Bat Houses

Bats are very important animals, responsible for maintaining significant natural balances. They are the main predators of night-flying insects and many pests. One brown bat is able to eat hundreds of insects about the size of mosquitoes in about one hour.

Unfortunately, however, bats suffer from persecution by humans because of a not-so-glamorous media image. It was thought that bats were unhygienic, that they fly into people’s hair and chew through attics; obviously the fact that some bats take blood meals didn’t sit too well with many people either. Bats are actually clean animals, don’t get stuck in hair and don’t chew through attics (though their droppings could become a problem if they decide to take up residence in your house). And vampire bats are not the vampires they’re made out to be.

One way to help out the declining bat population is to buy or build your own bat house. Bats will benefit by having a safe home, while you will benefit by having your own natural pest control agent. If building a bat house of your own appeals to you, you can hop online to find bat house plans; many sites offer free bat house plans, bat house building instructions and general tips on how to build a bat house. Bat house building plans, bat house building instruction sheets and free bat house patterns are also offered by a number of environmental organizations as well.

When building a bat house, make sure your bat house plan calls for a long and wide bat house; it has been observed that short and stout bat houses don’t appeal to bats. The best bat house would be at least two feet in height, with internal chambers at least 20 inches in width and 14 inches in height. An external or internal landing area should be included; standard houses have anywhere between one to four roosting chambers, though the more, the better. The space between roosting partitions should be about ¾ to 1 inch. Make sure that partitions and landing areas are roughened by either scratching/grooving or covered with a durable plastic mesh. Also make sure the house is well ventilated.

As far as material to build a bat house, plywood and/or cedar works best, though other materials may be adequate. The color of the bat house is dependent on the amount of sun exposure it will receive; darker colors should be used in areas of less sunlight. Bat houses should receive at least 6 hours of direct sun per day.

You can mount a bat house on a pole, garage, residential home, barn or tree. The important thing is that it is at least 15 feet above the ground and the entrance is free of obstacles. Trees are probably the least desirable location for bat houses because leaves often make finding the house difficult for bats; houses mounted on trees are also very susceptible to attack by predators.