Creating Habitat To Encourage Bats

I'm eager to get a thriving population of bats on our land in order to minimize the mosquito and blackfly problem. I've had a cheap "paint it yourself" bat house up for years with no success but I recently acquired a serious bat nursery from a Canadian company. I just installed it today and I feel a lot more optimistic about this one because of its construction. It is HEAVY for its size, I assume because it is entirely covered in rubber sheeting. The rubber means that there is zero concern about cracks in the wood allowing light, wind and rain in, so this should make for a cozy home for my future tenants. It will allegedly hold up to 300 bats.

Has anyone had any success in providing appealing housing to bats? I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on what might work.

Bat Houses
 

Hi,
You might already have micro bats and not even know it.

I have a friend who has a thing called a “bat box”, (link to show what I’m talking about https://www.batbox.com/product/batbox-duet/
 )

We went on a night walk in the suburbs of Brisbane (Australia) with it and found loads of bats around. We couldn’t hear a thing, and they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye at all!

The largest concentrations of bat activity were around native trees in flower, (grevillea sp), presumably they were eating moths and other insects attracted to the flowers.

So, my best advice is to plant as many flowering trees and shrubs as possible. I can’t advise species because I’m not familiar with your climate, but plant out endemic species and try to have something flowering throughout the whole year.

Bat House Builders Handbook

Plans for Bat Rocket Box

Plans for 4-Chamber Bat Nursery

Making a bat box is also part of PEP, so if you document it and post it you can get a badge bit.

https://permies.com/wiki/107926/pep-animal-care/PEP-BB-animal-sand-bat

Krystelle Walden wrote:Making a bat box is also part of PEP, so if you document it and post it you can get a badge bit.

https://permies.com/wiki/107926/pep-animal-care/PEP-BB-animal-sand-bat

Thank you! That sounds like an excuse to begin a new project. Hell, maybe even finish it.

We have lots of bats so I don't really need to encourage them. But I've been told to put bat houses near water, so we have a pond and we are planning on putting bat boxes in the pines around it. We really love them, so cute.

Stacy Witscher wrote:We have lots of bats so I don't really need to encourage them. But I've been told to put bat houses near water, so we have a pond and we are planning on putting bat boxes in the pines around it. We really love them, so cute.

If the bugs weren't so bad here, particularly after dark, I'd go outside and look for bats in the sky. In order to do so, I need more bats here to lower the bug population, first. I think it's what they call a "catch-22", for some reason.

Plans for Bat Rocket Box

I am building a bat rocket box based on these plans.  I am using 1"-thick rough-cut hemlock planks for the chamber walls.   We live near Ithaca, NY.

The plans call for a series of grooves, ~1/2-inch apart, ~1/16" deep, for the bats to grip.  

The rough-cut surfaces of my lumber have surface features that are ~1/32" deep already.  Will I need to cut additional grip features for them?  (If I must, I will;  I'd rather create features in the wood than add a mesh that could deteriorate.)

Thanks for the advice,
Matteo

Teo Keary wrote:
Plans for Bat Rocket Box

I am building a bat rocket box based on these plans.  I am using 1"-thick rough-cut hemlock planks for the chamber walls.   We live near Ithaca, NY.

The plans call for a series of grooves, ~1/2-inch apart, ~1/16" deep, for the bats to grip.  

The rough-cut surfaces of my lumber have surface features that are ~1/32" deep already.  Will I need to cut additional grip features for them?  (If I must, I will;  I'd rather create features in the wood than add a mesh that could deteriorate.)

Thanks for the advice,
Matteo

I think your rough lumber should be fine without grooves. I have purchased bathouses that have window screen stapled inside for the bats to grip, so I'm sure rough lumber will be as good or better.