Bat House Forum

[IowaNate]

      I am 28 years old and live in Iowa. I had been a member of Bat Conservation International for many years and have done extensive bat house research in my area over the past 12 years. I currently do bat house research at the local nature center where I have had two houses hung for about ten years now. All of my designs are based on BCI's houses. Both houses support nursery colonies of little brown bats (myotis lucifugus) and a few solitary big brown bats (eptisicus fugus). The two houses are getting worn and in very bad shape. Hence I am replacing them this winter while the bats are vacant. The photo link is of one of the new replacement houses for the nature center.

   I also have three bat houses hung on my house. They have held two to three bats during the summer in each one over the last four years. But to my surprise, it is mid-November and I still have 8 bats in one house and 1 bat in another, when in the past they have vacated the houses by early October! They are big browns, and it seems as though they might hibernate in my houses which would be a first for me.

  The three bat houses hung at my residence are 20" tall and 12" wide with three chambers and there is also a 4" landing pad on each house. All are painted dark brown and have a 1/4" ventilation slot in the front. All partitions are 3/4" apart.

   My houses at the nature center are two different sizes. The first being 24" tall and 17.5" wide with a 6" landing pad and four chambers. The second is 24" tall and 13.5" wide with a 6" landing pad. This house also has four chambers. Both houses have a 1/4" ventilation slot in the front, approximately 1/3 from the bottom. Both face South, are painted dark brown, one is 13 feet from the ground, and the second is 15 feet from the ground. Both are mounted on 6" x 6" posts. And of course I only use 3/4" spacing between all partitions.

  The replacement houses will be the same size as the larger house. I have counted 250 bats (some almost hanging out of the bottom!) in the 24 x 13.5 house this past June. So hopefully upgrading the size will enable the colony to grow to at least 350 bats. I use 1/2" exterior plywood for the front and back, 3/4" solid pine for the sides and roof, and 1/4" plywood covered with pet screening for the partitions.

   I look forward to joining your discussions and hopefully share new ideas and advice or even learn some new innovative designs and tests!

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[Terry Lobdell]

Welcome Nate! I've started covering most of my bat houses here in NW PA with aluminum painted flat black or brown. The wood exteriors just wear out too fast.

I too prefer pet screen as my maternity colonies especially like mesh over all other surfaces.

I am going to experiment more with scored wood baffles because Kent Borcherding has had a lot of success with this method.

 

[IowaNate]

 I am putting a coat of semi-gloss sealant over my bat houses now in addition to one coat primer and two coats exterior latex paint. I got ten years out of the two badly worn houses, and they just had one coat of exterior latex on them (I was 18 at the time and had limited resources). So I am thinking these new houses should last 15 to 20 years without too much damage.

    I modified my original design of the large nursery house, and should have pictures up soon!

[IowaNate]

 Here is a link to the post in this forum that shows many photos of my new design.

http://www.batnic.org/forum/forum3/398.html