Bat House Forum

[Gran]

I noticed that KC5TPA had built some house from PVC.  I've also seen them at Mayberry's site.  PVC looks like good answer to a lot of problems. The ones I've seen either had wooden (or webbing)baffles inside a PVC outer shell or used several much smaller pipes within a single larger pipe.

 Has anyone investigated using progressively smaller pipes inside each other to build a rocket type house?  Sort of circle within circles idea.  I haven't found good inner/outer dimensions for various types of PVC pipe.  It might be tough to get exactly 3/4 inch spacing.  Has anyone seen this done? 

[Joe Spencer]

I pondered and then tried it but couldn't get the 3/4" spacing either.  It is also such a smooth surface not allowing for bat footholds that I remained focused on rough wood.  Worth revisiting though!

[kent borcherding]

John Chenger -www.batmanagement.com- has some PVC bat houses and some good photos of interior.

Marvin Maberry sands the PVC houses and then applies a stucco , by doing this the bats can get a grip on the bat houses.

I do field test some of Marvin's bat houses in southern Wis.

The PCV house with the sand added to the top is the most successful in this area.

Also works well to have several of his regular PVC houses near other occuped bat houses for the bats to use when the temps are above average ie in the high 90's or above.

Marvin's website www.maberrybat.com is an interesting an informative website.

[IowaNate]

 Those pvc houses from Bat Management look fairly easy to make. I have access to 12" diameter pvc pipe at a local plumbing warehouse. It would also be very easy to create a chamber in the top to add sand. Could use 3/4" lumber for partitions for added heat retention.There are many options for large diameter pvc pipe and it's ability to withstand most weather elements.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, how expensive is the 12" pvc pipe and what colors does it come in?

[kent borcherding]

There also is a material "rubicon" which is made from recycled plastic milk jugs.

You can buy it in many different thicknesses , in solid or web designs. It is pricey but long lasting- 50 years no problem.

Many states buy the picnic tables and benches made from the material.

The tables and benches usually are at the state welcome centers .

I have one small bat house made completely from the material .

A small maternity colony uses that bat house , no wasps nest because wasps can not attach to the material.

You have to use a saw to make the kerfs for the bats to grip. About impossible to scratch the grips with nails or screws.

[IowaNate]

   I work in the piping trade (Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 125) and have been around alot of pvc piping. In my opinion it's only substantial use is for the exterior shell for a tube style bat house. There isn't a good way to scratch, attach mesh, or rough it up in any way other than applying stucco to the inside sanded surface. A pvc tube exterior with wood baffles is the most conventional way to go. Most pvc should last 50 years when painted to ward off UV rays from the sun. And there isn't any good way to make 3/4" crevices with smaller pipes inside each other. I have worked with schedule 40 and 80 pvc and the darn pipes just don't line up to make a useable crevice.

[jeaton]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and am looking for information, ideas, recommendations on what type of bat house to build for our backyard.

This PVC design interests me, but I'm wondering how the coned roof portion of the Bat Can (link to BatCan Roof) is made of.  Is it a PVC cone cap of some type?  If so, is it readily available? 

BTW, regarding scoring the inside of the pipe, would it be possible to use a Dremel tool with a grinder disk attachment?  I haven't tried it, but it seems like that would work.

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas, questions, pictures, etc.

Jon

[IowaNate]

 Welcome to the site Jon! Using a dremel tool with a thin grinding wheel could work, but you'd have to be super careful not to go 100% through the pipe.

  If this is your first time with bat houses, then I would suggest a medium sized (14" wide and at least 24" tall) standard three chamber house. It's a proven design that has had great success over the years and works very well with most crevice roosting bats.

       Happy bat housing!

                                Nate

[jeaton]

Thanks Nate for the welcome and the recommendation.  This is my foray into bat housing.  I will probably build the tried and true 14"x~24" house as it's straight forward to build.  But, I really like the look of the rocket house too. Very nice.

Jon

[Necedah]

I'm new to this so bear with me.

I've used several PVC houses for about 3 years with what I'd call less than limited success. I've only had what I assume are bachlors in them. I use 4" black or grey PVC, 24" long. Inside I use a 26" long, 2x3 wrapped with 1/4" plastic mesh. Some of these PVC houses, in pretty good locations, have not had any bats. I still rely on a 3 chamber, wooden house located as high up on our antenna tower as I dare climb.

[IowaNate]

 Welcome to the site Necedah. You might have more success with larger diameter PVC and I am assuming that the your PVC houses have two chambers. The design seems quite narrow but more success might be had by mounting four houses on each side of a 4x4.

  Most nursery colonies utilize houses where the bats can huddle together in larger numbers to share body heat, so a small house is usually occupied only by bachelors. The original rocket style house only had 3.5" of roosting space on each side, but the bats could move around the house and also use angled cuts in the 4x4 itself for more roosting space and it had great success in attracting bats...although this house doesn't usually attract nursery colonies either.

  My personal minimum size for bat houses that I build have 10" wide x 15" tall interior dimensions and always with a minimum of a 3" landing pad...but 90% of the houses I build have at least the BCI's recommended 14" x 20" interior dimensions for best success.

  I wish you continued success and look forward to your posts!

                                                                           Nate

[marshallcountybats]

I am putting up my first bat houses this fall, pending life as it happens.  So far, a 2' to 3' tall, 1.5' to 2.5' wide, and .5' to 1' deep nursery style box seems to be the odds on favorite for attracting bats.  However, I like the success of the rocketbox as well.  My interest in this thread pertains to the use of non-wood materials in building a bat house. 

I have been looking at PVC pipe in various diameters.  Also, I have looked at both 4" x 4" and 5" x 5" PVC sleeves that are used in vinyl fences.  The sections are 98" tall and designed to slip over posts.  A PVC cap can be chemically welded to the top to make them draft-proof and watertight.  It may be possible to attach four different sections together in a row attached to a plywood back board, which would extend below the PVC to form a screen covered landing zone that permits entrance into any of the four sections.  The square shape would be easier to cut boards that could form baffles.  The wood baffles would allow screwing through the plywood backboard and PVC into the wood baffles for both mounting the sections and securing the baffles.

Hopefully, this re-sparks a little interest in the PVC bathouse posts.

[cloudman75]

Welcome Jon.

I agree with Nate about the tried and true standard bat houses of medium size for your first venture. They have been successful for me for several years to attract and keep a maternity colony here at my place. I think all the time about new materials and designs since I am retired and have plenty of free time. Once you enjoy the experience of having bats in your house, you can experiment. Our ideas of what looks very nice does not always agree with the bat's views. I have found through observation that our little brown bats like to huddle side by side more than they do in several chambers. I am presently building a 30 inch wide bat house of only two chambers and 20 inches high inside with a 4 inch landing below on the back panel. When the bats are stacked the lower positions get bat droppings and urine so this new wider house will prove or disprove my ideas. In the meantime I will have two other houses close by that the bats have used in the past. I still have 82 bats here and they will stay until it turns cold. At that time they hibernate until late March or early April, then return to have pups and spend the summer. My personal opinion is that a maternity colony would have to be desperate to use a 4x4 PVC house.

 

Frank

[Joe Spencer]

Frank, indeed having wider bat houses for nursery colonies especially would help alleviate the guano/urine on your buddy issue.