I have several bug houses. I keep most around my gardens and perennial plants. I have houses specifically for lady bugs and butterflies. I also have several for bees and pollinators. So far nothing for the mantis' but the houses are really working. The ones for the pollinators are super easy. It can just be stacked wood with varying size holes drilled in them. I use river cane as well (native bamboo).
These are the plans I used to build my ladybug house and butterfly houses.
https://feltmagnet.com/crafts/how-to-build-a-ladybug-house
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that. I'm nowhere close to having a setup like that, but certainly is what I would like to have at some point. How long have you been doing this for?
In regards to the bees - that's in the plans for one of my next projects and hoping to have a few hives set up by next spring.
I've been using the houses for about five years now. I don't have any honey bees, no hives, just native pollinators. There are lots of other bees and flies that make a huge difference in crop production. Those are the ones that use the logs.
Good stuff. I really need to work on getting a setup like yours going at my place. I really like how you did yours.