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LarryH
Member
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Posted: Wed Jun 15th, 2005 01:53 am |
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I'm new to the world of bats, but I am fascinated by them! Last summer, we stayed in an RV park in Lafayette, Indiana, and soon discovered that an old barn right outside the campground had a lot of bats in it. Every evening they would come out and swoop through the campground in search of mosquitos. One night, I was talking with some neighboring campers, with all of us sitting around the fire. Bats were coming right between us in order to get mosquitos and other bugs that were attracted by the light of the fire, but they never touched any of us. It drove their dog so crazy that they had to put it inside the RV. But none of us got any mosquito bites that entire evening.
After returning home to SW Ohio from that trip, I began researching bats to find out if I could do the same thing for our neighborhood -- since we live in rural farm area. I found BCI, and became a member of it, and read everything I could find. I decided that we had a perfect place for bat houses out in our cow pasture and had excellent likelihood of attracting bats to the houses. I have martin houses already in the pasture, but near lawn side. The bat houses would go to on the other end of the pasture, nearest the creek. I decided on a couple houses from Marvin Maberry (http://www.maberrybat.com), and went with his recommendation for one "Belfry" Sand Box II and one Four-Tube EXT bat house. I finally got the houses put up April 21, 2005, on top of a 21' 2" galvanized pipe. Much to my surprise, I saw two bats coming out of the "Belfry" Sand Box II house on May 7th -- just over 3 weeks after the houses were put up.
Since that time, I have seen additional bats coming out of the house each evening. The most I have been able to count, though, is 8 in one evening. I'm hoping they will tell their friends where these houses are, so they will start building in numbers. They are all in one house so far, and they apparently like the more even temperatures of the Sand Box II house. Tonight, I shined a flashlight up into the bat house, and saw a small pup hanging on to the bottom of one of the tubes. I didn't want to keep the light on very long, and I didn't see any other bats in either house. I don't know if more bats will come as the summer progresses, or if their nesting time is over for this year. But, I look forward to seeing more and more bats each year.
It is so nice seeing the purple martins soaring during the daytime hours, and seeing the bats coming out in the evening. We've always been organic gardeners, and both the bats and martins fit in well with that lifestyle. And, the cows enjoy having a fairly insect free life.
I posted a couple pictures of the houses in the photo forum section.
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Joe Spencer
Administrator
| Joined: | Mon Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 530 |
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Offline
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Posted: Thu Jun 16th, 2005 01:53 am |
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| Congratulations on your success and your welcomed enthusiasm. I felt the same way when my bat houses were first occupied years ago. BCI is indeed a fantastic resource. Do you have the Bat House Builder's Handbook? Looking forward to all your future posts and thanks for the pics as well! :thumbup:
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LarryH
Member
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Posted: Fri Jun 17th, 2005 01:15 am |
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| Thanks for the welcome! Yes, I do have the Handbook -- that was one of the first things I got as part of my research. I decided buy the houses that Marvin Maberry has instead of building my own. I was surprised to get some occupants already, though. I don't know if any more will come in since it is getting into summer already, but now that there are a few there it should get more next spring. That is the way it worked with Purple Martins -- they come back year after year.
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