I stopped off at a farm stand and bought some fresh sweet corn. We were going to a BBQ/ potluck, and I wanted to try out a new recipe for Elotes (Mexican Corn Salad). I went out on the patio to shuck the corn, opened the patio umbrella, and was startled by a really big bug. Or a bird. Oh my, it's a bat!
It was sunny and humid, and he(?) must have been roosting in the folds of the cloth. When I opened the umbrella, he unceremoniously tumbled out, coming to a rest under a chair; he lay there, stunned and confused, on the hot brickwork. Meanwhile, Chris and I retreated into the kitchen to figure out what the hell we should do. Should we move him? Does he have rabies?* Can he fly away? Is this normal? Should we go look up "bats" on teh intarweb? After about a minute of frenzied consultation, the bat looked around, figured the coast was clear, and started flying in circles around the now-open patio umbrella. It was almost like he was trying to figure out what had happened to his roost. After several times round and round and round, he gave up and flapped away.
*Thanks to the fine folks at Bat Conservation International (batcon.org), we now know that very few bats have rabies: "Bat rabies accounts for approximately one human death per year in the United States." We suspect that our visitor was a little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). As a result of our encounter, we've decided to Adopt a Bat and put up a bat house. (If you have a particular bat house to recommend, or any bat success stories, please leave a comment. Thanks!)
Posted by rv at August 12, 2006 03:12 PM to homeI don't have anything useful to report, but I'll be very interested in how it works out for you since I'd like to put up a bat house too. Talk about natural mosquito control!
I can't stand the idea of being in an enclosed space with them, and I wouldn't want them in my attic, but I totally don't mind bats outdoors. We had quite a few flying around above us when we were trailriding one night last week.
-Donna
Posted by: Donna at August 14, 2006 02:00 PMWhat to do? You could have called me, ya know. I've been helping on bat surveys for several years now and I'm going to actually help again tomorrow night. I'm in a bit of a hurry here at work (prepping for '24 Hours at Holden', a campout and bioblitz with about 75 people), but I'll give you some advice, if you want it, hopefully next week when things calm down.
Posted by: Dawn at August 18, 2006 10:49 AMSo, bats. If you're going to put up a bat house, right now is a good time. Females are scouting houses for next year in August. Soon they'll all be flying to caves to hibernate so it's too late for use this year, but if the females find it now and decide to nest there next year you won't have a single male take over your whole house. Males roost singly or occasionally a couple will come together. Females roost in large colonies and this is better if you want them around for pest control. Females take turns babysitting while others go out to forage.
Something you should know, mosquitoes are not usually their primary food. They do eat some, probably thousands daily, but their diet is largely the other garden pests that annoy us so it's still worth it to attract them for insect control.
Bat house placement should be in the hot sunny spot, usually facing south. Actually 6-10 hours in the sun is best. In your area, the house should also be painted black or some other dark color to absorb lots of heat. Mounting should be minimum of 10 feet up, but 15-20 feet is best. Avoid using trees, but sides of houses and poles are good. Guano is going to fall out the bottom so make sure you're not bothered by messes underneath wherever you put it.
Bats prefer to roost near water(stream, pond, lake). Not that you can do anything about that because you're not going to move your house near water, but that's what they prefer.
It's good that you think yours was a little brown. Little brown and big brown bats are the most common to use a house, although I think red bats are the cutest. They look like little flying teddy bears (with attitude!)
As for which to choose, as long as it's good construction, they're all pretty similar. I bought one that I'm still hoping to put up this week. (I've been saying that all summer, but I have two days off so I might find time) I bought a telescoping pole to put it on. The pole can be brought down so I can clean the box in the winter because wasps also have a tendency to find bat boxes and they can fill it so there's no room for bats.
My house is small - they say it holds 100. I wanted to see if I could attract bats before I spent a lot on a huge house. My neighbor has them nesting in her attic and they've been there for as long as I've known her (~30 years) and probably longer so they might not want to move. Anyway it's only about a foot wide and foot and a half tall with a recycled plastic roof so it shouldn't be as apt to buckle after one season as some wood ones do. I got it from S&K Manufacturing http://www.sk-mfg.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SMIOTBPBH&Product_Code=BH100&Category_Code=BH
So hopefully I haven't bored you to tears yet, but you asked for advice so I thought I'd pass on some stuff. I have bat pictures to show if you ever want to see. I just entered one in a photo contest today.
Posted by: Dawn at August 28, 2006 01:04 AM