Check-in: How wild bees move into insect hotels

Comfort room: Gernot Kunz has researched which nesting aids endangered wild bees need and redesigned the insect hotel accordingly.

The nesting aid on the campus in front of the Institute of Biology has been renewed. Expert Gernot Kunz has contributed his latest scientific findings.

Steep walls made of a mixture of sand and clay, reed and bamboo canes, drilled hardwood and bramble stalks: wild bees can choose from these room categories in the renovated insect hotel in front of the Department of Biology. Some species have already moved in.

Gernot Kunz has designed the accommodation based on the latest research findings. 58 percent of the wild bees observed in the vicinity of nesting aids colonise steep walls, half of them also rotten wood. Bamboo and reed stalks are also at the top of the popularity scale.

Dagmar Eklaude

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