Weta motel instructions

What you need

• Three planks of untreated wood. Whatever length you want (ours were about 40cm long) but one should be about 6cm longer than the other two - it will be the back and will make attaching to a tree easier.
• Short nails or screws for joining planks together (if they’re too long they’re come out the other side).
• Sheet of clear plastic, a few mm thick. You can buy these from bunnings.
• A hinge for the door (ideally galvanised so it doesn't rust).
• A hook and catch to keep the door closed.
• A couple of longer nails to attach the house to a tree or fence.

Tools

• Pencil or pen
• A saw. We had a drop/mitre saw but you can use a hand-saw or a circular saw.
• Router - if you don’t have a router to make an indent for the plastic window you can just attach the plastic window and then put packing, like the spongy strips used to seal windows, around the side to block light (or you can probably make do without any packing)
• Jigsaw
• Drill and a range of drill bits
• Hammer & screwdrivers
• A craft knife or some other way to cut the plastic sheet

How to make the weta motel

Cut two planks of wood to something like 40cm in length and a third plank that is about 6cm longer (the long one will be used for the back, the ends will stick out at the top and the bottom so you can nail it to the tree).

On one of the shorter bits of wood use a pen to outline where you want to make your cut-outs, which is where the wetas will live.

We're going to cut out the holes using a jigsaw, drill some holes so we can get the jigsaw in.

Use a jigsaw to cut out the marked area.

Nail (or screw) the bit of wood with the cut-outs to the longer bit of wood (place it in the center so that a bit sticks out the top and bottom - the sticking out bits can be used to nail it to a tree).

Use a router to make a cut out an indent where the clear plastic fit into - if you don’t have a router you can still build the weta house without the clear plastic window, or the clear plastic can just be attached to the plank. This will mean there will be a gap between the planks that will let light in (which the wetas won't like). You can put something around the edges to block the light, such as the foam packing strips that can be put around window to block holes/drafts.

Cut the plastic to size. You can do this by putting a straight edge against where you want to cut and then scoring it with a knife. When you have a decent cut into the plastic, put it against a straight edge and snap it.

Attach the plastic to the bit of wood with the cut-outs in it. We drilled holes and screwed it in, but you could probably glue it. We also used a larger drill bit to drill part way through the plastic so that when it was screwed in the headof the screw was level with the plastic and not sticking out (which might stop the door closing).

Lay the last plank (this is going to be the door) on the one with the cut-outs and hold the hinge against side. Put pencil marks for screws. Drill small holes and then put screws in to attach the hinge.

Attach the hook that will keep the door closed. You might need to drill some tiny holes first.

Drill some big holes (around 1cm) from the sides so the wetas can get in. The holes should slope up, so rain can’t get in.

Done!