Bat House Forum

[billtefft]

I am looking for a bat house design that would enable to use salvaged cedar shingles for the dividers. The college where I teach has construction work to upgrade roofing. They are removing relatively thin cedar shingles and replacing them. Therefore there are lots of used shingles available. A friend believes that at one time they saw a bat house design using shingles old cedar shingles to create the divider surfaces inside for the bats.

Is anyone aware of this design? All I have been able to find is cedar shake roofing design

[Dave Miller]

If you have little brown bats in your area I think they would like a house that used cedar shingles. Just put the fat ends up, close to each other, maybe even touching, depending on the taper of the shingles. The goal is to have crevices that are about 1/2" - 3/4" wide.

It seems like little browns have a preference for tapered crevices, so they can squeeze in tight sometimes.

[Erik]

Where I live we don't have that kind of roofing, but I can imaging that in the past (or present) those kind of shingles can have been treated with wood preservatives? Or are cedar shingles not easy affected by fungi or beetles? Anyway whenever you recycle wood for bat houses, make sure they have been treated with wood preservatives that are toxic for mammals.

For example, until the late 90's PCP (Pentachloorphenol) was a legal wood preservative in Europe. To protect the wood in the attics historical buildings (farm buildings, barns, churches, monasteries against damage by fungi and beetles PCP has been used. Sometimes wooden beams in the church were impregnated with PCP's, but with renovations parts of beams and roofs were replaced by new impregnated wood.
It was banned in the late '90's because it very toxic to many animals. Recently bat researcher have found that, even after decades, wood treated with PCP is still killing bats. Probably the bats get affected by roosting on the wooden beams or in between shelves and boarding. They take in the poison trough the skin or get the poison on their skin and hairs in their mouth while grooming. It's accumulates in the fat and fat milk. Hibernating bats (burning fat while waking up once in a while) and pups are especially at risk.

Erik

[Dave Miller]

Erik raises some good points. I don't think cedar shingles are treated with preservatives but in some parts of the country they are required to be treated with fire retardant (e.g. California, I believe). Unfortunately I don't know how you could tell if they have been treated - maybe cut one and see if the wood has a chemical odor?

[Phantoo]

I used to love bats. I used to sit outside and watch them swooping under the streetlamps. And then one day I hiked a little long and a little late, and wound up having to backpack out of the mountains in the dark . . . with the bats. Bats determined to get as close to my head as possible. To this day I get trembly when bats are about. That said, I would LOVE to have a bat house! Even though I'm askeered of them, I know they're super-important and they're really struggling, especially in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Because 2nd 3rd and 4th cutting cycle white cedar produces shingles of the same quality as the trees first cut by the early New Englanders. Today it is even common to see fifth generation logs providing the same high quality white cedar products as the first settlers discovered from this miracle wood. Unlike white cedar, which has a thirty five to seventy year harvest cycle Red Cedar takes much longer to mature, the properties of the wood are dramatically different from Old Growth and not suitable for shingles.

Real Estate Reviews

[Terry Lobdell]

I think used cedar shingles would work for baffles if as Erik and Dave said they are free of chemicals. It would also make for a bat house that is very light in weight. Here in PA I have accumulated a lot of used ones that have ridges/grooves machined in vertically. This type I would attach horizontally. If I were you, I would just go ahead and start experimenting!