I don't know if we have any bat enthusiast in this forum, but I thought I would share with you a little about bats.



First of all, let me clear up a few myths about bats that are not true. All bats do not carry rabies. Bats do not purposely fly into your hair. All bats are not blood suckers, and the ones that are do not drink blood from people. Bats are actually very passive when handled properly, they generally do not bite (never pick up a bat you find laying on the ground anyways, I am just making a point).



Ok, now onto my bat houses. I just put up 2 bat houses to attract bats. The presense of bats on your property diminishes the need for pesticides that can harm both the pests and their natural predators. Putting up bat houses is an earth friendly way of dealing with mosquitos.



If we have any bat enthusiast on Veggie Boards, please reply to this thread, I am more than happy to answer any questions about putting up bat houses.

Oh I love bats! My mother runs a horse stable and in the evenings during the summer they used to come out and swoop down to eat all the bugs especially the gnats. They are quite fascinating to watch and they have never "freaked me out"

Great, one bat fan already

I've always loved bats, they're so great to watch as it's getting dark in the summertime. They freak the rest of my family out, but I think they're pretty cool.

Wow, it's nice to hear that there are other ppl out there who love bats. I have been telling my husband for years that we should put up a bat house but have never done so. I think attracting bats near my home is much better than my city spraying for mosquitos a couple times a year. So Samuel, do you make your own bat houses or do you buy them?

Bats are cool!



I used to think it would be cool to have a pet bat. I know, they don't make good pets, and they should live a natural life, and all the rest... but it would be kinda cool, nonetheless...

I adore bats and I've been a member of Bat Conservation International http://batcon.org/home/default.asp for many years. I live in a region that's one of the bat capitols of the world, and there's a bat cave (actually an old railroad tunnel) about ten miles from my house.

In Ghana there is this area near a hospital where some person (some leader type) died and all the bats flock there. Sometimes the sky is black as there are so many flying about. Was a bit freaky with all the noise, and you had to be careful passing under the tree. They seem to have more or less cleared up the "problem" now.



Oh I once stayed in a cabin with no power and a bat came through a hole in the wall, and was flying around. Was freaky as we only had a gas lamp and it was swopping over our heads. We'd just woken up and it was dark.

Ok has that posted like 20 times for everyone? My connection is dodgy...

What makes a bathouse work? Is there something inside that attracts them? Very interesting to me...thanks.

hamilton, thanks for your reply. I would also like to say thank you to everyone else for replying. I am impressed by the amount of interest. I was fearful that my bats would not be welcome



Ok, let me try to answer your question hamilton. The bat houses work by providing the bats a cavity in which to roost in. Inside the boxes are multiple chambers and the bats squeeze into the chambers to roost hanging upside down. The chambers are 1" wide, which is a perfect size for most bats in the United States. My particular boxes have 5 of these 1" chambers, meaning they have 5 seperate chambers. Because my houses list the maximum occupancy at 600 bats, this means each chamber should be able to hold 120 bats each.



The reasoning I mounted the 2 bat houses on the back of the building is this. When bats see a building, they associate that with a place to roost, so they may circle a building looking for a way to get in. Of course, while they are looking they run up on these boxes and they decide to take up residency. This is my logic behind it, however, there is no guarantee I will attract bats to these houses.



Here is a picture looking up into a bat house. If you will look closely, you can see the bats in the chambers.

I love bats! and cats too!

Wow, I really, really loooove bats. So cute and so many different kinds. I'm actually getting a big double bat piece tattooed on my chest/shoulders as soon as I get the money. Sadly, there aren't very many around here, but enough to see a few at night during the summer. It's fun when they swoop down and almost bonk you in the head. I love watching them. Bat houses are cool, I never thought such a thing existed. I would definitely like to have one someday when I don't live with people who consider them "pests".

Thanks for the picture of the bats in the house. They are cute!

Samuel, do you have any "plans" for the making of a bat house? I would love to know about them.

Samuel thanks!

kyliemc, I do have access to free plans to build a bat house. However, some of the more compact bat houses are so inexpensive, it would be difficult to make your own for any less.



Here is a bat house from S&K which is only $20 and can be shipped to you. The address to purchase the house is http://www.sk-mfg.com/Merchant2/merc...Category_Code=



SamuelWilson [email protected]

Bats are koooooool! When I own my own home I want a bat house, but right now, I don't think the management would be too keen on my putting up a bat house outside my apartment.



Samuel, I have read that bats are very sensitive to the temperature inside their roost and will not nest where the temperature is not perfect for them. Based on that, I would think that siting a bat house properly to provide a good temperature could be rather difficult. Any further info?

Tesseract, you are correct. The bats are sensitive to temperatures. It is best if you live in the south, to paint your house white. If you live in the north, then you paint your house black. In between colors like brown or gray are for regions in between the north and the south.



Also, you can further alter the temperature by placing your house where it gets more or less sun, etc.. It is best to have your bat house where it gets some morning sun. However, I didn't have too many options on where to mount the houses. I didn't want them on the front of the building or the sides, so the back was pretty much the only place I agreed on.



In summary, you place your bat houses in the best location you have. Mother nature is going to do her own thing. The bats are going to do what they want to do, regardless.



Samuel Wilson [email protected]

I thought these bat house plans were pretty interesting.

Flutters into thread. Ich bin die fledermaus! Ich bin die fledermaus!



A couple other neato stuff about bats:

- There are 1100 species of bat, 20% of all mammalian species.

- Of these 1100, only 3 are carnivorous (all in Central/South America)

- The rest are insectivorous or fruit eaters, much like birds.

- They're friggin cute as hell.

- Only 0.5% of bats carry rabies.

- Bats are not blind. They see quite well, but their hearing is so much better.

- Female bats only have 1 baby per year. So be nice.

- Did I mention they're friggin cute as hell?



more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat



I lived in an attic apartment for a couple years, and often I'd wake up to find a few batty roommates if I left the window open. They never flew into my hair (which is surprising, considering ...my hair), so I conclude that that's a myth too.

wow reaLLy---thanx for the info.



peace and love



jenn