Believe it or not, bats could be some of your closest friends in the garden! Bats are often misunderstood, but very helpful members of the ecosystem. With regard to the tree of life, bats are one of our closest genealogical relatives in the garden. Like humans, bats are warm blooded mammals. Although bats are warm blooded, they depend on the warmth of their colony, so they love cozy little niches, like the hand crafted houses we offer at SuburbanHabitat.com.
Why would I want bats in my garden, you ask? Because an individual bat will eat hundreds of flying insects in a single night (gnats, mosquitoes, beetles & other flying pests). Next, consider that you may have a hundred bats living in your bathouse. That's thousands upon thousands of flying pests devoured each night as you sleep!
Q & A about Bat Houses
Why would I want to attract bats to my garden?
* Bats are important contributors to the ecosystem.
* Bats can eat as many as 600 flying insects per bat per hour! Most of those insects are mosquitoes that can carry West Nile Virus and Encephalitis.
* Bats can live for 20 years, providing continued insect control.
* Bats are cute! In the Orient these gentle animals are considered symbols of good luck, longevity & happiness.
* They need your help. Bats are greatly misunderstood creatures & face constant encroachment upon their habitat and population reductions.
What are my chances of attracting bats to my bat house?
* Studies have shown that an average of 60% of bat houses become inhabited.
* Properly located & installed tall “Rocket” style boxes can show 80% occupancy rate.
* Of houses that become occupied, 90% are occupied within 2 years.
* Bat houses installed on buildings & structures are easier to locate, and are occupied twice as quickly as those mounted on trees.
* Bat houses located near a water source (stream, pond, lake, marshes & wetlands) are most likely to attract bats.
Where is the best place to locate my Bat House?
* Bats prefer warm roosts (80-100 degrees). Therefore, it is best for the house to face East, Southeast, or South.
* Wooden & masonry structures are good mounting site, because they help maintain a more constant temperature than trees or poles.
* Do not mount over doors, windows, paths or decks or walkways. Bat guano will fall on ground underneath house. To collect guano for garden fertilizer, place a shallow tray, saucer or potted plant under opening of bat house. Do not use a bucket, since it may trap baby bats that may fall from the house.
* “Rocket” style houses may be pole mounted in a sunny location at the perimeter of a property, or edge of wooded area.
How do I maintain my bat house?
* Bat houses require little maintenance. They should be inspected monthly or seasonally for predator damage, overheating, and structural integrity.
* Wasps may occasionally build nests in bat houses, and should be removed in the Winter when bats & wasps have departed.
* All cleaning & repairs should be done when bats are not present.
* Bat houses should not be painted or stained, since these products can be toxic to bats.
Customer Testimonial
Thank you so much for the great advice on how to relocate our bats from the eaves of our house to the bat house you recommended! We got the bats out, as you suggested, and the very first night heard them finding their way to their new home in the bat house. It was the perfect way to get all the benefits of having bats nearby (we have lots of mosquitoes here in Georgia!), without having to deal with the bat droppings (and general creepiness) of having them living in the walls of our house! Several of our neighbors have spent hundreds of dollars dealing with their bat problems, and all we did was call Suburban Habitat, get friendly, expert advice, and order a simple, well-made product to humanely relocate them.
Thanks again for all your help!
Joe and Rachel Polaneczky
Athens, GA
