Building a summer home for bats can play a vital role in their survival, providing optimal roosting conditions that they might have difficulty finding otherwise. They’ll make sure it’s worth your while, too: bats are voracious consumers of insect pests and will keep their populations low. Bat houses are low maintenance, and once the bats have established themselves, they can be relied upon to return year after year.
What is a Bat House?
A bat house (or a bat box) is an artificial roosting site for bats, usually made of wood, that mimic the types of crevices bats like to roost in. Bat houses can be bought or built. If you enjoy working with your hands, consult this guide to get started. The Bat Conservation International suggests building a rocket box or a four-chamber bat box.
Four Benefits of Installing a Bat House
- Provides a safe environment for bats, while protecting your yard from pest insects like mosquitoes, moths, and beetles.
- Bat houses give females a warm, safe place to raise their young. Most female bats have only one pup a year, so populations grow very slowly.
- Bat houses provide alternative nesting sites for bats, meaning they are less likely to attempt to roost in homes, reducing the likelihood of them transmitting various diseases and parasites to humans.
- Artificial roost sites such as bad houses provide bats with clean homes that are free of white-nose syndrome. A greater local presence of bats means fewer insecticides will be needed, reducing the amount of chemicals released into the environment.
Installing a Bat House
The location, temperature, and design of bat houses are key factors in how popular the bat house becomes.
Here are a few installation recommendations for bat houses:
Bat houses should be mounted on wooden posts, steel posts, or on the sides of buildings, but never in trees. Trees receive less sun, make the bats more vulnerable to predators, and have branches that make it difficult for them to drop into flight. Bat houses mounted under eaves on buildings are ideal locations, as they provide protection from rain and predators but are still exposed to the sun (6-8 hours of sun a day is ideal).
If you’re mounting the house on a wooden pole, think about using a predator guard. Poles can be wrapped with an 18-inch piece of sheet metal three feet from the ground.
Bat houses should be placed 20-30 feet from tree branches, vegetation, and wires. In addition, they should be 12-20 feet above the ground to allow bats clearance when swooping in and out of the bat house.
Bat houses located close to a source of water are the most successful.
Bat houses shouldn’t be placed on top of a hill where they will see excessive winds.
Install bat houses away from bright lights/reflective material, as this will disorient the bats.
Installing a Bat House
Bats have to find new roost sites on their own, and investigate potential roosting sites while foraging at night. There are no known methods of attracting bats, but they can be encouraged by creating a suitable roosting habitat. Learning how to encourage bats to take up residence in your bat houses might take some practice, but it can be done.
- Bats are more likely to enter a bat house if there are already bats in a nearby structure.
- There must be a sizeable population of insects in the area. Consider planting flowers that bloom late in the day or are night scented.
- Be sure the house is designed properly, and in a suitable location.
If the house remains vacant at first, don’t be discouraged. It can take up to 2 years for bats to move into a bat house, and even then, only around 15% of bat houses are ever occupied. If bats still haven’t moved in after 2 years, try moving the house to another location. Bats are very loyal to their roosting sites, so once you see them start dropping out of the bat house at dusk, you’ll know you have free bug control for years to come.
Will a Bat House Get Rid of Bats in the Attic
Bat boxes provide an easily accessible roosting location for bats. However, if a colony has established itself in your attic, the bats will not abandon the attic for a bat house.
A bat house is not a guarantee bats will avoid your attic. The best bat control is to install exclusion devices on your house. Bats only need a dime-sized hole to get inside your attic. Attracting bats to your yard with water and shelter is great for bat conservation. However, you need to make sure you’re protecting your house.
If you have any questions about bat control, call the bat experts at Trutech.
