Bat boxes?

How many of you have a Bat house. Do bats eat flys too? Is the Rocket box the preferred design for a bat house?

Putting up a house is easer then getting them to live in it.
Requires the perfect location.
This area can be located by observation
Bob J sells a attractant.

As stated above location, is what I learned. Wasps, will take it over boxes, quick, no bats. I found out, wooden window shutters, worked the best for me. Had some on my garage, when I replaced, windows, sided garage, found several bats. Reinstalled the shutters, on a metal side building , have bats.

I agree on the window shutters. I painted around mine without taking them off as I saw droppings under them. Always the east side of a building. Bat droppings look just like mouse droppings but if you crush them in the sunlight, there will be shiny particles of insect wings in them. They glitter a bit. Just FYI for those who don't know.

I keep my hay equipment in an old pole barn. The baler has to be protected from bat droppings, which fall from the rafters above. They are in there in abundance. The observation being if the local conditions will support them, they find a place on their own. Came to same conclusion with flicker boxes, which were magnets for tree rats and flying rats (starlings). The flickers were never allowed to use them.

I never had a problem with wasps. I have two boxes up and both were taken over by red squirrels. They are a real nuisance.

They'll eat anything that fly's at night. I put up some Bat boxes, but couldn't keep the squirrels out.

I forget the website I found when I built mine, but it was a fella out of Indiana. He had seems like 50 or more bat boxes on his property and nearly all were inhabited with bats. He said it took a lot of trial and error to get the dimentions optimal for bat houses. Slats too far apart and they wont use it, too close and they wont use it. Dont quote me, but seems like chamber spacing needed to be 3/4 inch with no more than 1/8 inch deviation either way. He also painted them dark color to help keep heat in his part of Indiana. The higher the house, the better...at least 20 feet from any trees (where predatory bird could sit and wait for them). Wire mesh angled at bottom to catch any young that tumble out too early and allows them to crawl back in. The box needs proper venting and allow for the bats to climb between chambers without coming outside of the box. Water was important and box should be located within 1/2 mile of plentiful water source. Lots of little details that I never would have thought about without reading his articles...

When I ran my ADC business I was removing somewhere between 5,000-10,000 bats a year from structures. These were all maternity colonies. Females and their young. They return every year to the same structure. Thus they have no need to relocate. Very hard to get them to use bat houses.
Males are loners and have multiple roost locations, so you may get a male bat or two.
Also after decades of bats adapting to structures they have learned they are better than hollow trees or bat houses to raise their young. More stable warmth in attics.
Also attracting bats near to your home is not a great idea. As they multiply they may start looking at your home to locate to as they run out of room.
Also each bat has a particular flight path of several miles they on travel to feed nightly. Once they leave their roost they fly this path feeding. I have watched colonies with nearly 1,000 females all exit in 10-15 minutes. If you watch they may circle some for a minute or so then they are gone. There would be no bats around the structure within a short time. For this reason any bats you have in a bat house will eat very few of your insects. Any bats you may see feeding around you are from other colonies maybe miles away.

I am a failure at getting bats in to a bat house. Would like to see more info. We have them around here but my poorly constructed boxes did not work. Interesting and interested.....jk

We've had four bats circling around outside for many years. Anytime it's warm enough they start flying around the yard near sunset. I assume they are brown bats.

It's always four. You have to watch a while to see them all at once but that's always been the number.

I put up a bat house years ago but they never used it.

I saw a report that said bats eat very few mosquitoes. They eat mostly moths and other larger insects. Either way, I find them more of a disease ridden nuisance rather than a beneficial critter around here.

I see them as dollar signs.
Please continue to spread this misinformation
Thank Yo$

To each their own I'd rather have swallows, and martins

I like bird droppings on my equipment also….

Bats Bad!

I don't encourage anything wild to live near me. In the past when I did I soon regretted it. If they are a problem the traps come out.

better than Histoplasmosis

I had a third grade class put together bat houses as a Audubon project for the golf course. They put them together in the classroom. We invited them out to the course to see where we hung the boxes with their initials on it. The news came and did a story on it. They also went on a small walk across the bridge through the wetlands. The teacher spoke to the media about bats and about how positive they are for controlling insects. We ended with hot coco and cookie in the clubhouse.

Nice work Goonie.

That’s cool goonie, great to get kids noses outta their phone and into the fresh air! IMO

I think it’s important to educate kids on how not to touch or pick up a wild critter that looks tame. The news and shows like Wild Krats are always yammering on about how good bats are, but seldom warn that they are wild and shouldn’t be picked up if they are encountered. A lot of young kids misinterpret “good” and think the critters are good as in “friendly”.

Come from bird also..