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kent borcherding
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| Joined: | Fri Jan 7th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 54 |
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Posted: Tue Jun 3rd, 2008 02:30 pm |
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To clarify non - use of screen or mesh in bat houses.
I think in plywood constructed bat houses the mesh or screen allows air movement beneath the bats and is reason bats prefer plywood constructed bat houses using screen or mesh.IMHO
My preference in using wood especially black locust much longer lasting bat houses .
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Terry Lobdell
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Posted: Wed Jun 4th, 2008 02:27 am |
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| Kent, have you ever tried baffles of just rough sawn wood without saw kerfs or scoring?
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19John62
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| Joined: | Tue Jun 3rd, 2008 |
| Location: | Western Ky, USA |
| Posts: | 3 |
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Posted: Wed Jun 4th, 2008 02:45 pm |
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Hi, Im new to bat life, have been interested for years, but haven't taken the time.
I live in western ky and a week and a half ago i bought a bat house at lowes and mounted it in the security light pole 12' off the ground in about 8 hrs of full sun, aprox 8 to 10 feet from the tree line of the woods.
1st question- is the light pole a good place to mount the house.
2nd question- after lookinh at bat house plans I feel that I might have thrown away 22 dallors on the store bought house.
I'm already planing on bulding my own bat house, I like both plans, the rocket and conventional plans. any tips?
I been watching at least 1 bat every night around the security light.
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Terry Lobdell
Member
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Posted: Wed Jun 4th, 2008 04:09 pm |
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| Welcome! Take a look at a bat house I have mounted on a pole with a light. It is in the pictures section of this forum along with some description....
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Joe Spencer
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| Joined: | Mon Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 528 |
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Posted: Wed Jun 4th, 2008 08:38 pm |
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19john62, I believe the following to be what Terry spoke of: http://www.batnic.org/forum/forum5/451.html
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IowaNate
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Posted: Mon Jun 9th, 2008 02:52 am |
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The roads to the Nature Center are becoming inaccessable with the heavy rain here in the Midwest. Indian Creek is now only 10 yards from my bathouses with the flooding. I can still get to the Nature Center but since a few roads are blocked off it will take me an extra ten minutes to get there. If the river and creek levels increase much more, the Nature Center will be cut off by roads. This is a major blow to me since I fish for walleye at this site as well.
I am not sure if many of you remember the midwest flooding of 1993, but Iowa is predicted to reach the same flood levels by Tuesday of this week. We have some serious problems here and the corn milling plant that I work at will have most of it's parking lot flooded by the end of Monday. With the recent tornadoes that tore through Parkersburg (50 miles North of here) and wiped out 2/3s of the town with 4 deaths... Iowa is not in great shape.
I don't want to ask for donations to Iowa directly, but a few areas of Iowa are designated as disaster zones...but please keep us in your prayers and/or thoughts. Iowa is getting bombarded by Mother Nature this year.
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Terry Lobdell
Member
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Posted: Tue Jun 10th, 2008 04:27 am |
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| Nate, I hope things get better for all of you out there...........
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IowaNate
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Posted: Wed Jun 11th, 2008 12:54 am |
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Well Terry, I am going to attempt heading out to the Nature Center tommorrow. The corn mill that I am currnetly working at is in imminent danger of flooding, I actually saw fish swimming where the lower parking lot used to be today. If cars were parked there, they would've been in 4 feet of water today. The corn mill is about 3 miles upstream from the Nature Center on the same road...I am predicting water being close to the deck where the houses are mounted, but hopefully not around them. The standing water is going to create an explosion in the waterborn insect population, so more people might be wanting bat houses from me. Some of the natural tree roosts by the river might also be flooded soon, so it will be interesting to see if some bats seek out new homes and find interest at the Nature Center houses.
I am lucky that I live near the highest point in Cedar Rapids, but a few of my coworkers and friends had 8 feet of water in their basements (100% full) with the floods of 1993 and the river is predicted to crest about 2 feet higher than 1993 levels. I recently sold a bat house to a friend of mine to hang at his girlfriend's house, and her house will be flooded by tommorrow, with probably a foot of water on the main floor.
As destructive and sorrowful as it seems that the rivers in Iowa are destroying people's livelyhood and homes, it is amazing to see something that has never before been recorded in history. Only one death has been attributed to the current flooding here in Iowa, and hopefully no more lives will be claimed due to this flooding...but Mother Nature is showing us how little power we truly have over her.
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kerbat
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| Joined: | Sun Jun 8th, 2008 |
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| Posts: | 37 |
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Posted: Thu Jun 12th, 2008 12:18 pm |
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IowaNate wrote: Well Terry, I am going to attempt heading out to the Nature Center tommorrow. =============== I am lucky that I live near the highest point in Cedar Rapids, but a few of my coworkers and friends had 8 feet of water in their basements (100% full) with the floods of 1993 and the river is predicted to crest about 2 feet higher than 1993 levels. I recently sold a bat house to a friend of mine to hang at his girlfriend's house, and her house will be flooded by tommorrow, with probably a foot of water on the main floor.
As destructive and sorrowful as it seems that the rivers in Iowa are destroying people's livelyhood and homes, it is amazing to see something that has never before been recorded in history. Only one death has been attributed to the current flooding here in Iowa, and hopefully no more lives will be claimed due to this flooding...but Mother Nature is showing us how little power we truly have over her. Nate , how did you make out getting to the nature center? Sorry to hear about the flooding, we know how helpless we are to nature's power. I've had the eye of 3 hurricanes pass thru here in the last 4 years. I am retired, I board up and move N in our camper if a cat 3 or larger storm is threatening.
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IowaNate
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Posted: Thu Jun 12th, 2008 05:57 pm |
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I didn't make it to the Nature Center. Alot of Cedar Rapids is in what is called the 500 year floodplain. Suppossedly a flood like this only has a probablity of happening once every 500 years...and it happened. There is 6 to 8 feet of water where I work so I am out of a job for at least a week. The bat houses probably have 3 feet of water up onto the deck poles.
There are mandatory evacuations all over my town of almost 200,000 people. Power was out for at least 4 hours at my house, and all of the major downtown area will not have power for many days. And as I sit here here typing this it is raining VERY hard and almost every bridge in town is closed or demolished...it looks like armageddon here, I can't even describe it. I visited New Orleans 5 months after the hurricane in 2005 and this flood looks similar to the destruction in Louisiana and Mississippi.
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Joe Spencer
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| Joined: | Mon Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 528 |
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Posted: Thu Jun 12th, 2008 08:57 pm |
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Hang in there Nate and all! Hope something positive happens for you guys.
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kerbat
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Posted: Fri Jun 13th, 2008 03:52 pm |
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Nate , you still got power and doing OK?
Wish I had some way to get you a spare generator I have in the hangar. Have an extra 5500 watt one that no longer use since I bought a whole house one after the last time we were down for 10 days after a hurricane. So far haven't needed it thank goodness. Maybe should have bought it a long time ago to keep storms away. Not looking forward to the next one. Lived in S florida since 59 and never had a major storm in my area until 04.
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IowaNate
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Posted: Fri Jun 13th, 2008 04:41 pm |
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Kerbat, I regained power at my house thankfully. The river still has at least a foot to go before it crests. Our biggest threat right now is the water supply, since we can't provide enough right now for basic daily usage and the wastewater treatment plant is out of service as well. The government & community are working wonderfully together and it shows what a great town I live in. No deaths yet, and we will rebuild and be fine after the water goes down. I love my state and town and can't think of a better place to live right now.
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Gran
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| Joined: | Wed Sep 8th, 2004 |
| Location: | Dothan, Alabama USA |
| Posts: | 60 |
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Posted: Fri Jun 13th, 2008 10:01 pm |
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| Good luck Nate. Sounds like it has been awful up there
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IowaNate
Member
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Posted: Fri Jun 20th, 2008 08:25 pm |
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Made it to the Center today. The floodwaters just barely touched the West pole of the deck, but the main floor of the building had a few inches of standing water so everything had to be cleared out.
The West house is nearly full of bats in every chamber, probably close to 600 bats. And the East house has about 50 bats in it...I saw pups in both houses and they are just starting get fur. I hope to do a pup count within a week!
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