Bat House Forum

[Terry Lobdell]

I did an exit count of my little brown maternity colony. It was so cold I almost expected them to not come out. I counted 21 exit between 9pm and 9:15pm. I wondered what insects they would be able to find since it was only 45 degrees but then I saw a couple moths flying around.

I counted over 50 a couple weeks ago. There might have been more up in the house but I did not look so as not to disturb them if they had pups.

[LarryH]

I just came in from working near the garage moving a mulch pile, and was surprised to see the bats flying around the night light on the end of the garage.  I stopped to watch them for a while and noticed that they were mostly catching June Bugs, which I'm glad to see. It surprised me to see them flying, though, since it is so cool tonight -- it supposed to get down to 48 tonight, but it is in the high 50's right now.
 
We really have enjoyed the bug-free yard the past couple years.  We used to have June Bugs hitting the screens all night long, but we never hear one now.  We noticed last fall that we didn't have any of the Asian Ladybugs, and we didn't have any this spring, which was surprising since we used to have swarms of them trying to get in the house every fall and again in the spring.
 
I wonder, do bats reach a certain population based on the amount of food available?  I have room for about 1,000 bats with the current houses I have up, but I only have about 200 bats.  Is it likely that the population will increase, or have they reached the number that the food will support?
 

[Terry Lobdell]

Larry, I've wondered the same thing........Last year I ended the season with around 100 total bats little & big brown. My numbers go up just a little each year. This year I am hoping to end up with around 120 bats.

I live about 1/3 of a mile from a small stream. I'm guessing that's where they go for fresh water.

When I first started I had beginner's luck getting between 20 & 30 bats in one house the first year (2000). It's been a slow process since then and I have a lot of bat houses up.