Have you succeeded in getting bats to move into a bat box?
June 2, 2022 8:23 AM Subscribe
My wife and I love bats for being ridiculously cute, and appreciate them that much more for their central role in maintaining the habitats they inhabit and the ecosystems within. They pollinate, they keep insect populations in check, and they poop seeds that become plants and trees; Without them rainforests, prairies, and every cactus in every desert would die. So when we learned two years ago that bat populations in in our area were in crisis, we decided to try and help by building homes for them. It hasn't worked
We've paid the curator of the National Zoo's Small Mammal House $500 to come out and look at our setup, and the city of Alexandria, Virginia $1000 for a permit to put a house on a disused telephone pole.
We've had three custom boxes built, each one a different shape and size and color
We've put boxes low on on the sides of our house in the shade of overhanging gables, and high in the crotch of a massive bifurcated oak tree
All told, and to no avail, we've covered just about every variable purported to influence habitability and the likelihood of attracting a founding bat colony
Can anyone here relate to any of this? I'd love to hear from people who've managed, through trial and error, to successfully house bats. Thanks
We've paid the curator of the National Zoo's Small Mammal House $500 to come out and look at our setup, and the city of Alexandria, Virginia $1000 for a permit to put a house on a disused telephone pole.
We've had three custom boxes built, each one a different shape and size and color
We've put boxes low on on the sides of our house in the shade of overhanging gables, and high in the crotch of a massive bifurcated oak tree
All told, and to no avail, we've covered just about every variable purported to influence habitability and the likelihood of attracting a founding bat colony
Can anyone here relate to any of this? I'd love to hear from people who've managed, through trial and error, to successfully house bats. Thanks
We've experienced the same disappointing results, but our neighbor claims that she populated her bat box by seeding it with guano taken from a box located on an adjacent property that is home to a thriving colony. We haven't tried this tactic yet. I have no idea whether "her" bats are expats from the donor box or newcomers to the neighborhood.
posted by carmicha at 11:26 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by carmicha at 11:26 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Watching this thread. We've hat a bat box out for about 5 years in Northern Wisconsin on a remote, wooded property that is adjacent to a river. There are bats about but none have moved in. Maybe because there are just so many better alternatives nearby?
posted by zerobyproxy at 9:03 AM on June 3, 2022
posted by zerobyproxy at 9:03 AM on June 3, 2022
Response by poster: Zerobyproxy--
I'm with you man. But given how few responses I've gotten, I think we've out-obscured even Metafilter, which is pretty much for Mecca for esoterica. But man, 5 years? I'm only only 2 years in. Finger crossed...
posted by BadgerDoctor at 10:59 AM on June 3, 2022
I'm with you man. But given how few responses I've gotten, I think we've out-obscured even Metafilter, which is pretty much for Mecca for esoterica. But man, 5 years? I'm only only 2 years in. Finger crossed...
posted by BadgerDoctor at 10:59 AM on June 3, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
it may just take a few years if the current local population is not expanding and looking for new homes.
posted by ewok_academy at 9:06 AM on June 2, 2022 [8 favorites]