Bat Houses?

[gstrom99]

Anyone here have a bat house? If so, tell us about it; source, placement, painted/stained, success rate? I had one on a 12 foot post on my hunting land in Indiana and never had any move in...

I've seen a few bats out here in rural Iowa, and would like to see more. Interesting creatures.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Built one and hung it on a tree. Evidently that's not a good place. I think the squirrels destroyed it.

 

[Omega Woods]

No, but I'm thinking of putting one in. We've had bats at the farm for years but I don't know where they sleep. We've recently started seeing them at our suburban house (about six miles from the farm) and I'm thrilled that they're here. I want to encourage them to stay.

 

[CalG]

We have enough bats here in S.Vt. The rhinovirus put a scare in that they would all be done for, there were several lean years to be sure, but the population seems OK now.

I've "read up" on fabricated bat houses, Flat panels inside with rough gripping surfaces, black paper on the exterior for warmth, southern exposure etc. BUT, the bats here seem to do well enough in the eves of area buildings. I've got a small population that "rests" in certain locations in the shop. Evident from the ever renewed droppings on the floor. The neighbor has screened openings in his attic on several occaisions (log home, so it's hard to keep up with timber movement.

The wife and I sit out on the back deck most evenings to enjoy the onset of darkness. There are always three or four bats wheeling through the open sky between the tree tops just as darkness arrives.

We can't help but wish them well on their food gathering .....
dang mosquitoes! ;-)

 

[Bronco82]

We have one of the prefab bat houses up in a south facing tree on the bush line, but I don't believe it's lived in.

We do seem to have one living in our patio umbrella on our deck which stays closed more often than not. Only knew it was living in there because of the mouse looking bat poop on the umbrella base. We have opened the umbrella up and used it a few times and it has flown away, but it comes back a few days later.

 

[ponytug]

I would build a couple of different designs and try them out. Different species prefer different spacings in the roosting area. They love our tile roof edges, and move around with the seasons, I.e. "south facing" isn't always a winner, but we often see them around our metal roof edges as well.

There is a bat "box" in one of the local parks. It is in the middle of a small clearing, 8-12' off the ground, 5'x5' or so, and open on the bottom. Supposedly, about 100,000 bats call it home.



All the best,

Peter

 

[ruffdog]

Normally, the bats will use the houses to breed in, not "live" in. It helps to get some bat dung to put in it to get the house to smell like bats have used it before. I have seen bats staying in my firewood stacks before too.

 

[nyone]

I built 3 houses about 4 months ago. Two up on trees and one 16' up the side of a shed. Never saw any in them yet but I have seen bats flying at dusk.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I am also in the group of "have house, no bats"... I put mine out this spring. I've had a few flying around my place at dusk but not lately.

 

[ArlyA]

We have enough bats here in S.Vt. The rhinovirus put a scare in that they would all be done for, there were several lean years to be sure, but the population seems OK now.

I've "read up" on fabricated bat houses, Flat panels inside with rough gripping surfaces, black paper on the exterior for warmth, southern exposure etc. BUT, the bats here seem to do well enough in the eves of area buildings. I've got a small population that "rests" in certain locations in the shop. Evident from the ever renewed droppings on the floor. The neighbor has screened openings in his attic on several occaisions (log home, so it's hard to keep up with timber movement.

The wife and I sit out on the back deck most evenings to enjoy the onset of darkness. There are always three or four bats wheeling through the open sky between the tree tops just as darkness arrives.

We can't help but wish them well on their food gathering .....
dang mosquitoes! ;-)

I believe that 15 percentage survived it because they had some immunity. We've not seen any here for a while and I understand there reproduction is quite slow.