From frog saunas to butterfly puddles: 8 ways to turn your homes into a wildlife refuge

Urban butterflies are declining at alarming rates around the world (Photo: David Clode / Unsplash)

By Bethany Kiss, Mark Jacques and Sarah Bekessy – RMIT University

Native animals can make excellent neighbours. Blue banded bees pollinate our vegetable gardens. Microbats eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes a night and powerful owls keep rodents at bay. But could we go one step further, and change our homes to invite native animals in as housemates?

Cities are biodiversity hotspots and have an important role in tackling the extinction crises for animals, plants and insects. As cities continue to sprawl, our buildings have become increasingly important habitat for wildlife.

Animals are not the only ones to benefit. Evidence shows noticing wildlife at home can lead to better mental health. Co-habitating with wildlife can also help you feel more at home.

But how can we intentionally design our homes to co-inhabit with wildlife? That’s the question explored by When Wildlife Moves In, a new work at the National Gallery of Victoria. The work, created by the authors of this article, uses data from Wildlife Victoria to explore how homes can become shared ecological resources.

Here are eight easy ways to invite wildlife into your home and backyard.

1. Give butterflies a drink from your air con

butterflies drinking from a puddle

Urban butterflies are declining at alarming rates around the world. At the same time, water dripping from air conditioners wastes millions of litres of clean water daily. Studies show this water is safe to reuse for nature.

Butterflies, for example, like to sip water from shallow water sources because they tend to get stuck in deeper water.

Solution? Leave an area of gravel beneath your air conditioner vent to create a “puddling” station for butterflies. This will transform what would otherwise go down our drains into habitat for a beloved pollinator.

2. Provide city birds with scarce nesting material

Leave natural materials such as twigs in your backyard for bird nests. (Photo credit: Jon Sailer/Unsplash)

The scarcity of natural nesting materials in cities poses challenges for some animals. Many are forced to get creative – sometimes incorporating dangerous or lethal alternatives such as plastics into their nests.

Solution? Leave a bowl out in your backyard providing nesting materials such as lawn clippings, native grasses, bark strips and untreated hair. This will help native birds such as the Australian magpie and the Pied Butcherbird.

3. Move indoor plants away from windows

Glass doors and windows are a serious threat to birds. (Photo by Laura Lauch / Unsplash)

In the United States alone, as many as a billion birds each year are killed or badly injured flying into glass.

Solution? Move indoor plants out of view through windows and doors so birds don’t mistake them for habitat. Or put anti-collision stickers on your windows, ensuring they are high contrast in colour and spaced no more than 5–10 cm apart.

4. Remove the concrete from your backyard

A wombat lies in

Wombats will make burrows under verandahs and homes. (Photo: David Clode/Unsplash)

Concrete slabs destroy soil microorganisms and prevent animals from digging and tunnelling to create nesting sites.

Wombats are ecosystem engineers. Their burrowing aerates soil, improves water infiltration and cycles organic material and nutrients. But urban development fragments their habitat and concrete foundations seal off natural soil ecosystems. When this happens, wombats adapt by creating alternative burrow systems under houses, decks and other human structures.

Solution? Remove the concrete slabs from your backyard and leave open soil with vegetation or a raised deck in its place.

5. Leave the cavities in your houses unsealed

A microbat happily ensconsed in a safe crevice in a roof cavity (Photo: Nils Bouillard / Unsplash)

Natural tree hollows are disappearing at an alarming rate due to urban sprawl and tree removals. It has forced microbats and other hollow-dependent species to seek refuge in dark spaces in our buildings, such as wall cavities, roof voids and building crevices.

Solution? Let the bats continue living in your building cavities. If you are bothered by them, wait until they leave, then provide a bat nesting box so they can safely continue living.

6. Plant the ‘missing’ layer birds need

Superb fairy wrens need understory to move about safely (Photo: Enguerrand Photography / Unsplash)

Australian cities are missing a crucial habitat layer — the “middle storey” between ground cover and tall trees. This gap in coverage allows aggressive species such as noisy miners to dominate, pushing out smaller native birds and threatening endangered species.

Solution? Plant more shrubs and bushes to create a bushy layer of 2-4 metres. This helps smaller birds such as Superb Fairy-wrens find places to hide. It’s also useful to include habitat elements such as log piles and rocks.

7. Keep your cats inside

a cat indoors

Every free-roaming cat is a threat to wildlife. (Photo: Anaí Chew / Unsplash)

Feral and free-roaming cats collectively kill more than three billion animals a year in Australia.

Cats have played a leading role in most of Australia’s 34 mammal extinctions since 1788, and are a big reason why populations of at least 123 other threatened native species are declining.

Solution? “Catios”, or cat patios, allow cats to experience nature but keep wildlife safe from predators.

8. Build a frog sauna

A DIY frog sauna helps frogs avoid the deadly chytrid fungus (Photo: Anthony Waddle)

Some of the best wildlife-friendly ideas are surprisingly simple. Frog saunas, for instance, are small structures with frog-sized holes, made from black bricks or similar materials that heat up in the sun. These structures help fight chytrid fungus, a devastating disease that’s pushing many Australian frog species toward extinction.

Chytrid thrives in cold conditions but dies in heat, making these warm refuges potentially life-saving for local amphibians. Instructions for building your own frog sauna are free, requiring little more than recycled materials and a sunny spot in your garden.

A shared future

Australian cities are important for conserving biodiversity – and our homes can help. Thoughtful, intentional design can better support the species that need our support.

If you want to find ways to co-habitate with native wildlife, click here for more solutions.

When Wildlife Moves In is part of the exhibition Making Good: Redesigning the Everyday, showing at the NGV Ian Potter Gallery. The exhibition explores how designers are reshaping the products and systems that shape our daily lives.

About the authors

Bethany Kiss, PhD Candidate, RMIT University; Mark Jacques, Professor of Architecture, RMIT University. Director, Openwork Pty Ltd., and Sarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Share this article:

More from around the region

@ bluemountainsplanetaryhealth . Sep 7

Open post by bluemountainsplanetaryhealth with ID 17891889084611932
Join Andris Heks, Yogic Psychotherapist, winner Best Actor, Blue Mountains, for his workshop to laugh as you never laughed before, as part of a movement to globalise people-bonding cheerfulness through kookaburra laughter contagion as an antidote to distressing world divisiveness. Purchase your ticket here: https://events.humanitix.com/kookaburra-laughter-workshop View the trailer and the GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/globalise-unconditional-love-through-kookaburra-laughter Key event information: - When? 10:15AM - 2:30PM, Sunday 4 October 2026 (1st day of Daylight Saving - 1 hour forward) - Where? Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre, 33-39 Acacia St, Katoomba, NSW, 2780 - Fee? $60 or what you can afford - Note: please bring your own lunch What to expect: - Learn how to stay cheerful for good - Learning the funny, human emulated, communal kookaburra laughter and meditation - How communal kookaburra laughter promotes bonding even amongst strangers - The awesome native treasure of the laughing kookaburra phenomenon - Why Kookaburra Yoga is the ‘most excellent of Yogas' - How communal kookaburra laughter contagion boosts the subtle and gross national product - How you could contribute to the kookaburra laughter contagion This event is supported by Blue Mountains Planetary Health. Purchase your ticket here: https://events.humanitix.com/kookaburra-laughter-workshop

...

10 0 instagram icon

@ bluemountainsplanetaryhealth . Aug 19

Open post by bluemountainsplanetaryhealth with ID 18127726681674088
Does your business focus on sustainable produce, living or community? We are seeking stallholders for our upcoming event ‘Plate to Planet: Blue Mountains Food Security Fair’, Saturday 10 October 2026. This is an opportunity to promote your service, sell your products and engage with the community. To find out more about being part of this event, please contact planetaryhealthevents@bmcc.nsw.gov.au View the full event program here and register your place: https://events.humanitix.com/blue-mountains-2026-food-security-fair

...

7 1 instagram icon

@ bluemountainsplanetaryhealth . Aug 4

Open post by bluemountainsplanetaryhealth with ID 18094567355632194
Plate to Planet: Blue Mountains Food Security Fair 2026 We are pleased to announce that the program and registration for Plate to Planet: Blue Mountains Food Security Fair 2026 is now live! Follow this link to view the program and register your place: https://events.humanitix.com/blue-mountains-2026-food-security-fair Key information: When? Saturday 10 October, 9AM - 4PM Where? Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre, Katoomba Who is it for? Families, gardeners, enthusiasts, community groups and businesses, anyone looking to learn about how to be more resilient through local and sustainable food systems. What to expect? Talks, workshops, demos, market stalls, family activities, music, food Is there a cost? Entry to the Fair and Markets is free. Talks and workshops are ticketed (both free and paid) and have limited capacity, so please register in advance. Program highlights: 🌏Headline talk: The age of renewable Food – Julian Cribb AM 🎋Wild edibles foraging workshops – Diego Bonetto, Eat More Weeds 🏞️The importance of bioregions in uncertain times – Rowe Morrow, Permaculture Matters 🥒Home canning and food preservation workshop – Kirsty Berté, Permaculture Hawkesbury Valley 🏡Designing your own Permaculture Property – Leni Nyssen, Alchemy Farms 🍃Utilising what’s in front of you – Uncle Lex, The Ganya Shed 🪱How to worm farm - BMCC 🎸Live music by Olivia Dustmann 🌾Community crop and seed swap Tickets are limited so please register your place now: https://events.humanitix.com/blue-mountains-2026-food-security-fair We are also seeking stallholders for the event. If you are a grower, retailer, community organisation or business that would like to get involved, please reach out to planetaryhealthevents@bmcc.nsw.gov.au!

...

10 1 instagram icon

@ bluemountainsplanetaryhealth . Jun 3

Open post by bluemountainsplanetaryhealth with ID 18098807714470494
Save the date! We’re excited to announce the second Blue Mountains Food Security Fair, taking place in Katoomba in October 2026. This annual event will bring together growers, thinkers, makers, and community members to explore one of the most important challenges of our time: how we grow, share, and sustain food in a changing world. Across the weekend, we’ll be exploring themes including: - Healthy soil and regenerative systems - Food and human health - Plant-based food futures - Home and community food resilience - Water-sensitive and climate-adapted growing - Indigenous food knowledge and systems - School food systems - Australia’s food procurement - Global food security challenges Expect a dynamic program of inspiring speakers, practical workshops, and hands-on experiences designed to leave you informed, empowered, and connected. Key information Date: Weekend of 10th October 2026 Location: Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre, Katoomba, NSW We’ll be announcing speakers and program details soon. We are also inviting expressions of interest from individuals and organisations who would like to contribute to the program, host workshops, run a stall or partner with us. Please reach out to planetaryhealthevents@bmcc.nsw.gov.au if you are interested!

...

17 1 instagram icon

@ bluemountainsplanetaryhealth . May 25

Open post by bluemountainsplanetaryhealth with ID 17867656860543260
Do you struggle making the most of your veggie garden all year round? Join Leni from @alchemyfarms_permaculture on Saturday 4th July for her Permaculture Workshop: Learn how to grow WITH the Upper Blue Mountains seasons, rather than battling against them. During the two-hour session, you'll cover crop selection for different seasons, what to grow from seeds vs seedlings, frost and wind protection, and nurturing your soil with a seasonal cycle. Register for this and other sessions as part of our Skill Share Saturdays program via this link: https://events.humanitix.com/skill-share-saturdays-at-the-planetary-health-centre

...

7 0 instagram icon

@ bluemountainsplanetaryhealth . May 22

Open post by bluemountainsplanetaryhealth with ID 18104128681791734
From Saturday 4 July, we are opening up the Planetary Health Centre for our monthly Skill Share Saturdays program: https://events.humanitix.com/skill-share-saturdays-at-the-planetary-health-centre Throughout each day, you can expect to find a variety of sessions focused on restoring the health of the planet, in terms of the environment, community and economy. Sessions at the first event include: - What to grow in a Blue Mountains climate - Plant-based eating - Tai Chi and Qigong - Fashion Upcycling and clothing reuse workshop You are also welcome to bring any surplus seeds or produce for our Crop Swap, or wind down in the Planetary Health Cafe (until 2pm). Visit the website to view the full program of events and register your place: https://events.humanitix.com/skill-share-saturdays-at-the-planetary-health-centre Registrations essential. We are also inviting expressions of interest from individuals and organisations who would like to contribute to the program - please reach out to planetaryhealthevents@bmcc.nsw.gov.au if you are interested!

...

10 0 instagram icon

You might also like:

manu prigioni of farm it forward blue mountains

Farm it Forward – Cultivating Food Security and Connection for our Community

As global food insecurity increases, research suggests that the ‘planetary health diet’ is one solution. This calls for a shift towards a plant-based diet and more local food production. Local social enterprise Farm it Forward is showing how this can be done in school yards and one backyard after another.

Copyright 2026 Planetary Health News. All rights reserved.