Bat House Forum

[LarryH]

A funny thing happened this evening -- my wife and the neighbor wife was standing at the fence talking this evening just as it was starting to get dark. Suddenly, a bat flew back and forth between them several times and then took off. My wife was a little surprised and asked the other lady, "Did you see that bat?", to which the neighbor replied, "Yeah, I see them all the time. I like having them around here."

I thought that was rather neat! Almost as neat as watching the bats under the night light catching the June Bugs. I'm not sure how many bats we have this year -- I tried counting them a couple evenings ago and I gave up at 220 because they started coming out too fast to count. I have noticed that they have been moving between the 3 bats houses. The small nursery colony is full of pups and it has become obvious that I need a bigger house for them. I didn't know if they would use it since the bottom of it is only 12 feet off the ground, mounted on south side of the pole barn, but the mothers seem to love it.

[Justin]

Sounds lovely. I do as many Bats as I would like out here in Peru. Im waiting to move to my new house and then I am determined to get some bats in and around. Far too many mosquitoes here!

[Joe Spencer]

Very nice count Larry. Have you identified the species. I am curious since the WNS outbreak I have had no little brown bats, only big browns.

[LarryH]

Joe - Usually we have a good mixture of Big Browns and Little Browns, but this year I've noticed that we have mostly Big Browns. When I looked in the nursery colony, I only saw Big Browns. I have seen a few bats that I am not sure about, but I think they are Evening Bats -- at first I thought they were young Big Browns, but it appears that they are just smaller, mature bats. They have a very dark brown or black face.

As a side note, we have had an unusually hot spell lately -- with the temps in the high 90's and humity nearly the same -- and most of the bats left the houses to find cooler roosts. There are still about 50 in the houses, but most are gone. I'm sure they'll be back as soon as the weather cools a little again.