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I have often wondered if bat houses really work. I've seen bats at dusk for years, but don't know that much about them. Do any of y'all have bat houses on your property? It is said that a single, brown bat can consume 1,200 mosquitoes in one hour. I wonder how many a married, brown bat can consume

Advice?

Wingman

Wingman :
Bats like a cool dark place most of the time . I have a couple of sets of browns living in my barn ,and yes i truly think that it has killed off the little pesky bugs. WEST NILE!!!!!

Wingman wrote: It is said that a single, brown bat can consume 1,200 mosquitoes in one hour. I wonder how many a married, brown bat can consume

Advice?

Wingman

a married brown bat could not consume nearly as many. he would have to stop for all of the lectures from his wife as to how he was doing it all wrong.

al

I disagree...









The lecture would be that he needs to watch his weight

Don't know if the bat houses work but I've been wanting one for a while. I kept planning on building one but saw one in Home Depot last night and bought it. Gonna hang it tonight. Hope it works, sure could use the help with the bugs(wonder if they eat gnats too).

let us know if it works or how long it takes for the bat to find it? i live by the water and some bad.....

Hope it works better for you than for me. I live near a wooded area and have had the bat house up facing the right direction and at the right height for approx. 3 years now and no bats. If you figure out a trick or two let me know......

What is the right direction and height? I might have to try this out.

I once dated an 'ol married brown bat......think her name was Lizzie. She loved Ever Klear, but didn't care too much for nibblin' on skeeters and gnats, though.

Yes bat houses do work. Alot of research has been done on bat houses to get an idea of what they like, and it seems that the temp inside the house has alot do with the occupation. It may take the bats a while to find the house and of course only bats the colonize are going to use them. Big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) are notorius for using houses.

It is recommended to place the houses from 15 top 20 feet off the ground and preferably around a water site (pond, lake, ditch) that holds water and draws insects for feeding. Again placement is important in relation to sunlight due to the box needs to reach a certain temp and not exceed another. They do work well on the sides of buildings, barns, pine trees and other structures. Some people have researched painting the houses different colors and the research is still out on if this makes a difference in drawing bats.

A good source for this info is at Bat Conservation Internationals website. They even have a bat house builders book that you can purchase that gives examples of different types of houses to build and what types of bats to expect. Hope this helps.[/i]

Here is an outstanding website from Bat Conservation International on bat houses:

http://www.batcon.org/bhra/bhcriter.html

I'm kinda partial to Louisville Sluggers, myself.

But do they eat skeeters or just "pop flies"

Who needs a bat house? All you have to do is leave your patio umbrella closed during the summer. As soon as you start wondering what the smell is, open the umbrella to find out. It was amazing how many of the little rats came out during the middle of the day.

Another issue with the boxes - does the guano fall inside the box?

My understanding is that the guano falls on the ground as the bottom of the box is open. The site I went to suggested placing the bat house away from humans, because of this very reason. You don't want to be breathing in fresh quacamole every time you go outside...kinda unhealthy.

Wingman