Bat House Forum

[DRH]

I have a 3 year old bat house (about 14" by 20") hung about 15' up on the sunny side of a tree about 15 yards from my home in SE Michigan.  I recently noticed  several leafy twigs protruding from the bottom opening but thought that it might have been the work of a local wren that had been busy filling all of our bird houses with twigs to ward off other nesting birds.

However, the entire box was just knocked or blown down to the ground a few days ago and when I opened up the box to clean out the twigs, I was surprised to see that above the twigs there were several handfuls of fiberglass insulation (the blown type like I have in my attic) in one side of the box.  In addition, there were several small tears in the screen.

To my knowledge, this box has never been occupied although I'm not sure exactly how to tell but  I have not noticed any guano in the lawn below it. 

My question is, does anyone know why this little nest would have been inside the box?  Could a bat have migrated from my attic and brought some of the insulation with it to raise its pups in?

[IowaNate]

 It was either a bird or a small rodent since bats don't make nests out of anything. Usually if a bird or rodent makes a nest in a bat house, the bats won't roost there. I would definately be leaning towards a wren.

[Terry Lobdell]

I have had mice build nests up in my bat houses over the winter by jamming grass up in the crevices. You need to mount that bat house up on a pole in full sun.

[DRH]

Terry and IowaNate, thanks for your quick replies.  I have already re-installed the bat house on the tree but will begin to look for a suitable pole to move the bat house to.

[kerbat]

DRH , you can make a very simple pole by using an 8 foot 4X4 PT  as the base. Use 2 1X4 12 feet long and 2 1X6 12 feet long. Make a hollow rectangular box with the four 1 bys. Let the 1X6's overhang the 1X4's so that it will make a snug fit around the outside of the 4X4. Screw the rectangle tube together using 1 1/2 inch deck screws. Overlap the 4X4 about two feet and put two 3/8 inch bolts thru near the top and bottom of the overlap. When you remove the bottom bolt the top one becomes a hinge point. You will need to remove the front side of the rectangle high enough to let the rectangle be rotated up and down.

I put my small bat house up and down with another push pole to rotate it up or down. You probably can do this by hand if you are younger than the ol 71 yearer here. :>}

Bernie, if you need pictures give me an email or phone to call

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get 2 3/8in bolts to go thru the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DRH]

Bernie, thanks for the design suggestion.  Your design sounds quite simple but I'm having some trouble visualizing it.  Can you post a picture or send it to [url=mailto:danielrhouston@hotmail.com]danielrhouston@hotmail.com[/url]?