HOW TO ATTRACT BATS [for mosquito control] [and because some of us just think bats are cool!]

Mmathis

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I just found this, if anyone is interested in the best way to get bats to homestead on your property. I'm sure there's more info out there, but this is pretty straightforward, and I think there is a link in there with more info.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/sam/attractingbats.pdf
 

j.w

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We had one in our woodshed one year. We just left it alone to over winter in there. I see them flying around at night sometimes and one clung to the side of our neighbors house under cover of their covered porch for a few days. It was a tiny thing and eventually just flew off.
 
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I was laying out at my pond to watch the meteor shower and bats kept zipping over me, about 1 foot from my face, cool, but distracting. We live in a rural location and there are lots of bats here, so I can't really help, unless you want to move here!
 
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There was one flying around in the basement a few weeks ago. I sat on the couch, and watched it go round and round the room, just missing me every time. When it stopped, I used a leaf skimmer to catch it, and let it go outside. There's some ledges and a few caves less than a mile from my house. I think they come from there.
 
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I have a few bats flying around the beginning of summer, I think they live by. But I havnt seen them in a while :(
 
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We had a married couple and their kids over one night several years ago and my wife and the other guys wife went out for a midnight dip in the pool while sipped our drinks, a while later we heard the ladies screaming their heads off out in the pool so we went out to investigate. When we got there see was a number of bats flying swiftly around the surface of the pool, and they had the two ladies cornered at one end of the pool frightened out of their wits and too afraid to stick more then their head out of the water. Every time they tried get up and move towards the pool ladder the bats seemed to swoop directly at them forcing them back towards the corner. It was hilarious and kind of fascinating to watch. At the ladies urging to do something about the situation we eventually got the pool net and tried scooping the bats out of the air causing them to disperse and allowing the ladies to exit the pool. Not exactly sure how many bats there were, because they twisted and turned and flew so fast, and it was dark out, but it seemed like between 5-7. And what was really fascinating was they seemed to be deliberately keeping the girls cornered in the pool. They never actually made contact with them, but they were deliberately swooping at them every time they made an attempt to get up out of the pool. It was fun to watch while it lasted. :ROFLMAO:

On another occasion I left my house for work one morning and noticed something odd on the head of a thistle bush, but didn't pay too much attention to it since I was already running late. Later however, after returning from work, I noticed it again and had the time to investigate. What I found was a small brown bat firmly stuck to the prickly head of the thistle. On closer examination I noticed he was still alive, but he could hardly do more then twist his head and blink. This guy was really stuck. I tried to peel off one of his wings but he was so stuck to the thistle I thought I was gona injure him,so I went in the house and got some scissors to cut of the head of the thistle and move him somewhere where I could try and untangle him better. It took me a good half hour, but I finally managed to free the little bugger, and the moment I freed him and laid him on the ground he took off and flew away. Imagine that, after being stuck to that thistle all day and probably well into the night before, he seemed no worse for the wear, just took off and carried on with his business.

When renovating the house we are currently living I found a nest of bats living up in the eves of the house. They started flying out as I ripped the old wooden soffit boards off. There must have been at least a dozen or so in there, and they even had a few babies that tucked themselves up in some small cracks and crevasses of the roof rather then flying away like the rest of them did. After ousting them from there home I felt a little guilty and started looking into building some bat houses. But I guess I got over the guilt cause they never got built. :p

As for attracting them, along with putting up the bat houses a pond with lots of breeding mosquitoes would probably do the trick too. :D
 
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A couple of years ago, I built a bat house per the instructions from that site http://www.batcon.org/. To our surprise, the first year we had bats! When winder rolled around they went somewhere warmer. This year, there has not been any in the bat house. Matter of fact, we normally see them all over the County but this year, there has been very few, anywhere. Here's hoping the little mosquito eaters come back, in spades!
 

Mmathis

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A couple of years ago, I built a bat house per the instructions from that site http://www.batcon.org/. To our surprise, the first year we had bats! When winder rolled around they went somewhere warmer. This year, there has not been any in the bat house. Matter of fact, we normally see them all over the County but this year, there has been very few, anywhere. Here's hoping the little mosquito eaters come back, in spades!
Yeah, reading about them has been interesting. There is such diversity relating to where each species will nest, and their nesting/roosting habits.

Does anyone know the way to distinguish bat droppings (guano) from mouse or rat droppings? (I know, but want to see if anyone else does -- WITHOUT GOOGLING)

For the past few months I've been hearing a sound in our bedroom ceiling, right at the corner of the house. It's a soft squeaking sound that reminds me of what puppies or kittens sound like when they nurse. I only hear it during the day, and more so early afternoon. My first thought was squirrels (truthfully, my first thought was our snoring cats!). But, we've had very recent HVAC work done, AND hubby has specifically inspected this area and found nothing. AND, the sound is still there and it's been plenty of time for weaning, if it was squirrels. Not that it isn't squirrels, just that we found nothing. An inspection of the outside does show some very small gapping between the wood and the brick (we had foundation work done which caused a little extra bit of movement). There is an area around the soffit located there, that appears to be closed off from the attic -- IOW there are no vents along that spot. So, do you see where I'm going with this? Hubby thinks I'm crazy. It will be exciting if it is bats, but I know they have to go...... So maybe I'll get a bat house up just in case, so they'll have some place to go.
 
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Did you cheat?

Nope. When I was growing up, we used to camp at a campground that had an old barn with two big silos filled with bats. We used to dare each other to go stand inside when they were swooping around. The guano was ankle deep.
 

Mmathis

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Nope. When I was growing up, we used to camp at a campground that had an old barn with two big silos filled with bats. We used to dare each other to go stand inside when they were swooping around. The guano was ankle deep.
Gross!

I did find a few "droppings" by my suspect spot today, and they were crumbly, but I think it was lizard poop. I'm going to find out the appropriate time for here (dusk) and sit outside with my iPad and a glass of wine one day soon...just gonna watch & wait (so Hubby can laugh at me).
 

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