Bats Anybody?

[BarryBobPosthole]

Anybody have a bat box? Any tips on where to put them, etc? I have a martin house but they need serious help with the skeets around here. Thinking of putting a couple bat boxes on the top story outside wall. Where my HOA can't see them.

BKB

[Arty]

Up high. Real high. And I think front of box needs to face north if I'm not mistaken.
Don't take long for them to find it.
My old neighbor on the lake had 2 boxes and he didn't have a skeeter for miles

[BarryBobPosthole]

That's what I'm wanting to hear!

Plus that it doesn't take them long to find it.

BKB

[Thumper]

Thinking of putting a couple bat boxes on the top story outside wall. Where my HOA can't see them. BKB

Depends on which direction your house sits. If the back of your house faces south (the back of my house does) and is not shaded by trees or eaves, etc, you should be ok. (Arty said NORTH, but I read the opposite) They need LOTS of morning sun. I considered a bat house once (found one at an estate sale a while back and thought it would be neat to have) and was going to mount it in a large oak in my yard. My reasoning was that bats live in cool, dark caves during the day, so I looked for the darkest, coolest place I could find. After studying up a bit, I found my thinking was opposite of what they need. From what I learned, I still don't understand why they like cool, dark caves! I do remember getting a little bit of conflicting information regarding the hotter climate in Florida, but it was more confusing than helpful. It may apply to Okieland also, but you do have cold winters, so who knows what's right? You may want to read up on bat house placement on the net, because I'm going by memory here.

Also, remember they are little poop factories! Where's all that poop gonna end up?

P.S. I found it on a Friday and was going to go back and buy it Saturday (1/2-price day) if it was still available. It was a store-bought unit and was in the garage ... still new and unmounted. After researching the things that Friday night, I changed my mind about wanting one. ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

My garden sits directly under where it'll be mounted. I guess I could just the composter over there under it.

Bat shit crazy. Wonder where that saying came from?

BKB

[Big Muddy]

There's a local lady who builds and sells bat houses....she also does seminars about where to install and maintain them....someone told me once, that a bat can eat 1,000 mosquitoes an hour.

[BarryBobPosthole]

In one of my former lives, I used to go down to Austin, Texas every Sunday night to make it to my boss's Monday morning staff meetings there. The hotel I stayed at was across the Colorado River from the office and I'd sometimes see the millions of mexican freetail bats that live under that bridge either returning or leaving depending on the time of day. It was an amazing sight and the number of mosquitos they said that colony ate every day was in the tons.

A ton of skeets is a lot of dad gum skeets!

BKB

[Hombre]

Talk to Terry there in town, he had one in Wellington