WETA MOTELS

Mike Bowie

Simulated Habitat Refuges – Weta Motels

Weta Motel CWC

Using these specially hollowed-out untreated pine blocks called ‘weta motels’ it is possible to simulate the cavities found in mature trees that are used by weta and other creepy crawlies.

It will take many years for the newly-planted trees to become old enough to develop these cavities, so by using these specially made weta motels available from Creative Woodcraft we are accelerating the successional process.

Cave or tree weta colonise the motels as well as other groups such as endemic spiders, leaf-vein slugs and pseudoscorpions, some of which breed in the refuges. They have a hole that is only just big enough to let weta in, but too small for its predators – mice, rats, possums, hedgehogs, etc.

Other insects and invertebrates also use motels including leaf-vein slugs, spiders and beetles.

Weta motels are great for kids, schools, community plantings, ecological restoration projects, etc. Motels can be monitored over time to watch how motel occupation changes.

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