Bat House Forum

[IowaNate]

 I would love to see some new ideas for bat house designs or mounting techniques. The bats here in the upper midwest are due back in mid April or early May. Even though my current bat house projects will take up a few weeks of my time, I am always looking for new and innovative ideas. I feel that if we all work together and share our findings that we can become the best bat house forum on the web (which I think we already are). I hope that 2008 becomes a year that is full of new findings and research that can benefit bats throughout the world. I believe that the members of this site are some of the best bat house researchers on the planet, and I love the fact that our members span throughout the world. If the U.S.A can work with Europe, I bet we can really advance in bat house designs and mountings. Erik, Terry, Kent, Joe, Batman and many others have been crucial to keeping the good information coming in on this website. This site is becoming it's own bat house research project, but not without special thanks to BCI's researchers and staff for getting the public to accept bats just as well as birds and other species.

     Many thanks to you all! We are making a difference for our freindly little winged mammals not matter how small or insignificant it seems at the time.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, here is a link to a forum with a post from a guy in Iowa who would benefit a lot from your knowledge.......

http://us.f509.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=15_13774697_228855_3301_4959_0_5345_14550_725550760&Idx=3&YY=90422&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=&head=&box=Inbox

 

 

[Dave Miller]

I am working on two bat houses to place at a wildlife refuge near my home.  I frequently volunteer at the refuge (doing habitat restoration, etc.) and was able to convince the refuge manager to allow me to place two houses.  They are very reluctant to allow artificial roosts of any kind on the refuge, so it took some convincing.  As part of the agreement I am required to keep some occupancy records.

Anyway, the design is a bit unusual and incorporates features that have been shown to work well in this area, e.g. some of the slats are slanted such that the crevice becomes narrower higher up in the house.  It also incorporates slate tiles for some of the exterior surfaces.

I will take some photos and post them along with the plans, assuming it all works.

If the U.S.A can work with Europe, I bet we can really advance in bat house designs and mountings.

One thing to keep in mind is that different species of bats have different preferences for roosts.  I think it is best to figure out what your local bats prefer.  I wouldn't assume that something that works well in another part of the world/country will work in your area.

[Joe Spencer]

Good points Dave and all.  Looking forward to the progress....

[IowaNate]

 Well Dave, that's where experimenting comes in. Granted European bats and the climate are different than our's here in the U.S. Most of us have already established the basic artificial roosting requirements for bats in our area, but innovative ideas for new houses or mounting techniques can be tested on a small scale no matter what country the idea came from. Then again I would only recommend doing this if you have already had a few successful bat houses, since my current houses and mounting techniques have over a 90% success rate I am more than happy to try new ideas. I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, just perhaps make it better.

             Happy bat housing!

                                                    Nate

                    

[IowaNate]

 The design with a crevice that narrows as it reaches the roof of the bat house was the third house I built. It was a single chamber house that was 12" wide and 21" tall, the bottom flared out to 1-1/4" with a block that actually made the entrance 3/4". At the top of the house the crevice was only 1/2". This house was occupied for three years by a lone big brown bat untill it was taken down due to the building's expansion (the owner made his garage bigger). So basically it was a partial bottom house based on a European design but only a single chamber to allow the guano to fall out.

  My current experimental 3 chamber Eastern Pipistrelle houses incorporate this narrowing chamber design as well. My drawing is a to scale diagram, and each block represents 1/2 square inch.