Bat House Forum

[Dave Miller]

I was having a discussion about bats & bat houses in a permaculture forum. I posted some photos of my bat houses, showing bats and wasps/mud daubers coexisting. Several people were wondering if bats & wasps/mud daubers may share more than just an interest in the same real estate - like maybe the wasps & mud daubers eat bat parasites? I know that wasps & daubers do eat insects and arachnids, which is what bat parasites are (insect parasites - fleas, flies, bugs; arachnid parasites - ticks, mites). So it would seem that a roost with wasps and daubers would tend not to have bat parasites?

Does anyone know if this might be true?

[Joe Spencer]

I may look into this one DAve! Thanks for posting

[Terry Lobdell]

Dave, that is a very interesting question.......I am up to well over 100 bat houses at different locations and come to think of it, those boxes loaded with bat bugs do not have any wasps that I can recall...........It all makes sense........so maybe a few wasps in a bat box is not such a bad thing? I'm going to watch this more closely this next season!

[BrackishBatter]

All the wasps I've known have been no good SOBs!

I've seen bats and wasps in the same house, but they aren't snuggling. The bats seem to give them wide berth, effectively reducing the usable space in the house.

I remember seeing a TV nature show wher a guy wore a respirator that took his breath away from the area, and he walked right up to hornet and wasp nests and was able to physically manipulate them without any apparent concern on their part. But when he took off the respirator, one breath sent them into a frenzy. (he was wearing beekeepers gear).

Imagine living in a mostly air tight, cramped wooden enclosure with them.

That doesn't discount that bats/wasps may indeed share some mutual benefit as you've hypothesised.

But until you prove it (or at least anecdotally support it), the only good wasp is a dead wasp!!

aside. Try breathing on an ant mound. Same frenzy but in 2D. Its pretty cool.