Bat House Forum

[IowaNate]

After checking my three bat houses at the local Nature Center today (see "My new bat house design" post for findings) I checked the houses mounted on my home.

To recap, I have three bat houses mounted on the North side (including a slanted baffle/hybrid house and an insulated house) and updated the worn house on the South side with a new three chamber house made of 1x12s and 1x6s with scratched partitions. My big browns have not been using the houses as daytime roosts for over a month, but I check the houses about twice a week since they randomly come and go this time of the year. I flashed my mirror into the new South facing house and low and behold I had an occupant. Not surprising to see a bat but wait, why is it so small? I quickly ran in the house, went upstairs, and leaned out the window for a closer look with my flashlight. A little brown bat!
I have never seen a little brown roosting at my home, and have been trying with no success for 8 years to attract them.

The interior dimensions of this house are 11.25" wide and 20" tall with 3/4" spacing. I drilled a 1.5" hole in the middle of each partition to permit switching of chambers. It has a 3" landing pad and all interior surfaces are just roughed up with screws. 1/2" vent slot in the front 6" from the bottom and 3/8" diameter holes on each side of the house 6" from the bottom to ventilate the rear 2 chambers. The bottom of the house is 14 feet from the ground.

[Joe Spencer]

Great Nate! THanks for sharing the good news! Hopefully WNS never spreads to your area....

[cobradriver]

Sounds great!!! Cograts

Vladimir

[AlienSpy]

How can you tell it is a little brown bat?

[IowaNate]

I know it is a little brown since I could get within a foot of the bat house to identify it. It is much smaller than my big browns, has a pinkish colored hue to the exposed flesh on it's face as oppossed to a distinct black facial mask that my big browns have, much narrower nose when viewed straight on, and to the trained eye the ears are slightly different.
The little brown vacated the SE house for a few days, then showed up in the tiny NW two chamber insulated house for two days. It is back in the SE house as of today, and two big browns moved into the NE slanted baffle/hybrid house...but they are only using the vertical baffles.
The weather has been usually cool for the last few weeks with daytime high temps rarely reaching 82 degrees and night temps in the upper 50's.

[IowaNate]

The little brown left the house at the end of September, which is normal for the little browns in my area. Now the big browns have come back for the early hibernation usage of my houses. I currently have 4 in the oldest NW house (which never got replaced) and 2 in the NW insulated house. The daytime temps have been in the mid 50's for over a week and nighttime temps in the mid 30's.