Bat House Forum

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent,

I don't have any info on bats in churches, but I have observed where bats have entered under aluminum ridge vents where the nails have worked loose on 2 different homes including my own. They must like the constant flow of fresh air which comes up from the soffet vents and out the ridge vent. And the attic of a house is large enough to hold heat through the night. In both instances the shingles were a medium brown in color.

On your concern with plywood, do you think the glue vapors would dissipate with age?

[LarryH]

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources maintains an old church in Canoe Creek State Park, that has a lot of bats in it every summer.  They have a couple live webcams set up in the attic of the church so you can watch the bats -- early morning you can see them returning to the church, and in the late evening you can see them going out to forgae.  If you have seen it, you can view it at http://www.pennfuture.org/bats/batphotoarchives.html

There is an old barn on the property next to mine that used to have bats in it.  But, the weather has ripped away a lot of the roof boards.  Most, if not all, of the bats have moved to my bat houses since I put them up.  The houses I have don't have any upward air flow at all, but the bats seem to love them.

 

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent,

Last night I counted 37 little browns exiting 2 houses I have mounted back to back facing east/west. When I first looked up inside they were all in the west house. I guessed at first there were about 20, but I was able to get an accurate count when they exited because the sky was in the background. They then seemed to be exiting from both houses. 

I noticed last year and this year I have much more little brown guano accumulation under the west house. At first I thought they were attracted to the higher temps in the west facing house........Now I think it might also  be because of the way I have it vented. This house has 2 levels of ventilation. Each crevice is vented on the sides 3/4 of the way down and the back crevice is vented all the way across about 2/3 of the way down. This opening in the back provides access to the east facing house as well as another exit. It's about an inch opening running the entire 20 inch width of the house.

I thought they would cross over to the east facing house in the mornings when the sun comes up, but the guano accumulations indicate they spend probably 80% of their time in the west house.

Would the ventilation of this bat house be a factor here?

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent,

On the subject of decay, I remember reading that you have sprayed some bat houses with truck bed liner. How has that worked out?