Bat House Forum

[Radar]

Hi, new here but some may know me on other rehab groups.  I'm interested  in several areas of information if you can supply please chime in.

I'm experimenting with different counters. I have a good one from germany but it's expensive. I think I can build one for about 20 bucks. here is the case.

counting doens't have to be continous although it would be nice to have real time counting and knowing if insects are getting inside. I figured I need a removeable device that I can put below the house at certain times of the year early spring late winter then use on other bat houses. I figured I'd use mirrored tape on the bottom of a squired or rectangular house and bounce the infrared beam around the base small enough to pickup an insect. what I need it where to get those mission impossible glasses to see the beam so I can set the beam and the size of the bounce.  This is the most important right now so I design the system.

I hope to set up bat house labs around the city if they will sponser it but want to monitor each house.   So these little lab houses have to be as inexpensive as possible.  I think once my non profit is finalized I'll be able to get free airtime to transit the information to the office.  I can hope anyway.

What temperature systems have you set up. I can get 1 or 2 of the hobo gauges but I think a thermal couple for an oven might work they cost about a  buck. will have to see what the temperature range is on those things. need 40 to about 100  so the low end might be difficult.

I'm planning on building about 12 different kind of houses.  I've got an 8 foot privacy fence with about 30-40 posts to make use of.  Plus I plan to build a couple large houses using 10" PVC for a base so may see about using the PVC for a house as well as a support base.  I'm also looking for some kind of  square c track system with plastic rollers inside to raise and lower the houses. Like what they use for draws in desks. want to see if they would be strong enough to support them.  I haven't found where to get these yet.

I'm sure I have many more queries but these are the main ones right now. I'd reallly like to find those infrared glasses not the $400 ones just the ones that can pick up the spectrum for 2 bucks or something.



The counter is also the big problem the one I purchased is 100 bucks I need to create one or get one thats around 10-20  to make this work.  I'm also open ot sound sensors but those wouldn't be as accurate but if you miss a bat or two I guess it won't matter that much plus a webcam could back up any data.

[IowaNate]

Hello Radar and welcome to the site..although I must say that I am not familiar with many of the devices you are talking about or what their uses are. Are you just looking to count the bats as they exit the house? And what do you mean by seeing if insects enter the house? Sorry if I am confused, but a lot of your post went way over my head.

        Happy bat housing!

                                           Nate

[Radar]

sorry about that. I'm looking at using an infrared counter at the base of bat houses. The advantage to this I can select how narrow a beam bouncing accross the bottom so can narrow it enough to even pick up an insect getting inside. sonics are cheaper but not very accurate if if 2, 3 4 bats leaves at a time. and may not pick up an insect getting in the house.  What I'm hoping to do is count the pups born each each year and any losses in adult bats (possibly do to insecticides etc.).  I'm also hoping to test sounds to see if it's possible to attract a specific species to a house or able to attract bats at all. What I need is a way to see  the  infrared beam to align it under the house. I know there are cheap goggles out there just haven't found them yet. except the 400 dollar night vision ones.

[IowaNate]

 I understand now. Although if you have the time, the basic method of counting the bats as they exit in the evening is a very accurate way to count bats. And after the adults leave it is very easy to look into the house and count the pups. I have been able to count one of my colonies of over 250 bats plus or minus a few just by sillouetting them against the evening sky as they exit (it helps to have a second person counting). My bat colonies vary from year to year slightly and even day to day as the bats sometimes find an alternate roost due to predators or parasites for a short time.

  I take it that you are looking for an EXACT count of the bats using your house(s) and even with the most advanced technology I still think it might be difficult. I personally feel that if you have a nursery colony, that counting the pups after the adults leave is the best way to see if your colony is expanding from year to year.

 

                                              Nate

[Radar]

I planned to do this initially. but I'm hoping down the way the city may want several hundred houses if I work a deal with the F & G it might be much larger. I'm hoping to create a network that can be transmitted to my office counter, temperature, recorded sounds, maybe video.  basically a lab. over time.  I'm going to be building these from old privacy fence pickets. using a 2 x 12 routing out the slots to hold the pickets they shoudl make 10 baffel houses. Not sure how many they will hold time will tell I think 2 back to back will hold a thousand. I hope to work a deal with fence companies to donate the wood. One way to recycle a ton of wood a year. Plus I'll be building many different kinds. I understand rocket bockets do very well and they can be built very quickly.  Have to work something up with recycled fencing.  all suggestions welcome need to brainstorm here.

[IowaNate]

 Check out my post on how to make several 3 chamber houses for minimal cost and wood waste. Just an idea, but this house meets the requirements of most of North America's bat species. You should be able to build a dozen of these houses for less than $100 total. And if you use some donated wood, the cost will be even less. http://www.batnic.org/forum/forum3/436.html