Bat House Forum

[LarryH]

Last evening, I got to observe a beautiful sighting that I've not seen before!  About a hour before dusk, there were a number of bats flying around the house, appearing to circle it.  I thought at first they were Big Browns, but after observing them for a while I am not sure they were.  They appeared to be a lot darker colored than the Big Browns that I am used to seeing near the bat houses.

I thought at first that they were looking for an entry place on the eves of the house, but they never got that close to the house.  They were circling from about 3 feet from the house out to about 25 feet.  As I watched them closer, I noticed that they were collecting Japanese Beetles as they were trying to land on the flowers both in front and behind the house.  This was great to see, since we have been plagued with the Japanese Beetles for the past several years, and they have normally devastated all of our plants, both the flowers near the house and the vegetable garden plants.  In the past, I have put up the Japanese Beetle traps when they start getting heavy, but so far this year the haven't been heavy enough to warrant the traps.  Now I know why! 

I wonder if those might have been Evening Bats, since Japanese Beetles is one of their favorite food sources?  Anything that likes Japanese Beetles is more than welcome at my house!

[Joe Spencer]

Evening bats seem to have two preferred times of foraging, one in the early evening hours and then again just before dawn. Specific prey items include small night-flying insects such as bugs, flying ants, spittle bugs, June beetles, pomace flies, Japanese beetles, and moths.  However, Larry based on the excerpt below, it is a rare find in OHIO. Hmmm maybe you have a rare sighting of EB?:

The evening bat, Nycticeius humeralis, is common in the southeastern United States, but relatively uncommon to the north. Seven records are included without comment from central and southwestern Ohio (Gottschang 1981), and Hoffmeister (1989) gives 31 specific records but lists it as rare throughout Ohio. The evening bat usually forms maternity colonies in buildings or in hollows in trees. It puts on a layer of fat and presumably hibernates, but almost nothing is known of this species in winter.



Description: This bat is like a small version of the big brown bat, with glossy brown fur and blackish face, wings and feet.  It is noticeably smaller, however, typically reaching 4 inches (102 mm) in length with a wingspan of nearly 11 inches (280 mm).  This species also does not have a keeled calcar.

[LarryH]

Joe, that looks very much like the bats I have sene the past couple evenings.  I talked with a guy at OSU Extension Office and he said there have been more sightings of Evening Bats in SW Ohio in recent years, and they seem to be increasing in numbers.  But, he said they don't maintain statistics on them.

My neighbor said he has seen more bats in his yard the last few evenings, but he wasn't sure what they were eating.  He said he did notice that they haven't had a single June Bug at the windows this year, though.  I asked him if he has seen any Japanese Beetles on his plants so far and he said he had seen only a few of them.

 

[Joe Spencer]

Ah great Larry!  Sounds like there may be a possibility of a connection here.  Too bad you couldn't set up a mist harp trap to really make a species identification.