BATS, Why They Are Important, And How To Get Bats To Make A Home In Your Yard.
Bats
Bat House
Bat Box Building Plans
All About Bats
Bats love night flying insects like mosquitoes. So if you have a real mosquito problem in your neighborhood maybe you need to get bat friendly and invite a few of the critters to live in your yard. Did you know that a single bat eats hundreds if not thousands of mosquitoes in a single night and a small colony of bats will eat thousands of mosquitoes in a night. So yes you do want bats in your yard and garden.
Bats locate their prey by echolocation. The bat sends out sound waves simular to sonar and then interprets them to find their next mosquito meal. If you can watch them in flight under a street light you can watch them do some amazing flying while they are hunting down their insect prey.
A colony of 200.000 bats will consume about 2 tons of insects a night. They are also involved in pollinating plants and helping to disperse seeds. Birds eat the insects that are awake in the day time and the bats go to work at night. And the average adult bat eats 4000 mosquitoes in a single night so be good to them if they live in your back yard or neighborhood.
Bats never attack people and only get near people when they need water. If you are in your pool at night they may come in for a drink but they will leave as soon as they have their fill of water. They aren't there to get in your hair and no they aren't going to turn into anything.
You can build a bat box to draw a small colony of bats to your yard. And if you click the below link you can download plans to build a bat house for free.
Click Here For Plans To Build A Bat House
Morphology Of A Bat
Where Bats Occur In North America
Huge Bat Colony Coming Out At Sundown To Hunt For Mosquitoes
Bats Are Some Amazing Creatures.
Bat Houses
You will find plans above for a Bat House. Your Bat House needs to be located near a body of water or pool and about 20 foot up a tree.
Many people view bats as sinister demon creatures but this is far from the truth. A bat wants nothing to do with humans. A bat is not going to fly in your window and turn into a vampire. But there are vampire bats whick are one of many in the many species of bats. One very important thing to keep in mind is that bats hunt at night when you are usually in the house. And if you have a mosquito problem in your yard or neighborhood you couldn't have a better friend than a bat or a colony of bats. One adult bat can eat 5000 pesky mosquitoes in a single night.
Remember the old saying " Blind as a Bat " well its not true bats can see quite well plus they have their own built in sonor which enables them to find their insect prey even on dark moonless nights. I've watched them do some amazing flying at times and it was only after I started studying about them that I discovered they were chasing down insects as they fly. So yes bats are some really amazing creatures
And you have to remember that bats are mammals the same as you, me and that dolphin down at the Sea Aquarium. They give birth to live young and their young suckle their mothers.
Bites don't bite unless they are cornered and often not even then and they don't carry rabies any more than other wild animals. Bats are the only flying mammals and they are the second largest group of mammals in the world. No they are not birds. They are mammals the same as you and me. They do have that weird habit of sleeping hanging upside down.
And finally only vampire bats drink blood and they live only in Central and South America.
Do You Have Any Bat Comments You Would Like To Make. Why Not Post Them Below Now.
Little Brown Bats Nesting
Do You Have Any Bat Comments You Would Like To Make. Why Not Post Them Below Now.
Douglas Bosworth on June 21, 2019:
I need Bats in my neighborhood to control insects. Help
Michelle C. on September 03, 2016:
I have had several families of big brown bats coming to roost in my shutters for several years now. Well over a hundred, and multiple families so I guess I am blessed. I've just now started to collect the bat guano and will try to use it for fertilizing my plants in the spring. It is a real joy to watch them fly out for the night and return early the next morning. I will be sad to see them leave, however, for the winter.
Karl Taylor on March 14, 2012:
We expect an abundance of mosquitoes this summer and wanted to set up some bat houses. There are woods and a creek about a half mile away from our location with a TON of mosquitoes. Will they come to our bat houses or just nest near the food source? (we will follow instructions to make the bat houses as inviting and accessible as possible)
Margaret on May 25, 2009:
I am attempting to complete a conversation project with a Cub Scout Pack making bat houses to provide for a park. Does anyone have any ideas? Plans? The boys range in age from 7-11.
Thanks, Margaret
Thomas Byers (author) from East Coast , United States on January 25, 2009:
William F. Torpey great comment there. Thanks for sharing your great story there.
William F Torpey from South Valley Stream, N.Y. on January 25, 2009:
I have a friend who is a big fan of bats. When he moved to South Carolina from Connecticut he was in bat heaven. He had one or more bat boxes behind his house and sang their praises frequently. Personally, I'm a little squeamish when it comes to bats and spiders. I played golf often at dusk in Connecticut and there were lots of bats on the 18th hole as my group walked up the fairway as darkness fell. When the bats whizzed around, I ducked. Bats look especially scary when they cling, often in great numbers, to the tops of those dark, damp caves. But then I don't like mosquitoes either.
Thomas Byers (author) from East Coast , United States on January 23, 2009:
Yes I have had several for friends over the years. One large brown bat lived in a out building for about 15 years.
Julie-Ann Amos from Gloucestershire, UK on January 23, 2009:
I ADORE bats and was lucky enough to have one in my office for years! Every now and then it would disappear for a day or two then return so presumably it had enough food and flew about the building at night (the building was part of an aircraft hangar complex...)
