Bat House Forum

[dale12]

Hello,
I put my first bat houses up last year (late summer 2009). I built 2 - 4 chamber houses, put them side by side and hung them from the peak of my roof. This year I have a single bat inhabiting one of the houses. I'm assuming this is a bachelor (good assumption?). My question: Does this mean my houses are doomed to be inhabited by a single bat as long as that bat shall live or is this just the beginning of more bats to come? Could this house potentially become a maternity house by evicting the bachelor? Let me know what you've observed. I'm curious about your experience when your bat colony (wishful thinking) started out as one bat.

Thanks,
Dale

[Dave Miller]

Where are you located? Do you know what bat species are common in your area?

In my experience, 1 bat means 1 bat, nothing more, nothing less. My bat house at home has had at most 1 bat, ever. My bat houses at a nearby wildlife refuge had 1 bat the first year, and 6 bats the second year.

Also expect to find no bats sometimes. Bats seem to move roosting sites often.

Just keep making your observations and don't worry about attracting a maternity colony. If the bats want to use it for a maternity colony, they will.

[dale12]

I'm in northeast Ohio and I believe it's a little brown bat. I have noticed that most days it's there, but there have been the occasional days that it's not there.
I'm excited about the one bat. It's better than none. Hopefully I can attract more even if they're more bachelors.
Thanks.

[Terry Lobdell]

Dale, I am in NWPA, not too far from you...........One bat is definitely good news..........

What I have found is if there is a maternity colony nearby, say within a couple hundred yards, they will use a new bat house within a year or two.

In my area, the main factor seems to be a decent sized stream.............more and more I find that around trout streams and lakes it is very easy to attract bats to a bat house..........

Ponds surprisingly don't seem to attract maternity colonies........maybe its all in the water quality

How far are you from a lake or good sized stream?

[cmsquare]

Last spring I put up two bat houses (I'm in inland San Diego County, CA so mine are mounted facing north due to summer heat) and within a couple of months I attracted a single Big Brown, presumably a lone male. He left for winter but came back in mid-June and brought a friend, so each of the guys now has his own bat house. I hope that next year they both bring more friends and family, and wonder if I should advertise for other tenants on Craig's List. ;-)

[LarryH]

I'm in SW Ohio -- diagonally across the state from you -- and after a number of years, we have a fairly large gathering of bats. It was the same thing the first year -- a few bats that apparently needed more room than their original roost provided, but not a big bunch of them. The next year, it seemed to be about the same number, and a couple mothers with pups, but still not a lot of them. But, the following year they seemed to bring all their friends. Now, the houses are full to the point that I am considering addding a third house to the pole to make room for them. If I do add another house, it will have to be this fall after they leave or early next spring before they come back, since I won't time or resources to do it between now and then.

But, twice so far this summer, almost all the bats have left when it got very hot and were roosting somewhere else. The first time, they came back as soon as the weather cooled. The second time they left was just before we left on a RV trip, and I won't know until we get home if they came back or not. Today, the heat wave broke, so hopefully the bats will be back when we get home in a few days.

Don't know if the bats read the local Craig's List or not, but don't give up on them. Since you have seen a few bats taking up residence, there will be more as time goes on -- they like company, and probably hum the old Cheers song:

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.