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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Ok, I'd REALLY like to put up a bathouse in my backyard, but I'm not
thinking there's anywhere I can put it. Just how finicky are bats about the positioning and location of the house? James |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
I looked all over the internet to find a site that would give you good
area specific advice and couldn't find anything. Maybe one of the universities in Ohio has an etymology department. Where's Bill and Doug when you need them? Well heck, I found a couple of sites and did drum up information on the species around here but naturally I lost the sites. Hang on.... Here's one: http://www.mammalsociety.org/statelists/ohmammals.html For the main part, the ones we see most are Brown bats I believe -- the "Little" variety. I've heard talk of Indiana bats as well, and the Gray is supposed to be in our area too. I'm thinking of just putting up a very tall pole with the bathouse in the middle of the back yard and seeing what we get. I figure if we get nada then they just don't like us. :) James |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
VERY!
It has to be high enough that they can launch themselves into flight from the doorway. It has to be away from high-traffic areas. It has to be in an area that gets enough, but not too much, sun. And for the homeowner,it has to be in a spot where the guano is not going to be a problem. Now therein is the issue -- to hear some talk, these things can be as close to the ground as 7-8 feet and they'll still be occupied. It's a curious thing. James |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
The house needs to have a minimum of 8 hours of direct sun on
it...depending on how far south you live. I had to paint mine white to reflect some of the sun. We also put it on its own pole, using cement. It's on a telescoping pole so we can clean it during winter. Of course, some of the immature males hang around here in Austin all winter (our winters are mild). A telescoping pole sounds like a good idea -- where did you find yours? James |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 01:07:22 -0500, "Noctaire"
wrote: VERY! It has to be high enough that they can launch themselves into flight from the doorway. It has to be away from high-traffic areas. It has to be in an area that gets enough, but not too much, sun. And for the homeowner,it has to be in a spot where the guano is not going to be a problem. Now therein is the issue -- to hear some talk, these things can be as close to the ground as 7-8 feet and they'll still be occupied. It's a curious thing. James The bat house at UCF is a 4' cube on legs, the bottom of the cube is about 3' above grade. When I moved mine and attached it to the tree it was almost 5' above grade. zhan |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 01:06:04 -0500, "Noctaire" wrote:
I looked all over the internet to find a site that would give you good area specific advice and couldn't find anything. Maybe one of the universities in Ohio has an etymology department. Where's Bill and Doug when you need them? Well heck, I found a couple of sites and did drum up information on the species around here but naturally I lost the sites. Hang on.... Here's one: http://www.mammalsociety.org/statelists/ohmammals.html For the main part, the ones we see most are Brown bats I believe -- the "Little" variety. I've heard talk of Indiana bats as well, and the Gray is supposed to be in our area too. I'm thinking of just putting up a very tall pole with the bathouse in the middle of the back yard and seeing what we get. I figure if we get nada then they just don't like us. :) James You will greatly increase your chances if you hang an old sock filled with bat guano on the pole. The Boyscouts did this experiment a while back and reported it to Wildbirds Unlimited (where we bought our 200 bat, bat house). |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 01:07:22 -0500, "Noctaire" wrote:
Now therein is the issue -- to hear some talk, these things can be as close to the ground as 7-8 feet and they'll still be occupied. It's a curious thing. James The recommendation to elevate it is not so much due to the bats liking the height (though they do), but to prevent predators eating the young at night when the mother goes out to forage. We have ours on a 15 foot, telescoping pole. We bought one bag of quick crete, dug a hole which was wider at the bottom, and put the bat house on the east side of the garden, with the front facing the southwest. Bats fly east in the evening, not the other way. I wonder why? Are they flying away from the dusk of the sun? |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 01:08:35 -0500, "Noctaire" wrote:
A telescoping pole sounds like a good idea -- where did you find yours? James I believe we bought ours for about 35 dollars at Home Depot or Lowes in their Purple Martin house section. This year I wanted to get one of those up, and I will, but it may be too late to attract them this year. They're already showing up, slowly. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 14:20:26 -0500, "Noctaire"
wrote: I keep forgetting to put my rec.gardens sig in my posting -- I'm active in a number of newsgroups. Sigh I'm up in Cincinnati, Ohio -- Zone 6a. As for what kind of bat, that's an easy one -- the kind that eats bugs. :) I am not certain what types of bats are indigenous to Southwestern Ohio but I have seen them buzzing about overhead at dusk. We're probably a mile or so away from the Ohio river, half mile from the Mill Creek (sort of a dumping creek by the railyards) but the bats are still plentiful around here. With all of the mosquitoes, I'd like to get a little clan of bats living in the back here so we can get a little better control on them -- my neighbors won't take care of their water issues and I'm tired of getting eaten alive so.... James I looked all over the internet to find a site that would give you good area specific advice and couldn't find anything. Maybe one of the universities in Ohio has an etymology department. Where's Bill and Doug when you need them? Good Luck with your project. btw, sometime it takes at least a year for the bat houses to attract the bats. zhan |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 14:20:26 -0500, "Noctaire"
wrote: I keep forgetting to put my rec.gardens sig in my posting -- I'm active in a number of newsgroups. Sigh I'm up in Cincinnati, Ohio -- Zone 6a. As for what kind of bat, that's an easy one -- the kind that eats bugs. :) I am not certain what types of bats are indigenous to Southwestern Ohio but I have seen them buzzing about overhead at dusk. We're probably a mile or so away from the Ohio river, half mile from the Mill Creek (sort of a dumping creek by the railyards) but the bats are still plentiful around here. With all of the mosquitoes, I'd like to get a little clan of bats living in the back here so we can get a little better control on them -- my neighbors won't take care of their water issues and I'm tired of getting eaten alive so.... James I looked all over the internet to find a site that would give you good area specific advice and couldn't find anything. Maybe one of the universities in Ohio has an etymology department. Where's Bill and Doug when you need them? Good Luck with your project. btw, sometime it takes at least a year for the bat houses to attract the bats. zhan |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
"Noctaire" wrote in message ...
Ok, I'd REALLY like to put up a bathouse in my backyard, but I'm not thinking there's anywhere I can put it. Just how finicky are bats about the positioning and location of the house? James Last year I put one up about 15 ft up the north side of a tall pine tree. The bats used it heavily in spring and early summer - had a half inch thick pile of droppings under it. Then I started finding dead bats under it and all the rest left. Don't know what happened, but I was concerned about rabies or West Nile virus, although heat could have been a possibility also. Bob |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
We are located in AL and have procrastinated about getting a bat
population started. We have looked at plans for the houses and where they prefer to be positioned and I had a few questions. As we are so far south will the bats get too hot in summer if we put them in full sun and up a 15-foot pole? Could that be why some of the rec.garden listers are saying they had inhabitants at below that height? On the bat houses that some house different numbers of bats. How many bats should a person try to cultivate per acre? Have any of you had your population long enough to see a decrease in the amount of mosquitoes? I note that you should live within one-quarter mile of a water source. We live within that distance of a small river. Will the bats leave the bat house and head for the river or do they mainly hunt close to home? Are the houses sufficient to build a population or do you need to get a brood box as well? |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Bats migrate and get pregnant when they mate at the migration destination. Here in
Austin, they migrate to Mexico. Generally, only the females return with their pregnant bellies. They give birth and don't leave the bat house for weeks at a time, then will fly east at dusk. They feed on big juicy moths, mosquitoes, and other flying insects at night. I have a bat house for 200 bats. It looks like it can fit ten bats! It is south facing, on a 15 foot pole and I put some bat guano around the base and filled a sock and dunked the sock in water and hung it on the back of the house. The bats are starting to return to the area from their migration, so I haven't seen any yet. There is the second largest urban colony about 2 miles west of my house under an overpass at Mc neil Road and I-35. They fly by our backyard by the hundreds of thousands every night. It looks like a huge bunch of swarms as they emerge. Go to this website to find out much, much more than I can ever tell you: http://www.batcon.org/ Victoria On 16 Mar 2003 11:17:47 -0800, (mypet) wrote: We are located in AL and have procrastinated about getting a bat population started. We have looked at plans for the houses and where they prefer to be positioned and I had a few questions. As we are so far south will the bats get too hot in summer if we put them in full sun and up a 15-foot pole? Could that be why some of the rec.garden listers are saying they had inhabitants at below that height? On the bat houses that some house different numbers of bats. How many bats should a person try to cultivate per acre? Have any of you had your population long enough to see a decrease in the amount of mosquitoes? I note that you should live within one-quarter mile of a water source. We live within that distance of a small river. Will the bats leave the bat house and head for the river or do they mainly hunt close to home? Are the houses sufficient to build a population or do you need to get a brood box as well? |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Not to mention....will bat guano be a problem?
zemedelec |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Actually I love to watch bats, but I think we have enought derelict buildings
in New Orleans for them! zemedelec |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
You know the guano thing really had me puzzled when I saw the
suggestion to hang the bat box on the side of a house? I think I want to put it in an area that I won't have to shovel bat poop. DH is less than thrilled about my bat research and has been doing some checking on his own and came up with a post that stated hummingbirds did away with alot mosquitoes by feeding them to their young. Has anybody here come across statistics on the number of mosquitoes a bat would eat in comparison to hummingbirds, swifts, dragonflies, etc.? I can tell I'm going to have to do a hard sell for him to help me put up the houses. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Go to www.batcon.org
Here is what they say about how much a bat eats: "What do bats eat?" "There are nearly 1,000 different species of bats in the world, living on every continent except Antarctica. Each one has developed special adaptations for how it lives and what it eats. For example, 70% of all the bats in the world eat insects and many of them use echolocation in order to find food and move around in the dark. Many small insectivorous bats can eat up to 2,000 mosquito-sized insect in one night. These bats are able to eat so much because they have high metabolism and expend lots of energy in flight. Frugivorous bats living in tropical climates have very good eyesight and sense of smell for finding ripe fruit to eat. In the desert, there are nectar-feeding bats which have long noses and tongues for harvesting nectar from flowers, as well as special enzymes for digesting the high-protein pollen that accumulates on their faces. Carnivorous bats have sharp claws and teeth for catching small vertebrates such as fish, frogs, birds, or rodents. A few Latin American bats, the vampires, eat only blood." There is a whole lot more information to dispell the many ignorant myths surrounding these magnificent creatures. They are NOT flying vermin, as many people think. If it weren't for them, many of the fruits and other plants we eat would not exist any more. victoria On 17 Mar 2003 14:44:05 -0800, (mypet) wrote: You know the guano thing really had me puzzled when I saw the suggestion to hang the bat box on the side of a house? I think I want to put it in an area that I won't have to shovel bat poop. DH is less than thrilled about my bat research and has been doing some checking on his own and came up with a post that stated hummingbirds did away with alot mosquitoes by feeding them to their young. Has anybody here come across statistics on the number of mosquitoes a bat would eat in comparison to hummingbirds, swifts, dragonflies, etc.? I can tell I'm going to have to do a hard sell for him to help me put up the houses. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 05:48:56 -0700, Tsu Dho Nimh wrote:
Bats DO NOT eat many mosquitos,if any. Mossies are way too small for a bat to bother with. Bats eat mostly moths and other "bite-sized" insects. They will eat those big flying cockroaches, and they also hunt the treetops for cicadas and caterpillars. Not true for all bats. Mexican free tail or brown bats are the size of my thumb and certainly do eat their fair share of mosquitoes. Hummingbirds eat nectar and small spiders, an occasional flying insect. Hummingbirds will nab tiny flying insects like whiteflies, so mosquitos are probably eaten. Tsu Where do you get this information from? I'd like to take a look at it. Otherwise, I refer people to Bat Conservation at www.batcon.org who indeed do know what they are talking about, have done much research and are on top of bat culture, so to speak. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 05:48:56 -0700, Tsu Dho Nimh
wrote: snip Bats DO NOT eat many mosquitos,if any. Mossies are way too small for a bat to bother with. Bats eat mostly moths and other "bite-sized" insects. They will eat those big flying cockroaches, and they also hunt the treetops for cicadas and caterpillars. Hummingbirds will nab tiny flying insects like whiteflies, so mosquitos are probably eaten. Tsu Bats do eat mosquitoes. There is a delicacy called "Mosquito eye soup." The procedure involves putting bat guano in water and the mosquito eyes float to the top and are skimmed off to add to the soup. The eyes do not digest well in bats. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Where in the world is mosquito eye soup a delicacy? It doesn't really
sound that tasty, but then I wouldn't think anything really would that was dug out of ....well....you know. So, if bats don't eat that many skeeters. What IS the best mosquito anhililator? Let's see we've got purple martins, swifts, hummingirds, dragonflies, bats...how does each one rate? |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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Going bats! Bathouse questions....
There are several types of swallows. One type nests under bridges, under the eaves of the house, etc. in mud houses that they build. Another type digs nest holes in mud banks. The barn swallow nest in barns and other farm buildings. Up here we have the "Violet-green swallow" and the "tree swallow" (among several other types) that nest in hollow trees, fenceposts, barn eaves and will happily move into nest boxes. I watch them eat mosquitos every morning and evening. (My front yard is a 7 acre lake, so we have a healthy mossie population. We don't have many moths here.) I didn't realize that purple martins are in the swallow family. Just found them in the bird book, tucked right in among the swallows. The reason why so many birds migrate to the far north to rear their young is because of the tremendous protein base here -- mosquitos. Jan According to this website: http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/PGC...es/chimney.htm I don't see mosquito mentioned as food for swallows. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
In article snowshoe-0104031046200001@148-
pm3.hom.alaska.net, says... :) Up here we have the "Violet-green swallow" and the "tree swallow" (among :) several other types) that nest in hollow trees, fenceposts, barn eaves and :) will happily move into nest boxes. I watch them eat mosquitos every morning :) and evening. (My front yard is a 7 acre lake, so we have a healthy mossie :) population. We don't have many moths here.) :) The time frame of aeriel feeders and mosquitos usually don't cross, but here is some info on the tree swallow diet. http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/b...os/speciesacco unts/treswa.html#Diet -- Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!! |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
Bats can potentially eat a LOT of skeeters. The State of Connecticut
Department of Environmental Protection puts the figure at up to 1200/hour. Not too shabby :) Cya! Wacko! "Jan Flora" wrote in message ... In article , (mypet) wrote: So, if bats don't eat that many skeeters. What IS the best mosquito anhililator? Let's see we've got purple martins, swifts, hummingirds, dragonflies, bats...how does each one rate? Swallows are tops. If you have them in your area, build lots of swallow nest boxes. You can find the spec's online. Jan in Alaska zone 3 |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
In article , Lar
wrote: In article snowshoe-0104031046200001@148- pm3.hom.alaska.net, says... :) Up here we have the "Violet-green swallow" and the "tree swallow" (among :) several other types) that nest in hollow trees, fenceposts, barn eaves and :) will happily move into nest boxes. I watch them eat mosquitos every morning :) and evening. (My front yard is a 7 acre lake, so we have a healthy mossie :) population. We don't have many moths here.) :) The time frame of aeriel feeders and mosquitos usually don't cross, but here is some info on the tree swallow diet. http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/b...os/speciesacco unts/treswa.html#Diet Maybe down there in the small states they don't cross, but they sure as hell do in Alaska. We'll have our first hatch of mosquitos here in about 2 weeks, while there's still snow on the ground. Our first swallows are expected around May 1. We have many species of mosquitos that hatch as the summer progresses. The first killing frost in the fall kills the mossies, then we get black flies, white sox, and no-see-ums, which last until freezeup. http://alaskaoutdoorjournal.com/Ecology/swallow.html "Swallows are an enjoyable species of wildlife to have around the yard. In addition to their entertaining acrobatics they are wonderful bug eaters, especially for mosquitos here in Alaska." * * * http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/...mosquito.shtml This article has excellent instructions on building swallow nest boxes. * * * A google search for "swallows alaska" turned up many pages of information, almost all of them mentioning the main diet of swallows in Alaska -- mosquitos. Jan |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
It would seem from the content of the article the primary mosquito
eating swallow would be the violet green. Anybody know how to find out if I build swallow houses if the violet green swallow will hang out in AL? :-) |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
In article
, says... :) It would seem from the content of the article the primary mosquito :) eating swallow would be the violet green. Anybody know how to find :) out if I build swallow houses if the violet green swallow will hang :) out in AL? :-) :) Their range is generally West of the Rockies. Haven't seen anything myself on there feeding habits including mosquitos. http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/s...accounts/VGSWA LO.HTM#Distribution -- Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!! |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
I've been doing some further research and have come to find that there
are no reported bats that have occupied bat houses in AL. None. Bathouses hanging all over the place, but no takers. We have family in MS that wanted to know if there is anyone claiming success or failure there? Anybody know? Next, in finding out how to attract purple martins we realize we have not got the correct habitat to do that either! So, we have eliminated two of the best skeeter eaters. Just wanted to post the bathouse thing as it had not been previously posted here. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
How do you know out of all the people who may have bathouses not one is
occupied? Did you ask every person in the entire state? I've had our bathouse up for the second year now, and there are bats! WildBirds Unlimited told us to hang a sock with bat guano on the pole with the bathouse and it will get them there sooner. The Boy Scouts discovered this in their own research project. On 17 Apr 2003 10:11:13 -0700, (mypet) wrote: I've been doing some further research and have come to find that there are no reported bats that have occupied bat houses in AL. None. Bathouses hanging all over the place, but no takers. We have family in MS that wanted to know if there is anyone claiming success or failure there? Anybody know? Next, in finding out how to attract purple martins we realize we have not got the correct habitat to do that either! So, we have eliminated two of the best skeeter eaters. Just wanted to post the bathouse thing as it had not been previously posted here. |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
LOL, no. Just read a report by people who supposedly tried.
Evidently they didn't make it to your door...yet? Glad to know you had success! Hope they eat all your mosquitoes! |
Going bats! Bathouse questions....
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