Build a Bat House

There are a lot of scary myths about bats, and many people, unfortunately, believe them. Most of these myths probably got started simply because bats go against the natural order of things - they're awake when "nice" animals are sleeping, and they fly when everyone knows that mammals aren't supposed to have wings. They sleep upside down. They fly so fast in the early evening that you can sense their presence, but you can't actually see them flying. It's no wonder so many people are afraid of these little creatures.

However, more and more people are coming to love bats. Or, at least, they love what bats do, because bats can eat an incredible number of insects every night. They also pollinate many different kinds of flowers, and they help native habitats by carrying and dispersing seeds.

Folks are also discovering that bats don't really carry as much disease as many previously thought. Rabies, for instance, is rarely spread by bats, partly because bats aren't as susceptible to this illness as dogs, foxes, skunks and other critters; and partly because bats who do get rabies don't become aggressive the way other animals do. According to Bat Conservation International (BCI) less than 25 Americans have contracted rabies from bats in the last 50 years.

The few people who have gotten rabies from bats have broken a cardinal rule about wild animals: Never pick up a sick animal in your bare hands! If you can catch an adult bat, you have to assume the bat is sick. It is unlikely that anything you can do will save it, so it's best to leave it alone. If you find a baby bat that is unable to fly, contact your local conservation office to see if they have a wildlife expert who can care for it until it's old enough to live on it's own.

Even though bats are beneficial to humans, their habitats are being destroyed every day and the numbers of many bat species is declining. If you would like to help out your little flying friends, you may want to make your yard more attractive to them, and provide them some shelter. If you do that, you may also want to make sure your house and attic are bat-proof, so the bats remain good neighbors.

Building a bat house is a great project for the family, and can be an impromptu science experiment. There are almost 1,000 different species of bats worldwide, and each species has its own preferences about where they like to sleep. That means you will need to take a trip to the local library or do some searching online to find out which kinds of bats are most likely to live in your area.

Then you will need to decide if you want to build a small roosting box to hold up to 100 bachelor males, or a larger box to hold up to 300 maternal colonies. Once you build your box you'll then need to have a bit of patience, because it typically takes 12 to 18 months for bats to move in.

For specific bat house plans, search online for the Bat House Builder's Handbook orBuilding Bat Houses: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin.

Even if your new bat house doesn't immediately become home base for a colony of bats, you'll still be providing an alternative roosting place that will be available if a traditional roosting spot is destroyed. So that means that you should feel good about making and hanging your bat house, even if nobody lives there yet. With the number of roosting places being destroyed every day, it is very likely that your bat house will be needed someday soon.

Bats raise their families in May, June and July. If a maternal colony is now living in your attic, you should wait until August to close up the entrance holes to prevent killing the babies. Then put up a new bat house nearby so the returning colony can find it next April when they come back to raise the next generation of babies.