honeybees since they’re social insects that build their own nests in colonies.
You'll need an empty soup can with the lid removed, paper, drinking straws, non-toxic glue, paint, twine, and reused pen casings or pieces of bamboo for the bees to lay eggs on.
To build a ready-made home for solitary bees, file off any jagged edges on the soup can, then pack it tightly with bamboo, repurposed plastic tubes, or hand-rolled paper tubes.
Next, paint the can blue, purple, and violet, which are known to attract bees. Once dry, wrap twine several times around the can, secure it with glue, and hang it on a tree branch.