Does anyone have experience with setting these up?

I've been doing some reading, but I'd appreciate any first hand experience with them...

http://www.batconservation.org/content/How%20to%20put%20up%20a%20bat%20house.html
http://www.batmanagement.com/Batcentral/batboxes/whyfail.html

5/19/2010 1:10:22 PM

a couple of bat houses aren't really gonna help with your mosquitoes, b

5/19/2010 1:50:09 PM

i really want my neighborhood to go this route. the mosquitoes are brutal.

5/19/2010 2:11:18 PM

our neighbors had a bat house and it helped tremendously w/ the mosquitoes

all i know is they had it really high up in a tree in their back yard

5/19/2010 2:51:23 PM

^^^
Not true, from what I've heard.



Those links are helpful... Thanks.



Anyone know what you call that lumber that's pre-roughed on one side?

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 4:06 PM. Reason : ]

5/19/2010 3:55:39 PM

Quote :

"Anyone know what you call that lumber that's pre-roughed on one side?"

nominal?

rough-sided?

5/19/2010 4:19:52 PM

bats live in the woods.

they will fly by your house when they feel good n ready

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 4:31 PM. Reason : d]

5/19/2010 4:30:14 PM

^ GrumpyGOP begs to differ

5/19/2010 4:51:41 PM

From what I've read, a bat colony can put a noticeable dent in the mosquito population. But you're going to need a fairly decent sized colony (i.e. get a large bat house), and it can take quite a while to get a colony established.

What is your land like? Poor drainage, ponds, in the woods, etc.?

5/19/2010 5:16:07 PM

Quote :

"What is your land like? Poor drainage, ponds, in the woods, etc.?"

Mostly woods in the backyard..no water sources that I know of in the area. I have a feeling they breed in the bark of the pine trees, but I haven't really looked into it that much.


From what I read it seems like you need to place the bathouse somewhere it can get hit with a lot of morning sun, so that will probably be the hard part for me.

5/20/2010 9:26:16 AM

5/20/2010 10:13:12 AM

Bats rock for taking care of bugs. Wish I could give advice on a bat house but we have a colony already living around here somewhere.

5/20/2010 10:33:16 AM

I think I'd rather deal with mosquitoes than dealing with bats.

5/20/2010 12:23:56 PM

Check your gutters to make sure they aren't clogged. I was on my deck when I noticed a Robyn taking a bath in one of my gutters I thought I had cleaned out the ones that were clogged but I missed that one. I'll be putting gutterguards on that one this weekend.

5/20/2010 12:24:49 PM

5/21/2010 1:03:03 AM

you do realize bats spread disease

5/21/2010 11:48:40 AM

so do prostitutes

5/21/2010 11:51:02 AM

all animals, including humans, spread disease.

5/21/2010 12:06:17 PM

Quote :

"you do realize bats spread disease "

and mosquitoes dont

5/21/2010 12:15:21 PM

I'm glad you reminded me of this...I had planned to put one up last year and never got around to it. Just grabbed a three chamber one on eBay. Hopefully it will help with the mosquitoes this year.

My gutters are sagging in the middle which means they hold some water. I plan to take them down this fall and put them back up with the proper slope after I paint the house, but for now they're a mosquito's dream.

5/21/2010 12:53:42 PM

^
Ebay? It might be a bad design.
(According to the "whyfail" article above, most existing commercial boxes and design plans are actually not good.)

Quote :

"I think I'd rather deal with mosquitoes than dealing with bats."

What do you mean? What's to deal with?

5/21/2010 1:09:09 PM

I think he means he'd rather be out working in his yard getting bitten by mosquitoes all day rather than watching a few bats flying around at night.

[Edited on May 21, 2010 at 1:25 PM. Reason : e]

5/21/2010 1:21:02 PM

Hey Skack, you can do some minor work to them till you paint your house that could cut down on them holding water.

If they are sagging maybe they dont have the proper support at that location. Depending on how they are attached you might can use these to clip to the gutter then screw in using drill.



Also go ahead and clean out and debris and put some gutter guards on them. All that should only take a few hours, depending on how many gutters you have and how easy you can access them.

And it will make a huge difference in the amount of mosquitoes you have. Bat houses and such are a good idea but ideally you should eliminate all the breed grounds you can first.

5/21/2010 1:38:34 PM

I may do that on the 1 story sections of my house. The 2 story section is the worst and it is going to take a new ladder for me to get to them.

The gutters are clean. I hit them with the leaf blower every so often. I'm kindof in that "fuck it for now" mode though since I'm planning the major work for this fall. I've got a little bit of rotten fascia boards to replace so I figured that would be the best time to decide if these gutters are going to stay or go.

5/21/2010 2:39:30 PM

holy mosquito repellant!

5/21/2010 2:44:15 PM

bttt

looking in to a bat house(s), mostly to help out with bat populations in my area but also would appreciate them gorging themselves on mosquitos.

This thread is 11 years old, anyone have any new experiences?

I'm pretty sure that my brick chimney exterior would be a good place for a bat house -- it's about 40ft from the ground and 20ft from some woods. Main question I have is how hot is too hot? Two sides of the chimney get absolutely baked by the sun in the summer. Everything I read says 6-8 hours of direct sunlight in the day is good, but that probably doesn't account for summers in the Southeast. I live in northern Alabama so daytime temperatures in the summer are usually in the upper 90s and being in my attic for even a few mins is unbearable, I'd imagine the inside of a bat house would be the same. Would the shaded sides of my chimney be better for bats?

4/7/2021 1:30:09 PM

This isn’t going to give you a clear answer, but I happened to see this article the other day which is applicable.

https://aces.illinois.edu/news/love-bats-think-twice-about-bat-box-experts-say?fbclid=IwAR2ef8hBqSsZaGq6JZMChJRv3JyH8FQs542u3pC8mKc4-9XLfegvhh7dz2A

4/7/2021 7:36:16 PM

^Thanks! Looks like overheating is an issue. I think the best thing to do in my case would be to mount it on the shaded side to begin with and give it some time to see if any bats take interest. If there is no action after a year or so I'll try moving it to a sunnier side.

Anyone else have any experiences to share?

4/8/2021 9:47:15 AM

Based on my reading of that, the best solution would be to essentially join two bathouses and put them on the corner, so one side gets the direct sun and the other doesn't, but that's probably more work than anyone's looking for. That way the bats can move around if it gets too hot/cold

4/8/2021 11:22:21 AM

I just evicted some bats from an alcove over my ?garden? window (what do you call the door/window when it sticks a little bit out from your house and has it's own mini-roof?)

Wanted to give the little guys a bat house since I feel bad about getting them out of my house (although not too bad)

4/8/2021 11:54:20 AM

Can someone tell me how to keep cats out of my yard? Other than trapping/shooting them ( )

4/8/2021 1:09:52 PM

^get a dog


or more realistically, there are plants that cats don't like the smell of, you could plant some of those around.

4/8/2021 1:36:15 PM

I don't have a fenced in yard, and my dog passed recently.

I had been advised to plant lavender and/or garlic to keep cats away. That actually work?

4/8/2021 2:55:52 PM

behind the bathouse....I'll show you my dark secreeet

4/8/2021 3:06:06 PM

I can attest that cats don't like the smell of lavender. I have some wild lavender that grows near my house, and when I want to keep my cat away from a certain room I will put a few bunches on the floor near the entrance. They only flower in the summer, but their stalks smell year-round, so I'd think a cat would be able to smell them.

Sorry about you dog, mine is getting old and I dread the day that he passes

4/8/2021 3:07:13 PM

Cats

Orange Oil works well for a few days, but you have to reapply. I put it in a gallon sprayer and walked the perimeter of my yard.

Lavendar works OK.

Trapping is one of the best methods. Even if you don't take them to the SPCA. Just the fear of them being trapped was enough to keep most of my gang of feral cats from returning to my yard. We have 6-10 that live around us and I caught half of them and had them spayed/neutered and brought them back. Now they avoid our house or just walk up the driveway on their way to whatever it is they do. One of them has taken residence under some hedges in my side yard, but we have a mutual understanding.

4/9/2021 8:53:26 AM

It really depends on the model. If you go with keaton it's a little scattered. Clooney and kilmer felt forced and corny. Bale was fine. Can't mention ben never saw it. Not sure wayne manor is going to control bugs never saw it used on the big screen.

4/24/2021 9:56:45 PM

Quote :

"Can someone tell me how to keep cats out of my yard? Other than trapping/shooting them"

Poison them? Employ an army of hawks? Large stones that randomly fall from the sky?

4/26/2021 12:53:38 PM

Quote :

"Sorry about you dog, mine is getting old and I dread the day that he passes "

Thanks Wraith

Quote :

"Cats Orange Oil works well for a few days, but you have to reapply. I put it in a gallon sprayer and walked the perimeter of my yard. Lavendar works OK. Trapping is one of the best methods. Even if you don't take them to the SPCA. Just the fear of them being trapped was enough to keep most of my gang of feral cats from returning to my yard. We have 6-10 that live around us and I caught half of them and had them spayed/neutered and brought them back. Now they avoid our house or just walk up the driveway on their way to whatever it is they do. One of them has taken residence under some hedges in my side yard, but we have a mutual understanding."

Above and beyond, nicely done.

Quote :

"It really depends on the model. If you go with keaton it's a little scattered. Clooney and kilmer felt forced and corny. Bale was fine. Can't mention ben never saw it. Not sure wayne manor is going to control bugs never saw it used on the big screen."

lol

4/27/2021 1:20:53 PM

well, I did it. I built the batbox. I roughly followed the design at http://www.batcon.org/files/RocketBoxPlans.pdf. I used cedar for the inside and my inner most box is 4"x6" since I wrapped the 4x4 (so a little bigger than the design specs). The outside is PVC because I had an extra sheet laying around.

5/7/2021 7:32:50 PM

Any tenants yet?

[Edited on May 8, 2021 at 11:04 AM. Reason : ]

5/8/2021 11:03:54 AM

not that I can tell, I checked the second day after installing to see if I could see any bats but no one was there

from what I have read it seems like best time to attract bats is during migration season in early april. Still holding out hope that some move in this year though. The bat guy that put screens on my eaves said that when you kick a bat out of your house they typically move to a neighbor's house. I haven't spent a ton of time outside my house at dusk this week, but I'll keep an eye out

5/11/2021 12:10:41 AM

From what I've read, bats can take months to move in. Although the best time for them to find a new home is in the spring, they will still keep an eye out throughout their active season in the summer.

5/11/2021 2:53:56 PM

checked yesterday, no bats yet. It's been cold recently in Raleigh and haven't seen much bat activity in general

keeping my fingers crossed

5/15/2021 9:08:47 PM

What's next inviting snakes in?

5/16/2021 8:01:30 AM

Who has good plans for a DIY snake pit?

5/17/2021 12:06:06 AM

if you look in my picture above, snakes love living in the drainage rock area.

snakes+bats = success

5/24/2021 8:09:32 PM

my neighbor found a lot of bats in his attic, one was flying around in his sons' room!

they can't be evicted until Aug 1 due to bat birthing season.

Still no bats in the bathouse that I can tell.

6/5/2021 1:36:30 PM

Steal some of your neighbor's baby bats and stash them in your bat house!

6/5/2021 1:50:33 PM

^

also nice fit and finish

6/15/2021 4:25:24 PM