Bat House Forum

[Terry Lobdell]

Got home from work about 12:30am July 4th and watched 5 little browns eating moths around my pole light. I actually saw a mid-air collision and saw one bat run into the pole! Both firsts for me. They were going after some good sized moths too. Sometimes with a big moth it would take 2 or 3 attempts before they actually captured it.

[LarryH]

I see that nearly every night under the light on the end of my garage, Terry.  Almost every night, between 11:30pm and 12:30am, the Little Browns come to the light for their nightly banquet of moths and June Bugs.  Before I put up the bat houses, the driveway under the light used to be covered every morning with June Bugs, but now we never see one.

 

[Terry Lobdell]

Larry, I had never noticed any certain time preference that my bats fed around the light. I think I'm going to watch more for that. What is the greatest number of bats you have seen feeding at the same time?

[LarryH]

Terry,  I don't know if it is that the bats are such creatures of habit that they always feed abut the same time every night, or if it is just that the bugs are always more plentiful at that time of night.  But, the bats are there nearly every night about that time. I have noticed that when we have a cool evening, the bats aren't there, so I would assume that there are no bugs at that time.  When they are at the light, there is normally 15 to 20 of them at a time.
 
I can observe the bats twice each evening  - the first time is early evening soon after they emerge. Right after they emerge they go down to the creek for water and then they come up around the house and look for bugs around the house.  Then they disappear towards the fields around us. Then I can see them around midnight at the light for about a hour.   It is possible they come to the light at other times during the night, but I'm not up to see them if they do.
 
As you said, it is interesting to watch their acrobatics.  Some times they do have to dodge one another, but I have never seen them run into the building.  Sometimes there are both little browns and big browns together, and other times it is just little browns.  When the June Bugs are heaviest is when I see the most big browns at the light.