Education

Woodland Activities

Bug_houses

ADULT SUPERVISION IS NEEDED Materials needed- Potato peeler or penknife. Elder wood Sisal String or rubber bands Loppers or saw Cut a length of Elder wood about as long as your arm and as thick as a finger. You can cut it with a saw or loppers, but make sure you cut it at it's base and not in the middle of the branch. It will be better for it to grow back this way. Cut this branch in bits about as long as your hand, hopefully about 5-6 bits Using either a potato peeler or a penknife, strip the bark off, always pushing the knife or peeler away from you. The bark should come off very easily, and you can strip it by hand if no utensiles around. Using a stick push the pith inside the elder branch in by about 1-2 inches.To measure this hold the pocking stick on the outside of the elder branch and you can see how far it went in. The pith is soft like sponge, and will easily be squashed, do this with all the strips of elder. Group the elder sticks together and using a rubber band or sisal string , tie the sticks in a bundle with all the pocked ends together. Sisal is more environmentaly friendly than rubber bands. You now have a Bug House that you can leave in a secret place and check every now and again to see who has moved in!!