Bat houses, anyone?

[jziegler]

Has anyone here ever made a bat house and successfully attracted bats to it? I have a terrible mosquito problem in the yard, and I figure bats may be one of the best ways to get it more under control.

One of my co-workers pointer me to www.batcon.org where they have a simple bat house plan. It should only take a little while to make, and materials are minimal. But, I'd be open to other suggestions if there are any good ideas out there.

Jim

[bthere]

Has anyone here ever made a bat house and successfully attracted bats to it?

Jim

1) Yes, we built a few,
and
2) I am not aware that they ever were inhabited after at least 2 years.

[L. D. Jeffries]

I built one once for the same reasons: flying daggers! But after a year had to take it down as LOML's best friend was terrified of bats. Not that we had any, but had read that it might take a couple of years for the bats to find it and decide it was better than where ever they were living. So, who knows?

[Tundra_Man]

I built one about four years ago. It sat empty the first year, but it has been inhabited every summer since. I know it has residents because of the guano that collects underneath (which is in our vegetable garden.) Also, if you are patient and watch it at dusk you can see when the bats leave for the night.

The last two years the biggest honkin' brown bat I've ever seen has lived in it. I named him "Fluffy." One night after he came out he circled my head twice before flying off to do his bat thing.

http://www.tundraman.com/archive/Don...e/BatHouse.CFM

[MilDoc]

You might want to check with your local health department first to see if any bats in your area have been found to have rabies, since most cases in the US now come from bats. We have had a few positive in our area.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabie...bies/bats&.htm

[jziegler]

Terry,

Thanks for the like to your page. Looks like a nice bat house.

I know that there are bats in the area, I had one in my attic the other summer.

LOML doesn't like bats, but she like the skeeters much less, so views this as the lesser of two evils. The bugs are so bad that she frequently can't stay out long in the middle of the day, too many bites.

Paul,

Thanks for the suggestion about rabies and the concern. I have done some reading at the Bat Conservation International (which the CDC page references for batproofing info, and Terry mentions on his page, seems to be the favorite bat info source) and I'm not too concerned.

I plan to build the three chamber version of the bat conservancy plan and mount it on a pole over the garage, I think. Soo what happens.

Jim

[Ed62]

I've been thinking about building one, but haven't yet. There is a lot of information on the web about attracting bats. I seem to remember reading that bats will not inhabit the bat house unless there is water available within 1/4 mile, and an ample supply of food (yep, skeeters) readily available.

Ed