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Bug hotel filling: the checks before the price

Updated: 22 October 2026

You already have the wooden house, the tin, or the pot, and amazon.co.uk still mixes finished hotels with loose stems. Bug hotel filling is the pack of hollow tubes you push into that frame, not a second hotel and not a hive. Four checks should beat the price: the hole a bee enters, the length, a closed back, and a dry case. The [bug hotel filling comparison](/hub/garden-supplies/bug-hotel-filling) lines up five current packs and their shelf prices. Those figures come from the listings and UK guides, not from a lab test. Peter F. read the amazon.co.uk files. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

You already have the wooden house, the tin, or the pot, and amazon.co.uk still mixes finished hotels with loose stems.

Our top picks

POPETPOP POPETPOP 100 reed tubes, 15 cm

Best overall

POPETPOP POPETPOP 100 reed tubes, 15 cm
5.7/10about £13.99
View offer
TOYANDONA TOYANDONA 100 reed tubes, 15 cm

Rank 2

TOYANDONA TOYANDONA 100 reed tubes, 15 cm
7.8/10about £10.49
View offer
MAGICLULU MAGICLULU 100 reed tubes, 15 cm

Best value

MAGICLULU MAGICLULU 100 reed tubes, 15 cm
6.7/10about £9.99
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.Filling is not the hotel
  2. 2.Bore, length, and a back
  3. 3.What the current packs actually print
  4. 4.Price only after the checks

Filling is not the hotel

A refill and a finished insect hotel do different jobs. The pack is stems for a frame you already own, and the hotel is the box, tin, or pot plus the roof that sheds rain. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust notes more than 270 bee species in the UK, and Buglife says about four in five nest in the ground. Tubes suit the minority that already nest in hollow stems. A tube pack earns its keep only when your frame is sound and dry. If the roof leaks, new stems will not fix that.

Bore, length, and a back

Measure the inside of the cane, not the outside. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust and the Natural History Museum cluster on about 2–10 mm. BWARS gives red mason bees 7–8 mm, NatureScot and the RHS put the ideal near 8 mm, and the museum puts leafcutters at about 6–8 mm. A 3–5 mm pack can suit smaller stems, though it misses the usual red-mason size. If 5–8 mm is not marked as the inside, you still do not know which bee it fits. The trust asks for at least 15 cm, and its red-mason note goes to at least 160 mm. The museum wants the tubes shorter than the pot. Close the back with a bamboo node, a blocked reed, or a solid wall. BWARS says to cut below a node and to leave out plastic, and the trust asks for a solid back. A pack open at both ends has already failed the check you are paying for.
POPETPOP POPETPOP 100 reed tubes, 15 cm

Testsieger

POPETPOP POPETPOP 100 reed tubes, 15 cm
5.7/10about £13.99
View offer

What the current packs actually print

These five packs fail different checks. BOBOZHONG, about £9.39, is 300 pieces at 20 cm with an inner bore of 3–5 mm. The title says reed and a bullet says wheat stalk, so the plant is not settled. MAGICLULU, about £9.99, is 100 reeds at 15 cm, and its 5–8 mm is not marked as the inside. TOYANDONA, about £10.49, prints an inner bore of 0.5–0.8 cm (5–8 mm) on 100 reeds at 15 cm, and it does not show a closed back. POPETPOP, about £13.99, has a UK review of reeds open at both ends and about 6 mm inside. JACKANNA, about £22.75, is 200 bamboo pieces near 20 cm, with an inner 6–8 mm, a clashing outer range, and open sides. Who each pack is for is on the best bee nesting tubes page. Reed against bamboo is on the reed versus bamboo page. Packing and siting are on how to fill a bug hotel.

Price only after the checks

After those four checks, the money in this set is a narrow band. A 100-piece reed refill near 15 cm is about £9 to £14, and the 200-piece bamboo bundle is about £22.75. About £13.99 does not buy a closed back if the reeds are open, and about £22.75 does not fix a bamboo listing that says the same. No British Standard for this refill turned up in the sources we used.

Common questions

What should I put in a bug hotel if I want bees, not just woodlice?
Use hollow stems about 2–10 mm inside, at least 15 cm long, with a closed back. BWARS, NatureScot, and the RHS put red mason bees at 7–8 mm, ideally about 8 mm. Pine cones shelter woodlice, not a tunnel a bee can seal. Buglife says about four in five UK bees nest in the ground, so stems help cavity nesters only, and only if the box stays dry.
What hole size do UK mason bees need?
Red mason bees need an internal diameter of 7–8 mm, ideally about 8 mm. BWARS uses 7–8 mm, and NatureScot and the RHS put the ideal near 8 mm. A narrower hole inside the wider 2–10 mm range can suit smaller cavity nesters and still miss red mason bees. If the packet prints only an outside diameter, you do not know the hole the bee enters.
Are 15 cm tubes long enough?
They meet the usual minimum when they sit back inside the box. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust asks for at least 15 cm, and its red-mason note says at least 160 mm. The National Bee Unit treats about 15 cm and 7–8 mm as a working optimum, because short or narrow canes can skew the sex ratio towards males. In a tin only 12 cm deep, a 15 cm reed sticks out into the rain.
Do the tubes have to be closed at the back?
Yes, for bees that nest in a dead-end tunnel. A bamboo node or a blocked reed does that job. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust asks for a solid back, and BWARS says to cut below a node and to avoid plastic. One reed pack in this set has a UK review of tubes open at both ends. A mud plug can rescue a sound cane, though a split stem will not hold it.
Why is a 3–5 mm pack different from a 6–8 mm pack?
Both can sit in the 2–10 mm band, and Essex Wildlife Trust flags 3–5 mm stems. The narrower pack misses red mason bees at about 7–8 mm. A true 6–8 mm inside covers those bees and leafcutters, which the Natural History Museum puts at about 6–8 mm. If the figure is not labelled as the inside, as on MAGICLULU, it is not automatically the wider option.
Will pine cones do the same job as reeds?
No. A cone is a stack of crevices, and a reed is one tunnel you can match to a bee. Essex Wildlife Trust lists cones beside stems for a mixed hotel, not as a bee-section refill. Cones suit ladybirds better than mason bees, and they will not replace 15 cm stems. Keep them in a separate dry compartment, or they block the holes.

Related pages

Insect hotel comparison

Bug hotel filling

Best bee nesting tubes: the five amazon.co.uk packs

How to fill a bug hotel with the back and a recess

Reed vs bamboo bee tubes: which suits the UK garden

When to replace bee hotel tubes after the adults emerge

Sources

Public UK sources for this comparison. Prices, stars and review counts are the amazon.co.uk listings in this set. Page updated 22 October 2026.

  1. Bumblebee Conservation Trust: solitary bee nest boxes (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  2. Bumblebee Conservation Trust: solitary bees (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  3. Buglife: bee-hotel guide (PDF) (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  4. Buglife: how to be the best bee hotel manager (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  5. Natural History Museum: how to make a bee hotel (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  6. NatureScot: solitary bees and bee houses (PDF) (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  7. BWARS: bee hotels information sheet (PDF) (retrieved 22 October 2026)
  8. RHS: habitats for wild bees (retrieved 22 October 2026)