Bat House Forum

[bluedragnkittn]

We just moved into a house, and we have a mosquito problem. It's not huge, but annoying. So we thought 'Hey, let's attract bats!' We have a small creek down the hill at the bottom of our property and we have some wooded areas. We have a bat house/bird house combo that my husband's grandfather made for us and we're excited. We also have a mysterious post in our back yard that we want to put to use, the problem is it is about 7 feet tall... is this too short for bats? Will it be pointless putting it there or should we put it on a pole that extends further up? Some help would be much appreciated! Thank you!
-Nicole

[cloudman75]

I think 7 ft is not high enough for bat colonies. Is the pole metal or wood? I would suggest extending it up by another 10 ft. min. if possible using a metal pole . Wood is also OK.What size is the combo bird/bat house? How heavy?I would be interested to read a description of that one as I have not seen one before.If you could post a photo it would be better. How many bat chambers? Good luck with the batting.

Frank

[Terry Lobdell]

I had a section of treated 4x4 that was only about 7 feet long so I sunk it in the ground, then slipped a hollow square wood section of pole over it to extend the height. It worked real well............I have pictures of it posted under "popcorn tin box"

[Canute]

While I am by no means an expert I will tell you that I put up two bat houses almost exactly a year ago. They are mounted side-by-side and almost exactly 7' off the ground at their lowest point. I had 3 bats consistently inhabiting it within six weeks (which I'm told is extremely fast) and reached a high count of five bats last summer. Sometime in May of this year 3 bats returned, much to my disappointment as I had hoped for numbers to increase. A few days ago I went out to find a maternity colony that is now routinely using them. High count so far this summer is 16!!! So....Yes, they will use boxes low to the ground if the conditions are favorable for them.

See this post for pictures:
http://bathouseforum.org/forum/first-bat-houses-year-nursing-colony-arrived-t859.html