Bat House Forum

[flyin-lowe]

Right now there is grass grown up around the pole my bat house is on. I am going to Round Up around it but was thinking about putting down something lite colored to help the guano show up. (if the bats show up). I assume I don't want anything that will reflect up light. I was thinking some light colored gravel or sand. Any old tricks of the trade. Will guano show up good if it is just bare dirt?

[cloudman75]

I use white garbage bags, the bats don't mind. I use an old white water closet lid under one house.

Frank

[flyin-lowe]

I am not sure the average age of the users of this forum but I wander how many people on here know what a water closet is? I am in my early 30's and I know but I bet many don't.
Thanks for the advice.

[Dave Miller]

I usually use large flat rocks, although at the refuge (where I have placed two houses), I am not allowed to change the vegetation so some houses have native shrubs under them. The guano catches on their leaves so I can tell when the bats have been using the house. In general I would say that you should be able to see guano on anything other than grass.

I know of one experiment where a fine mesh was placed under the houses and the guano was collected and weighed. They were gathering quantitative data on different bat house designs.

[cloudman75]

Flying Lowe look under photos my post 03/14/2011 bats for photo of garbage bag and water closet lid under bat houses.

Frank

[flyin-lowe]

I remeber seeing those photos. My house is on a pole that is on state park property. They don't want the area disturbed too much. I might just round up around the base of the pole and put some white stone/gravel down. It will make it a little easier to mow around the pole as well. I usually mow this part but sometimes the park mows it. If there is gravel around the pole they won't get too close and bump it.

[Terry Lobdell]

Like Dave said, flat rocks work well and you can mow right over them.....

Bats definitely don't like the posts being bumped.......they will fly out in mid day if a post is bumped hard enough.........

[LarryH]

The first year I had the bat houses up, I just left the grass that was originally there. That turned out to be very difficult because I didn't want to mow up close to the pole and the orchard grass that was in the pasture gets very tall if left alone. So, after the bats were gone that fall, I dug out the sod for about 10' diameter around the bat house pole, and backfilled it with topsoil. Then I planted Crimson Clover. Now I have a beautiful "flower garden" around the pole that doesn't need mowing or tending. After the bats leave in the fall, I mow the clover to spread the seeds for the new crop of plants.

The area right around the pole is the concrete I set the pole in. I didn't want any pups falling on the concrete, so I put down several inches of sand over the concrete. I can easily see any droppings in the white sand. Last year the droppings built up quite heavy, so I scooped them up and spread them over the clover for fertilizer.

Oddly enough, this year there are Corn Poppies coming up in with the clover, and I don’t know how they got there. We have a patch of Corn Poppies on the opposite end of the 5 acre pasture, so apparently the birds, or some animal, have spread the seeds. Since the poppies get 2 to 3 feet tall, I'm not sure I want them under the bat houses.