Bat House Forum

[Gran]

Do bats nest inside of chimneys?  If so, do they share space with the chimney swallows(swifts?)?  What got me thinking of this was that our chimney cap blue off a couple of years ago and we had a healthy(and loud ) population of birds nesting in our chimney that summer.  If they will cohabitate then there ought to be a way to build nest sites that would encourge both.  There are pleanty of bugs for both and both are fun to watch.  Does anyone have any info on this?

[Terry Lobdell]

Bats do roost in chimneys especially those without flu liners. The bats can easily grip the rough brick and morter surfaces.

I had thought about building a chimney swift tower/bat house combination but was advised not to because bat bugs have been known to be fatal to baby birds.

Here is a good link about chimney swifts:

http://www.chimneyswifts.org/

[Gran]

Too bad the bugs aren't compatible.  It looks like the swift tower (with maybe a few mods) would lend itself to a combo set up