My new bathouse! *Pic heavy*

Misquitoes here in FL are horrible, I called the county, they dont spray for them anymore. So I am going to try to battle them with one of their natural predators, bats. Bats can eat up to 100 misquitoes an hour.

Finally got it up here at the PSM compound in Gainesville,FL; wanted to share some pics. My soon to be wifes dad scored me a nice
2" Stainless Steel Square pipe and welded a 1/2" piece of Stainless rod to mount
the bathouse on. He even welded a cap on top. The pipe is 15' long (Stainless 2"
square 'aint cheap, about $30/ft, but her dad got it free!) I drove it about
4' into the ground with a lil elbow grease.

I did some research, this setup is about perfect, around 10 feet off the
ground, at lest 15' from the nearest tree, receives 8 hours of direct sunlight,
facing the SE, and is within a 1/2 mile of a body of water. I hope to get some
bats, I shouldnt expect them until early spring.

BTW this bathouse is from Wild Birds Unlimited.
holds up to 200 bats.

PICS, enjoy. (8 ft. ladder for reference)

Hope you have better luck attracting them than I did. I put one on a tree (maybe a mistake) a few years back. Height and direction were okay I think. Never got any bats, only wasps, even though there are plenty of bats flying around. I've been meaning to try it again in a different location, maybe the side of the house.

Geoff

Wow, Brandon, I didn't think you were the type to hang out in bathhouses.

Flying Turtle said:

I put one on a tree (maybe a mistake) a few years back.

Geoff

Click to expand...

Bathouses on trees almost never get used, thats what I read. I was originally gonna use a Tree.

See ya Friday Troy!

my last bathouse became a yellow jacket hive....
since it was a short way off the ground, about 10 feet or so...I had fun burning it

very nice
Throughout most of the United States and much of Canada there are occupied bat houses being used by one of North America's many crevice-dwelling bat species. Wherever bats live, they must find enough insects to eat, largely explaining their preference for roosting near aquatic habitats. The closer you live to cave or mine hibernating sites the better, and the existence of bat colonies in nearby buildings also increase your chances....

its a game of sit and wait

Try to come up with some ideas for all the guano you'll have laying around. I heard that stuff is organic gold. You might have a secondary income to fund your lights!

Keep us posted!
T

tdurand said:

Try to come up with some ideas for all the guano you'll have laying around. I heard that stuff is organic gold. You might have a secondary income to fund your lights!

Keep us posted!
T

Click to expand...

its organic gold if you use it properly...

arewethereyetdad said:

Wow, Brandon, I didn't think you were the type to hang out in bathhouses.

Click to expand...

That's the way I read it too. I actually looked at the title two or three times thinking then my curiosity overcame me.

Looks very nice PSM. I had never heard of anyone making houses for bats before. Good luck!

drizzle said:

I had never heard of anyone making houses for bats before. Good luck!

Click to expand...

I got it for Christmas. You know, another exuse to go shine my flashlight outside @ night! :naughty:

Maybe if you used the bat signal you could attract more bats

I have used purple martin houses to attract the birds to nest and take up residence near our lake house. It actually worked quite well, the little dive bomber eat their weight in skeeters every night.

Good luck

Gary

I thought you had a new BATHhouse!!! That's what I need!

I have some bats that keep nesting in my house shutters. PSM, if you send me directions to your bathouse, I'll forward it to them.
PS - I won't tell them about all of your flashlights.

Oh...BAThouse! And I thought you wanted to show us a bunch of naked men in your back yard!

BATHhouse was what I read, too! LOL

:lolsign:

Too funny to change the title now! I guess I thought BAT-HOUSE was a compound word!

I live near Austin. Watching the bats come out in the evening is a popular thing to do in several places around town. Congress Ave. bridge gets crowds of people on the lakeshore and in boats watching. I'm planning on putting up a bathouse near my tank (1 acre fishing pond). Good luck with yours.

Anyway, here's a good link if you hadn't already seen it.

www.batcon.org

Bat houses are a great idea, however, it takes bats an average of 5 years to recognize it as a home, if ever. Often the materials used in the construction (glue, treated wood..) will serve as a deterrence.
If you want bats around plant a fruit tree or two.
Guano is valuable, often used for growing marijuana, the high levels of ammonia do some crazy things to a thriving plant.
2 weeks ago 2 of my guys took 27 full garbage bags of it out of a church attic, 4 "cone" shaped piles about 6' high each.
Guano is almost completely composed of undigested bug parts, be very, very cautious when handling it, it is extremely deadly stuff.

Thank goodness I didn't see what I thought I was going to when I opened this thread..

This is NO way to attract bats......

Do you feed the birds nearby? Whenever the activity thins out at my bird feeders I can often spot a hawk hanging around waiting for a warm meal.

Geoff