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We have bats. I know for a fact because they have literally flown past my head. This mostly happens ad dusk when we are swimming in the pool. The bugs just love to hover right above the surface of the pool so the bats just love to swoop in and "chomp" on them! I don’t mind though. In fact, I am actually thrilled because with all the mosquito born illnesses being discussed on a daily basis in the news we certainly want to get rid of them. So we welcome the bats because, well, they eat this nasty mosquitoes right up!!!
Think about it. Have you ever heard anything good about mosquitos? I certainly haven't. I just 'googled' the question and the only good thing that came up is that they are part of the food web. Yup, they are good food for birds, fish,frogs and, of course, bats! Their purposes on Earth is to be food for other animals. Sort of the bottom of the food web. So I guess it makes sense that we (humans I mean) do everything we can to either get rid of or to minimize their presence. On a community level they spray neighborhoods regularly where we live. I don't really like this, but even with the spray the mosquitoes are horrible. On a personal level people use all kinds of sprays and lotions, burn citronella candles, buy mosquito zappers, and more. In our yard we make sure there is no standing water, we make natural DIY mosquito repellant (essential oil recipe here), and of course use citronella in lots of places. And now, we finally have a bat house that holds up to 100 bats! But we are not hanging it at our current house, we are hanging it on our future homestead! Yes, that's right, we have decided to hang the bat house on our land in the Adirondacks. We chose to do this because the summer is when the mosquitoes are the worst and last summer when we were working on the land we were literally eaten alive. So this summer we are hoping to decrease the mosquito population by luring bats in the area where we plan to build our house. Check out our video on You Tube of How NOT to Hang a Bat House:
What are the benefits of a bat house?
What are the negatives?
Check out our YouTube video about why you NEED a bat house! Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future videos!
What next?
Buy or build a bat house – some links for plans and some links to buy it 1. Build a Bat house with one of these plans: - Single Chambered Bat House by Bat Conservation International - Plans, Tips and More from from the Organization for Bat Conservation 2. Buy a Bat house at this link (same one I have): - Single Chamber Bat House by Organization for Bat Conservation $49.99 Paint the Bat House: Depending upon where you live and the average temperatures, the color you paint it will vary. We painted ours black because of our location.
Hanging the Bat House
If You Build it They Will Come....Maybe
"What?" After all that work there is a chance that no bats will move in? This is true, thats a possibility. So here's how to increase your chances of having bats move in:
Update! We have purchased a new ladder (Gorilla Ladder 22') and relocated the bat house! Check out our new video of us using the ladder to relocate the bat house :-)
Thanks for visiting!
I would love to hear if you have a bat house and how it has worked out for you :-) Check out our Bats and Bat Houses Pinterest page for more information and tons of other plans and ideas. Sincerely,
Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/bats/education/ www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/histoplasmosis/basics/definition/con-20026585
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Hi there! I'm Kathie, the author behind Creating A Simpler Life blog. I'm excited to share our longterm projects (and planning) toward building our future retirement homestead in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. In the meantime I will be sharing all the other little things we do that are part of creating our simpler life!
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