Bat House Forum

[flyin-lowe]

Attached is a Google Earth image of my friends property that where we are going to mount the large bat house I have been building. Being a newbie I want to try to get this right as we are going to be putting 2 telephone poles in the ground and the house is large enough we don't want to have to move it. It is hard to tell from the picture but from the front of the house to the road is just grown up grass and weeds with a lot of small pine trees planted so in several years there will be a lot of trees. I was thinking in the lower right hand corner by the small shed facing south east would be a good open location. I also thought I read somewhere that they should be fairly close to some trees to give them an escape route if they are being chased by a hawk or an owl. If you look in the picture you can see he has pine trees planted almost all the way around the property. This picture is a few years old and the trees are 5-10 foot tall by now. Like I mentioned in a previous post there are two small ponds (about an acre or so each) one is 1/3 of a mile to the west and the other is a 1/2 mile to the east. Thanks for any input and advice.

[William Bagwell]

Seems almost ideal for now, however I worry about in a few years when the row of young pines start to mature. May be too much shade unless your friend is willing to cut the one or two that shade the bat house first thing in the morning. The outer row of trees looks to be about a hundred feet further away so they should never be a problem.

William

[Terry Lobdell]

I agree with William.......you definitely got to think about how much nearby trees will grown in 5, 10 even 15 years........

[flyin-lowe]

Does it matter how far behind the house the trees are? Do they need just one safe fly way out that isn't shaded. I thought I read somewhere that they like to be close to trees for escape, or could we put it smack in the middle of the yard away from everything. I would definitely keep in mind the future growth of the small trees.

[William Bagwell]

My concern is not with the flight path being shaded just the bat house. Going in, and back out of, shade through out the day often can not be avoided. Early morning shade is the most important to avoid. Since your friend has a whole *row* of young trees due east of the planed location, eventually one or two of them will grow large enough to shade the bat box.

There appears to be a foot path from the back of the house to the parking lot of the large out building. Unless lots of folks other than the owner use that path it might be an ideal location. Far enough from the row of trees that they will never be a concern and close enough to the house that the house its self is the 'near by shelter'. Plus he will get to check for guano every day with out going out of his way.

Just my two cents...

William

[flyin-lowe]

I think I worded that wrong. I meant to say that the box won't be shaded and still have a flight path out the front. I realized that the front should not be shaded in the morning. I will just go out there with him and look around for a spot that will get good sun for years to come. He owns the property all around this place so we might put it on the outside of the row of trees to the south of his house. We will figure something out.

[Dave Miller]

FYI I would guess that bats will tend to feed along the trees at the NW corner of the property (or along any other treed areas nearby). I would go out in the evenings just after sunset and see where the bats (if any) tend to feed, and place the bat house in a suitable location near there.

As far as I know there are two concerns regarding bat houses and trees:

1. Tree branches may shade the house from the sun, especially early morning sun in the summer. Although in some locations, I believe a bit of afternoon shade can prevent the house from getting too hot.
2. Predators (hawks and owls) can roost on branches near the bat house and catch the bats as they enter or exit the bat house. I want to say the rule of thumb is that any branch which could hold a predator should be at least 25 feet away. But I don't remember the exact distance.

Also a comment regarding houses on telephone poles. On hot days, the creosote & preservatives in the pole "outgas" somewhat. I'm not sure of the impact of these gases on bats, but when it is really hot these odors can be quite strong near the surface of the pole. I have a bat house on an old power pole and if I were to do it again, I would offset the house from the pole a little bit so that the gases do not go directly up into the bat house. Or maybe wrap some impervious material around the pole just below the entrance (e.g. sheet metal). That would also serve as a predator guard against predators that can climb (e.g. racoons).

[flyin-lowe]

I dropped the house off this afternoon but we didn't get to put it up because of the weather. He thinks he is going to put it north of the house between the house and the garage. I was concerned about the trees around the perimeter. He is a tree nut, and was planting more when I showed up today. He said his septic system is out in that area of the yard so he will not be planting any trees in that area. It is very open plus he said he can watch it from the house.