Bat House Forum

[Ron Earp]

Hi,

I live in NC, basically in the Raleigh area, and my daughter and my father just completed a granddaughter/grandfather project – building a bat house. Now that they have completed the project it has fallen to me to put the bat house up on our property. However, in researching this topic I’ve come up with a few questions regarding location and possible changes that need to be made to the bat house.

First the bat house.

The house is about three feet tall, two feet wide, and around seven inches thick. It has three chambers inside and all the wood surfaces were heavily roughened. The house is painted a dark beige/tan color and the house has no vents. Questions:

*Is the color appropriate for the NC central region which is, in my opinion, pretty hot. We average more than 60 days above 90F a year and in 2007 we had 83 days at or above 90F.

*Does the house need vents? And if so, where? Slot vents located in the bottom third of the house?

And now location, which might tie back into color and vents.

I leave about 100 yards away from a stream and maybe 250 yards from a small lake/large pond. I planned to put the house on one section of my property that allow a 135 degree facing and would receive at least 85% of available sunlight all day long. However, that side of my property is close to a neighbor that has a problem with bat houses. So, I need to put it at an alternative location that will only get around 50% of the available sunlight. Please have a look at the attached picture from Google Earth. In this picture you can see the locations, my house, and N is marked up literally straight up as my house faces almost due South.



*Will this bat house be successful?

*If that location can work what changes do I need to make to the bat house?

Thanks for any assistance you folks can offer.

Thank you,
Ron

[cloudman75]

Hello Ron,
Since I lived in your area for 8 years in Pittsboro N.C. I will give you my two cents on the matter. I presently have three bat houses and about 150 bats at present in the metro Atlanta, Ga. area.
If you will check my previous posts you will find several photos of bats hanging out on the landing because they are too hot in summer. Your large house sounds like it's going to be heavy, but a good size for bats if you can get it up on a pole.
My advice is to paint it a light color of your choice, like blue, or very light tan a few shades darker than off white.
The ventilation slots I used are not adequate for our hot summers. I am sending you a link of what I used on a 5 chamber house about the same dimensions as yours. I could only see one location on your post, as half did not get in the photo.
It will be next year before you can expect a maternity colony.
My recommendations are as follows:

1. Go up from the bottom of your house 12 inches to 16 inches and provide a 1/2 inch high slot the full width of your house front.
2.Provide a vertical 1/2 inch slot on each side of the house with the bottom matching the height from the bottom of your horizontal slot then extending up toward the top about 6 inches. Be careful not to cut your baffles.
3. Paint the house a light color of your choice such as blue or light tan, but nothing dark.
4. Mount the house up 16 to 20 ft where the front or back will get morning sun for about four hours. Your ambient temperatures during summer will keep the bats plenty warm in normal seasons. Stay 30 ft from trees if possible.

Here is a link with the plans I used for a standard house from the PA. Game Commission. The ventilation slots are what I used and found to be inadequate for the southeast.
This house has been very successful but is usually not used for late july into Sept. because it is too hot even painted a light blue. Your house sounds great. Can you post photos?
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/se ... 397&mode=2
If I can be of any help to answer questions, please email me, and welcome to the forum.

Frank

[Ron Earp]

Hey Frank,

hit reload in your browser, that imagine is actually inline and it should come up. Or you might need to use your vertical scroll bars. I'm attaching the image to this post so that you can be sure to see it. Also, it is located here:

http://www.gt40s.com/images/misc/earpbatlocation.jpg

Would a light green or green color work? That might help me hide it a bit better in my urban enviroment. I live in Cary NC, and since you've lived around here you know what that means.....

10-4 on the vents, I can make those modifications. Thanks for the plans and link.

Location is my big problem and if you can get the image of my property I think it'll help the discussion. The bottom line is, how important is morning sun? If it is paramount then I think I'm sunk. In the image North is straight up as my house faces due South. I can only put the house at, or near, one of the two locations marked with a blue dot. The location on the right side of the image is blocked from receiving morning sun because my property is a bit lower than my neighbor's property and he has trees. So, sunlight won't hit that location until probably 1030 to 11am in the morning. So what do you think? Is a bad location worse than no bat house at all?

The location on the left side of the property will receive morning sun earlier, probably around 9am. But I'm not sure about locating it there as my neighbors are likely to complain. Putting it in the middle of the back yard or front yard is a non-starter.

Thanks,
Ron

[cloudman75]

Ron,
My retired dentist friend R.O. Hawkins still lives in Cary.
Here are my opinions in reply to your questions:

The second location is fine and the link plus the second attachment showed the locations.
I think if you painted the house green it would be fine. Remember that dark green absorbs solar insolation about as well as black. Lighter would be better than really dark. I suppose you would want to make the bat house less obvious by matching the tree colors and that is fine I think.

The sun appears to be almost overhead in summer when it is hottest so the roof and upper bat house will get the most sun exposure when bats are usually present. The partial shade should not be a problem for several hours.

A poor location is better than none and some bats like it cool I have read. However, I think your second location will be successful over time if not next summer. If you hurry and get it up some bats may investigate it this year before going into hibernation. They will most likey return and check it out next April sometime after the weather warms enough for them to come out of hibernation.
Good luck Ron, and please post some photos of your bat house on the forum.

Frank