Parents and children had a great time building bug hotels to attract the good bugs to live in their gardens.
Parents and children had a great time building bug hotels to attract the good bugs to live in their gardens.
There will be a lot of happy bugs around CHB these school holidays as they set up house in "bug hotels" made by about 70 children who took part in the CHB District Libraries school holiday programme last Tuesday.
The Waipukurau and Waipawa libraries invited along Neen Kennedy of TheSustainable Ewe, who arrived with a car-load of supplies including hay, bark, twigs and pine cones and more than 200 milk bottles saved up by the Hatuma Cafe for the bug hotel project. It was a great community effort, Neen said.
"So many people donated resources to this. I love how CHB works that way. Nowhere else in New Zealand can you find people willing to collect and donate so much stuff, help get all the stuff prepped, and ready ... and I was utterly gob-smacked by the number of cool kids who came along to make bug hotels.
"It's great to see that the younger generation is really onto it when it comes to being sustainable.
"I did suggest to them they could not charge much per 'room' as most bugs only have tiny pockets to keep their money in."
The children were taught how the "good bugs" can help keep the garden free from "the bad guys," then they were shown how to pack their milk-bottle hotels full of hay, cardboard, pinecones and bamboo to encourage good bugs to take up residence.
The libraries' school holiday fun continues this week with story time, spring craft, 3D printing and Battle of the Board Games.
For times and a full programme check out Central Hawke's Bay District Libraries on Facebook or go to chblibrary.nz.
