Bat Houses

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Are you wondering how you can attract a colony of bats to a safe home?  Put up a bat box!

Bats are beneficial because they eat a ton of insects, including many that are pests of our gardens and farms. They also eat lots of mosquitoes! To attract a colony of bats, put up a bat house (also known as a bat box).

Bat boxes offer places for bats to roost. Here's a photo of me with a flashlight looking into the box to see who's occupying them. The opening is on the bottom, allowing bats to crawl down and fly away. Bats that use these houses include Mexican free-tailed bats, big brown bats, pallid bats, and Myotis and Yuma bats (sometimes referred to as little brown bats). You buy one online or build your own (plans are available on the Bat Conservation International website, batcon.org). 

The key to occupancy by a colony of bats is location!

The best place to put a bat house is on a building, such as a barn or a shop. Bat houses in trees don't work because predators, like raccoons, cats, and possums can climb the trees and just wait at the opening to catch and eat the bats as they come out of the house. In places that cool down at night, bat houses on poles don't work well either. When you have a colony of bats, it's mothers and their babies. Males roost individually or in small bachelor colonies. When mothers leave their babies to feed at night, they need to leave them in a place that's warm because bat babies are born without fur. Houses on poles often get too cold at night for the baby pups. Houses attached to a structure buffer temperature fluctuations.

Bats houses work best to attract bats when they receive morning sun and afternoon shade, so north or east facing. Bat houses in full shade will be too cold for baby pups; those in full sun, especially on a hot summer day, will be too hot. 

Bat houses also need to be at least 10-ft off the ground from the bottom of the box. This keeps bats safe from predators. When bats leave the box, they drop down before they fly away. If the houses are too low to the ground, predators, like cats, can jump up and grab them out of the air.

Bat houses work best when they're near a water, such as a pond, pool, or stream.

Make sure there are no objects in front of the box, like tree branches that would prevent the bats from easily accessing the box. They need a lot of room to flip upside down below the box, catch it with their feet, and scoot inside.

Don't put the house where you might be worried about guano and urine stains on the walls. Bats urinate and defecate when they enter the houses, so they can be messy and can smell. Bats concentrate their urine, and so they sometimes have a strong ammonia-like smell. You wouldn't want one on your house.

Lastly, be sure to vaccinate your household pets for rabies, including dogs and cats if you decide to put up a bat house. Tell your kids and others never to handle a bat. If you find one on the ground, it's likely sick and will bit in self-defense.  About one in a thousand bats will have rabies, so protect yourselves and your family by leaving bats alone. If you find a bat, call a wildlife rescue person and they will come pick up the bat. If you're bit by a bat, wash the cut with soap and water and seek medical attention.