Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Celebrating Bats

In honor of our love of bats (that started long ago but really solidified at Carlsbad Caverns) and to celebrate Bat Week 2016, we put up two more handmade, Steve-special bat houses and made a VIDEO about them.

Per instructions from Bat Conservation International, we installed a treated post at least 10 feet tall. Ours ended up with about 3 feet in the ground and 12 feet out.


Progressive back-filling and tamping while watching for plumb using a post leveler (strap-on plastic level) is essential to getting a good post installation. Our post was scrounged and had a bow on one end so we made a wide hole and put the bowed end under ground.


Using opposing ladders and installers provides some additional safety measures. 


A-OK and ready for inhabitants, rent-free!


In addition to attracting more bats to our orchard and nursery area, we gain a cool vertical feature. 


This shot shows the second bat box opposing the one shown above. One is wider than the other so we placed the wider one facing north so that the overlap would receive some sunlight from the south and help keep it warm.


Ready for your own bat house? If so, start here

4 comments:

  1. Can't wait to see some bats coming and going!

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    1. We have a few in the house on the south side of our house so we sure hope we attract even more here. :)

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  2. I've been thinking of one here in the city, where our house is. I've heard pros being bug control and pollination and cons being guano (not a big deal, though). Please do a follow-up and update us with your experiences! Thanks!

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    1. Yes, for bug control! Woo hoo! Here in Ohio, we don't have pollinating bats but we sure have lots of insect eating bats. If we all are lucky to attract a large population, the guano is AWESOME in the garden. We will follow up if we attract some of these cool critters. We hope you attract them to your place too! Thanks for your thoughts. :)

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