Bat House Forum

[digitalbio]

Hello. We recently moved onto a small 1.4 acre riparian property with a pond not far from the Puget Sound in western Washington state. We have seen quite a few brown bats around our home, many of which roost under the eaves - this is all exciting to me, being a former biologist who worked on tropical bats many years ago.

In addition to a double chamber rocket box I built and placed on pole near the pond, I purchased 2 three chamber houses to put up on the south side of our house (time commitments made it more cost effective to buy these guys) after painting the exterior with a dark, solar absorbing color.

The houses I purchased have a 1/2" ventilation slot along the front. My question is given the fact that our weather here is cooler and on the mild side (average high of only 76 F in the summer), should I close/plug up the ventilation slots or leave them be?

Thanks for any advice.

[William Bagwell]

Since you wisely bought two, I would suggest you leave one as is and block the vent on the other.

William

[Dave Miller]

I live in SW Washington, my houses have a vent and I have not noticed whether the bats like or dislike the vent (see photos in this thread: bat-house-with-slate-exterior-t479.html). I suspect that if your bats don't like the vent, they will just use another chamber. Although if they are already using your eaves, they are probably happy there. Do you have a cedar shake roof or siding?

[digitalbio]

Cedar siding with asphalt roof - lots of gables where the bats roost behind the trim board.