Bat House Forum

[IowaNate]

 Each of these houses cost about $10 to make including screws, paint, and caulk. They weigh about 8 pounds a piece. So $40 builds 4 houses for my experiment...a small price to pay for some knowledge. They definately have the potential to house a few little browns if Terry Lobdell's observations are correct in little browns using 5/8" crevices.

  Now we just have to wait untill mid April to see if bats like these new houses. These Eastern pipistrelles seem to be understudied in the USA, I want to see and do more research on them.

[KC5TPA]

Keep us posted.

 

I'm doing some experimenting as well. Take a look at my PVC houses.

My bats are back in my wooden houses, which I was going to 'fix up' this weekend, but will have to wait now.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, on the subject of eastern pipestrelles, how did you I.D. them? I have been observing two very small bats roosting tight together the last couple weeks. They are almost always in a small south facing single crevice house. One time they were in a west facing house........I just don't ever remember 2 small bats like this roosting tight together. I'm starting to think maybe these are not little browns?

[IowaNate]

 The Eastern Pipistrelles are the same size or smaller than little browns, and the fur usually is yellowish instead of brown...but the biggest indicator is the reddish forearms. If you happen to see a little brown and a pipistrelle close to each other you will definately notice the differences in color of the forearms. I had the luck of getting within inches of both of the roosting pipistrelles to make a good I.D.

[Joe Spencer]

Good identification feedback.

[cjacustomwoodworking]

Nate I think experimenting is how we learn.  Its absolutely right to try something, I've done it several times and have houses that worked and some that don't.

I've seen bats in pretty tight locations, so 5/8" is great for pipestrelles.

[IowaNate]

Success! I was very lazy at mounting these houses, but I put one on the side of my home where I have several big browns roosting in my other houses. The second night I had a bat, and it was a big brown roosting in the rear chamber. He was very high up in the house in the gradually narrowing chamber (3/4" at the bottom to 1/2" at the top) His nose was at the 5/8" mark in the crevice. I NEVER expected a big brown to use such a narrow crevice. There will be no more houses made by me with any chambers wider than 3/4" and I will include more 5/8" chambers in my future designs.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, I have seen a lot of big browns roost in 5/8 crevices although I think they prefer 3/4" to 7/8". It may vary according to weather and time of year.......

This summer I made a bunch of boxes with rough sawn one inch board baffles placed vertically. The natural warp of the boards made for a varying crevice width anywhere from a half inch to one full inch even though I was trying for a consistent 3/4". The bats, mostly little browns, seemed to like this variation. I often saw them jammed into the narrower crevices.........

[IowaNate]

The narrow chambered house is still a success with big browns. I have had two frequenting the tightest chamber (3/4" narrowing to 1/2") for several weeks now.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, a bunch of my boxes have one inch rough sawn boards as baffles. The natural warp of the boards often creates varying crevice thicknesses.........both my little and big browns seem to like that variation.........many times I've seen them packed in tight together in a narrow part of a crevice........