Bring The Cutest Little Critters To Your Yard With This DIY Frog Hotel

Frogs are cute and adorable animals that also serve a very important role in nature by eating a lot of pesky insects. They are a great animal to have in your yard and garden if you're tired of fighting against pests. However, sometimes they don't want to make a home out of your yard, no matter how hard you try. Thankfully, they have rather limited requirements. They just need a safe place to hide and fresh water. By making a frog hotel, you can bring in these beautiful animals that will liven up your yard, and keep those annoying bugs at a more tolerable level.

To start a frog hotel, you'll need a big planter without a drainage hole, rocks, a few aquatic plants, and PVC pipes and elbows with various diameters. Generally, sizes between one and two inches are the best options, but you can adjust based on the type of frogs in your area. Don't worry about how to use the extra PVC pipe. It has a lot of uses in your yard, such as keeping your plants hydrated with a genius DIY raised garden bed idea. 

To get started, hold the pipes where you want them, and then use your rocks to fill up the extra space to keep the pipes in place — this may be easier with two people. Once covered in water, those pipes and stones are the bare minimum that you need for a frog hotel, but they certainly aren't all you can add. Throwing in a few more natural touches, like light driftwood and water-loving plants, not only helps to make the hotel look nicer, but also gives the frogs additional hiding places, even when they are outside their pipes.

Another beneficial inclusion would be a solar light, which will attract insects at night and help provide your guests with a nice meal, as well as allow you to see around your garden at night. Additionally, while a planter is the easiest option, you can make a frog hotel out of any waterproof container. For example, if you have an old fire pit, you can turn it into a relaxing water feature, and add some pipes to let it double as a frog hotel.

There is a potential downside to this DIY that is worth considering. Frogs need fresh water in their habitats, but standing water is also a major reason mosquitoes might swarm to your yard. While the frogs will do a decent job of keeping mosquitoes under control, you can further keep insects away by regularly flooding the hotel to change the water over. You can also add a bubbler or a small fountain to stop mosquitoes from laying their eggs in the hotel, as they stir up the surface too much for the larvae to thrive. 

To further reduce the number of mosquitoes that can grow in the space, don't fill up your planter all the way. Try to add water so it is just over most of the rocks so your frogs have moist spots to sit, but there aren't a lot of open spaces for larvae to grow and hatch.