Bat House Forum

[RONNIE]

My dad built me a multi-chamber (1,000-capisity?) house. I am going to erect it at our new farm located in the Pineywoods of East texas near Palestine. I cut a dead cedar tree in the woods, and removed all the branches, to mount the bat house on. The bat house will be approximately 20-feet off the ground. I am going to face the opening in a South direction. The house will have an aluminum metal roof, and is covered with 3/4-inch double foil faced strofoam insulation. The shiney foil will be left shiney. The house will be about 30-feet from the nearest tree, and will be mowed under the house. The electrical supply overhead lines will be about 20-feet from the house. The electrical supply line terminates, at my cabin, it is not an high voltage line. Am I doing this house right, any susgestions? I truly want to attract some bats. I have already attracted blue birds to the houses I erected this week. I also have a martin house in the center of a clearing, they haven't arrived yet. I can see all of my efforts from the front porch of my cabin.

[Joe Spencer]

Hello RONNIE It sounds like a great bat house! Need some further information before we can make recommendations. Capacity when used with bat houses is a relative term. Would you please supply the following to help us assist:

Dimensions of bat house: Width Height Depth

Is interior made of wood?/plywood?
How close is proposed bat house to year-round water source.
You mentioned shiny for the exterior (assuming your not painting it?)

Any chance you can post a picture of it? I have webspace in the forum to upload pictures which you can link to within post.

Picture uploading: http://www.batnic.org/bat-house-photos/


Have you heard of BCI www.batcon.org (Bat Conservation International)?
They are located in Austin Texas. A gentleman named Mark Kiser works with them and will probably give you some great insight to assist you since luckily they are likely familiar with what works in you area. Stay Tuned....

[Mark Kiser]

Hi Ronnie,

I would remove the foil insulation from the exterior.
It's not necessary, even in Texas, and if I were to use it,
I would put it on the inside of the bat house. Bats are using insulated houses with plastic and metal shells at several sites in northeast TX, near Longview, but they also use uninsulated plastic and wooden bat houses at the same locations, with every exterior color choice, light, medium, and dark. The most used houses at these sites however, are painted dark gray, have 1/2-inch thick foam insulation underneath a steel shell, and are coated with stucco inside and out. These houses have 6 chambers and at two different sites several miles apart, are sheltering 400 to 500 big brown bats each, a major accomplishment since most colonies of big brown bats are 25 to 100 individuals.

After removing the insulation I would try either a medium shade or dark shade of either green, brown, or gray, since you describe a large house.
This should provide a suitable range of temperatures for the bats to choose from given the ample room inside. You could save the insulation and incorporate it underneath the exterior of another house. This would make a good side by side test if you can put up two houses at the same location.

Hope this helps. Please keep us posted on your success.

Sincerely,

Mark
BCI, Bat House Project Coordinator