Bat House Forum

[Canute]

Houses have been up longer than six weeks now but these were our first two denizens.
I believe they are either both California bats (Myotis californicus) or just Little Browns. If someone can confirm please do.

[Joe Spencer]

Canute, how close are you to a major body of water? Can be a large stream, river, lake etc. Nursery colonies of myotis etc. usually prefer to roost near them. They will also roost in bat houses that are in heavily wooded areas of the country where water is within a mile or so as well.

[Canute]

We have a pond about 60' from the bat houses. It's not very large, about 30' in diameter and 11' deep, but it produces plenty of mosquito's. There's also some small streams that run through the mountains around us and I'm relatively sure there are other small bodies of water on private land in the immediate area. No large bodies of water however, other than the ocean which is around 7 or so miles away.