Anybody have a bat house?

Yeah a house for bats....somebody told me u could get like a little bat house to hang in a tree and they'll help control Mosquitos....is that true....anybody have one and if u do does it actually work?.....I have a big problem with Mosquitos in he summer here....ryan

No but I do have a colony of Mexican free tailed bats who live under a bridge about two miles away. Does that count? BTW, I don't think they really live close enough to do much good. I just returned from several minutes in the backyard and I'm cursing those little blood sucking pests while scratching the heck out of my ankles.

The bat houses I've seen are mounted on the sides of buildings, on fences or on sturdy poles. I don't think hanging them in a tree is recommended, as the house would not be stable.

Like they say in the movie, "If you build it, they will come".

use to have several at The Wellington House in Syracuse when I was the chef there. never saw a friggin bat in them. They loved the attic though.

I have incorporated bat houses into 5 Different restaurants and three different homes, needless to say I'm a believer.

birdmanusa.com has some great info. I have gotten 3 of his houses over the years and like them a lot. At my last resturant I started up from scratch it took a good year or two for the house to fill up and the difference from one summer to the next was very noticeable. the brown bats that live by us Ryan eat 500-1000 bugs a hour all night long. A large bat house will fill up quick once you get yourself a few knocked up bat chicks, so 500-1000 bugs a hours x 6-9 hours x 500-1000 bats, thats a big hit to the bug population around your house.

At my last house, we had an unintentional bat house, a standard bird house that had been taken over. I like the look of those numbers Colin, I will have to look into getting some bats to move in.

O Ryan. Don't forget to write the bat house off on your income taxes, Ecological Charitable Donation... Go green!

I would love to have bats around, i'd keep their guano and compost them into my soil or feed to my worm farm.

of course, the added bonus of insect populations getting gobbled up by them is great as well.

What i do have around in the garden is a tokay gecko that does takes care of the insect population in my garden. and the regular house lizard as well.

=D

there used to be a few bats flying around in my area, I don't see them around as much now. we do have some exotic looking birds flying about, we live close to a bit of a bird sanctuary so we see some nicely colored birds around. I could never take a photo of them though. oh well.

We have fruit bats where i live - dont want them in my house.In regard to mozzies, we have been using an eco trap which has uv light and a fan that produces CO2.The mozzies get trapped in the bottom of the device.Doesnt get rid of all the mozzies but makes a big difference.Our government has been undertaking trials in my area where they have realeased mozzies deliberatly infected with a virus that causes sterility when the infected mozzies breed.So far thee results were very promising with 80% of mozzies captured after being found to be sterile.

I have seen bat houses for sale but they looked kind of boring.
Maybe one shaped like a coffin.
Since Vampire and Zombie movies are big these days it would probably be a good seller.
Now I just have to think of something for the zombie bats.

on a serious note;
We have a lot of small bats around here.
The ones that come out at dusk will fly right at you and veer off at the last second. Kind of like what the humming birds do.
They are a lot of fun to watch.

I don't know about the rest of the country but a really high percentage of bats around here are rabies carriers. We have them at night but I have no desire to encourage more.

I heard a story on the radio about a village I think in Ecuador where large numbers of people were dying of rabies. Turned out vampire bats were biting them at night and they didn't even know it until they became ill.

If you can get them to come to the house they will stay and eat insects. I think the best way to get them to come is actually to "bait" them w/ local guano.