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| Looking at the loose-assembled bat-house from the bottom |
Two-inch diameter holes are drilled through each baffle centered 5" from the top and the holes are staggered left-right-left-right. The holes are port-holes for bat travel and to spill heat (and ventilation) from cavity-to-cavity. My current plan is to vent out the back panel.
I still have to staple mesh to the sides of the baffles and make some decisions about how I am going pin the baffles into place. I am leaning toward drilling a 1/2" through-hole and simply pinning them.
I also have to make a decision about what to do with the 1/2" air-space between the front of the house (not installed in the picture) and the top baffle. The options are to leave it open as a duct to generate and move warm air or to fill it with insulation. I am leaning toward "duct" or just open air-space. That will provided the most rapid heating during the morning.
The current plan is to coat the exterior with dark, solid deck-stain and then a coat of Thompson's WaterSeal. The roof will be corrugated metal with an air-space between the top of the bat-house and the bottom of the metal. I expect to have the metal extend 4" or 6" beyond the top of the bat-house. I intend to mount two of them back-to-back.
As you can see, this house is much smaller than the one shown in the earlier post. I don't think we get bat-colonies NEARLY as large as southern states. I will be thrilled if I get a dozen bats at each location: Eaton Rapids and The Property. Since bats have a slow rate of reproduction, that might take several years.
Very nice!
ReplyDeleteERJ: good on you for helping our winged mammals. They need it.
ReplyDeleteWhite-nose syndrome hasn't arrived yet?
I think White-nose is pretty much continent-wide by now
DeleteI was reading up on Michigan species yesterday and about half of them are "solitary" except for when they hibernate. That is, they don't live in colonies except during hibernation
Of the ones that do live in colonies, only the Little Brown Bat and the Big Brown Bats are common in Michigan. The L-B-B has been severely impacted by White-nose. B-B-B seems to have some genetic resistance to it and numbers have not been impacted very much.
A betting man would bet that if I get bats, it will be the Big Brown Bat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_brown_bat#Conservation)
I've built a # of these now for people and the range and there seems to some rules in successful habitation.
ReplyDelete#1 Don't use any stain or paint on the lumber anywhere.
#2 Make the landing pads at least 4" long. Cut 1/8 deep slots 1" apart for the critters to climb up.
#3 Make the top leak proof so they don't get wet from rain.
#4 Weathered chip board is great for the insides.
#5 Install as high as you can. Minimum 20 ft.
#6 mine face south as they need all the heat they can get up here.
I thought my bat boxes were unoccupied but discovered dark colored stains running down the landing pads. Urine! Yes! We have bats in there.
Can you supply an approximate latitude and/or elevation?
DeleteYou might be surprised at how quickly it will fill once a single female takes up residence. While bats don't communicate as well as bees, they do tend to follow some herd instinct. Just my impression, no scientific justification.
ReplyDeleteHow are bees - wasps exluded from these structures ? We have some wild bee and a lot of yellowjacket wasps in our rurals down here. I wouldn't mind helping the bats but am afraid of attracting insect pests.
ReplyDeleteI can't answer that.
DeleteThe one I removed, the one made from rolled-roofing was riddled with holes made by wood-peckers. I assume they were going after spiders and paper-wasps.
My GUESS is that the size and shape of the cavities is not attractive to yellow-jackets. But that is just a guess.
Thank you for your response. Yellowjackets here seem to seek any protected spaces from the elements. It doesn't get really cold here (lately even one day of a hard freeze doesn't occur) so is why I ask the question.
DeleteThank you for watching over your bat population and giving the rest of us ideas on how we can help too.