Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

While watching 20 bats leaving my three chamber bathouse near dark yesterday, I noticed a round hole up near the top
and on the front. I had seen a downy woodpecker sitting on the roof from time to time but never heard him making the hole.
I guess it will be a nice ventilation hole now until winter when I can take it down. I counted 28 total bats last night leaving the two bat houses. This is very early for the little browns, but the temperatures have been in the 70s for about a week now with lows in the mid 40s.or higher. Ihave had the house several years with no woodpecker problems. Anyone else get woodpecker holes? I guess I will have to cover it with aluminum, but the bats don't seem to mind it, so I may just leave it
alone. There are a lot of droppings under both houses this morning. My third bat house is still empty.

[Terry Lobdell]

Yes, I have had woodpeckers make holes in some of my bat houses. It is another good reason to cover them with aluminum or some other kind of metal. But sometimes in the spring, sapsuckers like to tap on my metal bat houses as well.......I guess it is part of their mating ritual. For about 2 weeks the sapsuckers tap on anything around that is metal, the gutters on my house, and my bat houses mostly.

[cloudman75]

Last night there were 37 littlebrowns flying out of this house with the woodpecker holes. When viewing the photo I see it started another hole. Anyone else have bats coming back from hibernation? They still like this house despite the hole.