There are a lot of free building plans on the internet.

Does anyone have personal experience with a bat house that they built? Did the bats use it? Any pointers?

I don't know that all of these internet plans are adapted to our 110 degree summer days. One of the websites, that had a decent plan, listed a bunch of bat species, but did not list the Mexican Freetailed Bat. I don't know how they could miss that one, but it makes me wonder.

Bat Conservation International has some great info on this. So does TPWD.

I have one. Dont know if any bats use it. The tough part is finding the right place for it. Cant get too much sun, cant get too much shade, needs to be within a mile of water blah blah blah....

Interesting. Our house might be perfect for one as we are very near a pond and a wooded creek.

You should talk to the guy with the hole in the ground thread. . . I hear bats really like caves.

I had one for about three years before the wind blew it down. Every once in a while I would shine a flash light up into it to see if anyone was home. The only thing I ever saw living it it was roaches.

Something like this?

haha...maybe somebody can build an off-campus shelter for the homeless if the eradication is ever finished.

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Something like this?

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For SWC!

This thread turned out like I thought it would. Not a lot of interest and/or not a lot of success.

I have to admit, if it was really interesting, I would have build a bathouse by now.

I still plan to build some when I come across the right free scraps of plywood.

Allen-

I roughly used the plans from Bat Conservation which Max provided. Both of the houses I've made were double-chambered houses. The 2nd one being a bit larger. My in-laws have a small place in Fredericksburg with a wildlife exemption and are doing the bird thing, so I built them these. I got them them up too late last year, but still managed to have a lone Mexican Free-tail stay at least one night back at Thanksgiving. I guess we'll see this spring how they do.




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Max had good advice to talk to bci and tpwd. The construction plans at bci will get you what you need to build them. What you need bci and tpwd for is to help you figure out where and how to place them. Bats are pretty particular about certain things when picking a spot to hang out...if you just slap it up on a tree or the side of your house, you are unlikely to get any using it.

Old fence pickets!

Thanks for the replies and the pictures guys.

The cedar pickets on the first house were new and in good condition so they were used as the front wall. Cedar is supposed to be ideal for bat houses.

The old pickets on the 2nd house were just attached to the front plywood wall with liquid nails. I painted the bat house with the same paint they painted their old barns with to match, so I wanted a rustic look on the front wall for that house.

Just saw some freestanding bat houses on TV... U Florida had bat problems in their stadium (imagine that). Maybe you can Google some plans, but they looked like small wooden pole barns with spaced slats under the roof to make a "ceiling".

I built 5 or 6 different types about ten years ago from plans for one of my sons. The ones he wanted had a screen inside that was easy for them to cling too.

Now I have a use for the old cedar pickets i have lying around

I presume they help control mosquitoes?

Mosquitoes, moths, beetles and a lot of other flying insects that are pests in the garden.