These are not just any old bug homes, these are the height of luxury for any bug, plus they are totally free to make, use old plastic and are child friendly at the same time!
My favourite aspect of this is the reuse of the plastic. If you and your household are already non-plastic users no need to worry as you will have neighbours or work colleagues who you can call on to bring you their old bottles.
Table of Contents
You will need:
Empty clear bottles, as many as you like
Wool
Plenty of cardboard, paper, twigs etc
One pair of child safe scissors
, work gloves, light eye protection
One crochet hook – unless you have found a hooked twig!
A little bit of prep
The first bit can be done before the kids get involved, depending on their age. So pop on your work gloves and eye protection and drill a hole in each bottle’s base – with a masonry drill bit as the wood bits won’t cut through the plastic.
Now for the fun bit….
This step does bug a bit
You have to poke the wool, in a hook through the hole you have created at the bottom, then try to hook it with a good twig, using the child safe scissors cut to the desired length. This is very much the right time to set a competition up between yourself and anyone else helping as there is no skill involved in this whatsoever!
Next step, once they are all threaded is to stuff with all of the goodies you have found. So make the most of your garden. Get some twigs together. Go for a nice nature walk and see what other bits of bark, dried grasses or anything else interesting you can find.
These look really scruffy! Strangely though, they have become little observation stations. Meaning you can then enjoy watching them as they become homes to all of the critters in your garden. It seems a fitting reward to the bugs for working hard in your garden! 
Make sure you hang them at eye level for even the smallest family member so that everyone can watch and monitor their progress. For other ideas on how to upcycle single use plastic please have a look here
Here is a very short shopping list you may need
For other fun ideas for child-friendly and wildlife friendly ideas have a look at our Homemade Apple Bird Feeder or have a look at our Festive Homemade Birdfeeder.
If you really fancy getting the kids to start to find their own treasure outside have a look at our Tutorial for Twig Plant Labels
With any of these ideas you will have a household bursting with enthusiasm for nature.
Update – Look what we found had hatched and moved to a nearby shrub!
I hope you all find some bugs to watch too! We are also now only using chemical free pesticides and have found garlic spray to be the best.