Bat houses
I’ve thought of putting up some bat houses in my yard. Is it like bird houses, in that “if you build it they will come”, or do you need to do something else to attract them?
Alan
don’t worry, be happy…
different insects fly at different levels and most follow a circuitous route to avoid predators, so bats fly in those same crazy patterns as they pursue insects. It’s a bit like fighter jets when in dogfights. They know you are there and can detect you long before any collisions. I’ve been around them many times and never had a problem.
Pagayeur
I like the idea of bat houses
We see them often at night flitting about just above us. I signed a petition awhile back to not kill all the bats here in PA as there is a sickness many (but not all) are getting. I hope they find a better way to help the bats that are still healthy rather than just kill the entire population. I am not any sort of specialist but i hope that wiping them out isnt the only option. As said, they are good!
Any suggestions on a bat house are welcome!
huh?
Who wants to kill all the bats in PA?
Do you mean this? It doesn’t mention killing bats in the wild.
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The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) recently issued an Order to PA wildlife rehabilitators titled “White Nose Syndrome Response Bat Rehabilitation Ban.” This ban is in response to White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a poorly understood malady associated with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of bats in the Northeast, and perhaps the greatest threat to North American wild bat populations in recorded history. This ban cites the state focus on surveillance and containment of WNS, and prohibits the rehabilitation of bats within any county in PA for the remainder of 2009. Further, wildlife rehabilitators will not be permitted to accept any cave or tree bat until further notice and no bats of any species are allowed to be released into the environment.
Additionally, this ban calls for the euthanization of all incoming bats, regardless of species or age class, and the subsequent submission of deceased specimens to the PGC. A conservative estimate for the cost involved in humanely euthanizing a bat and appropriately packaging the specimen for overnight shipping to the PCG is approximately $70.00 per animal. There is no provision in this ban to provide any funds to rehabilitators for the costs associated with this directive. Wildlife rehabilitators provide a voluntary service for the State of PA and operate their facilities out of their own funds. As many as 50 bats per year per rehabilitator can be expected to be received from the public. Accordingly, this ban will cost each rehabilitator a conservatively estimated $420.00 during 2009. The PGC cannot legally require bat rehabilitators in the state of PA to absorb the cost of killing the animals they were formerly permitted to save.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/help-save-pa-bats
No that wasnt it
– Last Updated: Sep-07-09 5:55 PM EST –
I dont keep my emails long - wish i had it still. It must have been a different one. This one sounds reasonable.
Funny this should come up now
There was an article in yesterday’s (maybe the day before…) paper about research being done here into the spread and mode of transmission of White Nose Syndrome. Here in Wi. they are just starting to watch for it in the bat populations of the eight species found here. Haven’t seen it so far but it is expected to arrive here eventually.
The gist of the article is that there have been close to 90% mortality rates in parts of the Northeast, that this could have large economic ramifications because of the populations of agricultural pest insects that now won’t be controlled by bats, and that it is caused by a Geomyces (sp?) fungus (perhaps an exotic species of the fungus from Europe) that is spread in caves and other bat hibernaculums.
I like bats. I have a nice colony that comes every summer to live in the slats of my attic gable vents. I’ve put 1/4" hardware cloth behind to prevent their getting into the attic itself and they seem to be just fine with that. The first few years I lived here (early 80’s) I sometimes reacted involuntarily to being swooped by them, but now I’m used to it both at home and on the water. (Saw a real cloud of them on the river last week. It was nice.) They eat bugs by the thousands around the house and give me a nice pile of guano on the porch roof every year which I mix into my compost heap along with fresh grass clippings. Very “hot” fertilizer, that guano. Get a nice fertile soil additive for the garden from it.
What freaks me right out though is being swooped by owls. It’s happened to me once while paddling at night (and I have witnesses to prove it) and a couple times many years ago while bicycling at night. Don’t hear or see a thing until they pull up and then there’s this big flapping noise and a huge shadow inches from the top of your head. They got some serious talons. I think they could do a person some bad hurt if they actually hit. I used to have fairly long hair and tie it back. Perhaps they thought it was some fast-moving animal with a tail that might be prey but realized I was too big to eat at the last second. I don’t know, but I assure you it’ll alter your heart rate if it happens.
Yes…they are
eating the skeeters that would otherwise be eating you.
I also camp under the stars and get a kick out of the little bats missing my nose by inches, while I’m trying to sleep. You get use to it and appreciate the tons of bugs they are gobbling up.
Never have been spooked by bats, …
…probably because my first experiences with bats while on the water at night in a boat were when I was way too young to form an opinion about them on my own, but could clearly see that my dad wasn’t bothered by them. I suppose that’s why I never learned to fear them, but all I know for sure is that I’m 51 now and have been in the midst of large numbers of flying bats on dozens of nights of every summer since I was about 6, and that adds up to a LOT of close encounters, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Bats are cool, and I never get tired of watching them.
Alan…
– Last Updated: Sep-07-09 10:43 PM EST –
Lots of plans for bat houses are available for free on the internet.
I have 2 bat houses mounted back to back, on top of a 4x4 that is about 15 feet high. Found the plans on the internet & built my own. It can be raised or lowered so that I can apply a new coat of stain to the wood to offset some weathering. The bats love it.
The highest confirmed count I've had so far(I watched as they were exiting the houses one night to feed) was 65 +?- 5 of them.
Another house that I mounted on a tree is not nearly as popular.
As PJC stated further along in this thread; the guano is great fertilizer, but do not use it full strength.
If you'd like to see photos of the one I built; email me.
BOB
okay…it’s not like i dislike the 'lil
critters or anything…i mean i agree live and let live…but they were out in record numbers it seemed. and i suppose while they are trying to avoid us, what happens if they miss and thump …your it? maybe we will give another try in oct. if’n it isn’t to cold. i enjoy seeing the bats when i am in the yard and walking in the evenings…but they don’t swoop toward me at those times. just wondered why it was so bad on the water. i know they were eating moths and bugs…but i have them in abundance in my yard also. I think the got sept. mixed up w/ oct. (and halloween) ha ha.
Yeah, give it another try then.
Glad to hear they don’t “creep you out” or anything. That should make it easier to tolerate them next time you go out on the water. I mentioned all those years of being in the midst of swooping bats on the water at night for a reason, and that is, in all those years, and many times per year, I’ve never had a bat bump into me. They are absolute masters of slow-speed flight (it’s true - they really aren’t going as fast as it seems when you only get quick glimpses of them).
They are a diversion
for the fish about to jump in your boat and really scare the mess out of you. People just don’t like things that go bump in the night, images of Peter Cushing not withstanding.
Vampire: “fundamentally a parasitic force or being, malevolent and self-seeking by nature, whose paramount desire is to absorb the life-force or to ingest the vital fluids of a living organism in order to sate its perverse hunger and to perpetuate its unnatural existence.” Sounds more like a politician.
Just keep them away from your
belfry.
jim
Bloodsucking, rabies and death
You guys gotta be kidding or very lucky.
You paddle in tippy boats on black scary water with hundreds of THESE viciously swarming monsters:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/1024/vampire-bat.jpg
Here are the disease-filled creatures crawling on, licking and biting a sleeping pig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Va9ull44yw
What do you think they will do to YOU if you doze off or stop swinging your paddle club?
(I understand carbon wing paddles are best for swatting at the satanic rodents, but Greenland paddles are more effective for rolling with chewed-up and gouged-out arms.)
Bats are good Luck!
In many Countries to the south of us the natives feel that bats are good luck. Since we don’t have the blood sucking kind, it would be easy for us to feel the same way. So all you need to do is change your attitude about them. Bats really are a wonderful friend to man turning all those bugs into fertilizer.
Think of them as fuzzy dragon flies.
Bats must like kayaks
Saw your post yesterday right after I went to the kayak shed, where upon opening the door a sleeping bat fell to the floor! I jumped back because I didn’t know what it was at first.
My husband tried to move it out of there (using gloves), and that bat made a strange chittering noise at him, teeth bared. Yet when he offered a stick to its mouth, the bat did not bite down. Eventually it flew off, obviously peeved at being rudely awoken.
I hope it sticks around–they eat bugs.
3 weeks ago one was attached to a wall a
few feet off the ground, right outside the restrooms by our launch at the lake. We got up close and it watched us but didn’t move. We left it there hoping that it wouldn’t be bothered by anyone. It was an odd place for it to be right out in the open like that, hope it wasn’t sick.
Teeth bared
– Last Updated: Sep-08-09 12:58 PM EST –
Mouth is the sonar transmitter, and has to be open to emit -- that's why you see so many photos of bats with "teeth bared". They're just trying to figure out what's going on.
Humans are probably pretty scary to a small mammal that size.
ok, so i have it down
no exhaling 'cuz that attracts skeeters…no lights that attracts skeeters. but we will be violation of all our safety laws. pirates in the night…we will be!!!