Bat House Forum

[chiukian]

Hello all. I recently moved to Southwest Georgia a few years back. And the gnats in the summer time are horrendous. So I remembered hearing about keeping bats around the house to help with insects. So my question is since I'm completely new.

Are there any bat species that are known to live in this area? I live in the county away from the city and on a mostly wooded lot on about 7.5 acres. What type of houses should I look into building? Do I need to make separate houses for summer and winter? It's been nearly 100 every day this summer. How far away or close to my home should the bat houses be. What do I have to do to actually attract bats to the houses, and will my insect population actually come down? I can't step a foot outside without a gnat in my face Thanks for any help

[Terry Lobdell]

Welcome! Take a look at cloudman75's posts......He has a lot of good info and pictures and is very knowledgeble about bats and bat houses in your area.......

[cloudman75]

Wecome to this forum.
If you tell me what county that you live in, I could share what other info I may have. Here are some general answers to your questions: Also do you have a lake or stream near you?

There are 16 known species of bats in Georgia. Sw Georgia has a lot of Freetail bats, sometimes called mexican freetails.
They also have plenty of little brown bat species. Both of these love to use bat houses not too far from water.
In general, you would not need seperate bat houses for summer and winter. The bats form maternity colonies in summer and many species hibernate in winter. S W Georgia , depending where it is, will most likely have some freetail bats year round as I get some here in winter during warm spells. I built a warmer unventilated house to attract them and they used it last winter. Now they roost with the little brown bats in my bat houses. As for attracting bats, place the bathouse
a minimum of 12 ft above ground and more up to 20 ft. if possible. Place it away from trees and face it south or east.
I like poles to mount houses on and away from the house as space permits because a crowd of bats makes a lot of guano.
Your insect population will come down if the bats eat the gnats that are bothering you. I don't know if they feed on what you have or not. I have 6.5 acres here most of it woods.
I would build houses that have three chambers with a minimum height of 24 inches and width of 16 inches. The baffles should be spaced at 3/4 inches , so a three chamber will be about the depth of a 3 inch nominal board.
I would advise you not to paint the house or to use a light grey, or light blue if you desire paint. I have both painted and unpainted and the bats don't care. With your ambient temperatures of 100 you don't need a lot of sun. I expect you have 85 to 90 degrees at midnight and high humidity like we do in Lithia Springs. You sure don't need a black house or even a dark colored one in my opinion.
Happy batting to you and if you need some bat house plans , I can probably find some that I have used that the bats have liked. Perhaps someone else can give you some good advice as we have others on the forum from Georgia.

Frank

[tm9460]

I have recently moved to Calhoun County and we too are over run with gnats. This post caught my eye and I wonder would it be in my best interest to build bat houses to attract the bats to our 13 acre homestead that has a pond to help control the gnats.

[Teddy Dee]

This is just my opinion mind you . But the gnats go
to bed or whatever just minutes before you see any
bats out for the evening hunt . So I say no way that
bats curtail the gnat population to any degree .

IF THEY DID . Everybody down here would have
multiple bat boxes on their property .

[William Bagwell]

Found this morning...
http://www.network54.com/Forum/439743/t ... or+protein
Since the wrap is going to break that.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cyys4d5

At least they fly around in the day time

[Joe Spencer]

Little brown bats eat gnats (see furthest below) but maybe they don't make a dent enough in the population to notice but I'm not sure. If this is the case then they (gnats) must be active enough into the evening for the bat to consume them. The common Pipistrelle in the UK eats gnats. The U.S. western species eats them too. Have not researched the eastern pipistrelle but sounds plausible. For larger species of bats it is likely not worth wasting their fat reserves on a small gnat: http://www.ehow.com/about_6584148_commo ... -diet.html

"Western pipistrelles like to be the first bats out for dinner. They are often seen foraging for food as many as two hours before other bat species emerge from their roosts."

Little brown bats and Gnats
http://nestbirds1.com/?tag=little-brown-bats
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Pla ... ebrown.asp

Maybe this lends insight?

[cloudman75]

tM9460
Are your gnats the biting kind or non biting? We often call the non biting kind fruit flies. Since bats eat insects, Two or three bat houses on your property should help reduce the insect problems that you have. I can send you a link for bat house plans that have worked well for me in NW GA and they come from Florida which is not far from your location as the bat flies. More than likely you will have Freetail bats and perhaps some Little Browns. The biting kind of knats we called no see ums in Brunswick where I lived for 5 years. From what I have read both types would eat gnats and the gnats are especially active at sundown for the biting kind we had in Brunswick. The fruit fly types are active all day from my experience. Bats will certainly help your insect problems so give it a try and the bats will appreciate your help also.
Let me know if you want a link for bat house plans.


Frank

[Markcuda]

Get a purple martin colony started.