# Bat Box



## Robpo (Mar 30, 2014)

We have tons of moths in our back yard garden this year and they are getting in the house. I need a way to eliminate them. I was thinking bats would eat them. I know it takes a while for bats to occupy a bat box. This year is the worst year I have seen. Does anybody know were to get a good bat box or plans to build one. Also is there any way to get rid of the moths before the bats come besides pesticides. If we install the bat boxes, how do we know the bats will come. Can any experts tell me so I can tell my wife.


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## Robpo (Mar 30, 2014)

I should have added I live very rurally so there are no street lights or neighbor's lights.
Thanks


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## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

There is some information here about "bat houses". It is somewhere in a thread called: "Gulf Island Building".

Or, if you had a computer, you could Google it.:yes:


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## 47_47 (Sep 11, 2007)

Toyed with the idea a few years back, try

http://www.batconservation.org/bat-..._cdlGP8T96-e3IcOX494IHauCjUIh3WGg74I1x_bw_wcB
or
http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bat-House.aspx
Amazon also lists pre-made

Site location is important. Bat house must be located near permanent water, close to trees for shelter from predators (owls), amount of sunlight and temperature of house.


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

While doing bat house research consider researching how to attract the Say's Phoebe. They seem to be common in the west unlike the Eastern Phoebe I have but have like feeding habits. They perch on lower limbs and when a larvae hatches from the lawn and flies the Phoebe doesn't miss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say's_Phoebe


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## kwikfishron (Mar 11, 2010)

Take a look at this thread. http://www.diychatroom.com/f2/diy-bat-house-challenge-111151/


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## Robpo (Mar 30, 2014)

Thanks for the info. 
My wife an I killed about 30 moths in the house last night. This morning they were all over my walls on my wraparound porch so I collected about 200 with an extension on an old vacuum cleaner. I didn't know how to get them out. My wife suggested Isopropyl alcohol. I put about a table spoon in the end of the hose and let it run for a minute and they are all dead.
Tile guy I have a computer I just don't have any internet.:no:







Still want to get a bat house. The one for 100 bats look reasonable. Don't know if I will ever get around to building one.


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## nanuk (Aug 14, 2011)

Robpo said:


> We have tons of moths in our back yard garden this year and they are getting in the house. I need a way to eliminate them. I was thinking bats would eat them. I know it takes a while for bats to occupy a bat box. This year is the worst year I have seen. Does anybody know were to get a good bat box or plans to build one. Also is there any way to get rid of the moths before the bats come besides pesticides. If we install the bat boxes, how do we know the bats will come. Can any experts tell me so I can tell my wife.


You have no way of knowing whether bats will inhabit your houses. They will scout one season and move in the next to have babies, and then return every year (applies to the hibernating bats we have in New England). I have been very fortunate with bat houses. Both are occupied to capacity! So much that the bats left the attic and moved into the supplied houses.

Form of the house is not critical. Size does matter. Big houses will attract females and eventually house their young. Also larger houses stay cooler (see below). Male bats live separately in smaller colonies, often in nearby trees. Make sure the house is placed very high. Mine are facing South and South-East. I am sure the South-facing house gets brutally hot but the bats don't seem to bother to the point of leaving the house. Bat houses, more than human houses, need to have vented roof eaves so that heat escapes. An attic gets hotter, I guess.

Note that bats hunt over open spaces below the tree line. A nearby pond would be ideal. Of course bats are not pets that we take home, so they must be already present in the area. If you don't see bats flying at night, don't even try.

Some tips. Bats (my bats at least) don't care about human presence (car noise, tractor noise, garage doors up and down (one of the houses is placed on the garage wall right over the doors). Bats do care about wasps! Wasps can scare away the bats and take over the house. Another important issue is the guano that drops from the house. It is not much but should be handled with care. Make sure you don't place the houses over areas where you enjoy your afternoon drinks.

Watching them hunt pays for all the little trouble!


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## Robpo (Mar 30, 2014)

nanuk said:


> You have no way of knowing whether bats will inhabit your houses. They will scout one season and move in the next to have babies, and then return every year (applies to the hibernating bats we have in New England). I have been very fortunate with bat houses. Both are occupied to capacity! So much that the bats left the attic and moved into the supplied houses.
> 
> Form of the house is not critical. Size does matter. Big houses will attract females and eventually house their young. Also larger houses stay cooler (see below). Male bats live separately in smaller colonies, often in nearby trees. Make sure the house is placed very high. Mine are facing South and South-East. I am sure the South-facing house gets brutally hot but the bats don't seem to bother to the point of leaving the house. Bat houses, more than human houses, need to have vented roof eaves so that heat escapes. An attic gets hotter, I guess.
> 
> ...


Thanks nanuk, we have seen bats but not this year. Our neighbor(3 miles away) has three bat houses. We do have wasps, the kind that build dirt hives on our house. Do you know how far they will go to eat moths? My main concern is the moths and they are right around the house and in the garden and not many any place else. How far from the house should I put the bat box. Do you think the wasps won't be an issue. 
Do you think I should put one on one of these posts? They are about 14-15' from ground. We don't have tall trees.


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## nanuk (Aug 14, 2011)

Robpo said:


> Thanks nanuk, we have seen bats but not this year. Our neighbor(3 miles away) has three bat houses. We do have wasps, the kind that build dirt hives on our house. Do you know how far they will go to eat moths? My main concern is the moths and they are right around the house and in the garden and not many any place else. How far from the house should I put the bat box. Do you think the wasps won't be an issue.
> Do you think I should put one on one of these posts? They are about 14-15' from ground. We don't have tall trees.


I have only seen paper wasps (the kind that builds the umbrella shaped nest with the open cells). Other wasps don't go close to the bat house.

I have the bat houses directly over the brick house walls but placed very high, almost 30 feet from the ground. Seeing you house style (a ranch?) and the arid surroundings, I would suggest talking to the neighbor and see how they did it, as you don't really have high points to place the houses.

More importantly, I realized that we do not refer to the same species of bats...
Again, talk to locals that have bat houses. Also do some reading online about Nevada bat habitat.

As for your house attracting moths, do you leave lights on for the night? Maybe changing the light spectrum of the bulb is less attractive for the moth.
Insects like UV and blue. They don't really see in the red spectrum but I wouldn't suggest putting "red lights" on for the night, for it may attract people with a different agenda :whistling2:


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## Robpo (Mar 30, 2014)

nanuk said:


> I have only seen paper wasps (the kind that builds the umbrella shaped nest with the open cells). Other wasps don't go close to the bat house.
> 
> I have the bat houses directly over the brick house walls but placed very high, almost 30 feet from the ground. Seeing you house style (a ranch?) and the arid surroundings, I would suggest talking to the neighbor and see how they did it, as you don't really have high points to place the houses.
> 
> ...


 Ha Ha Yea that's legal in NV.
The moths are mostly in the garden. We turn the lights on out side to attract them from coming in under the doors when we have the lights on in the house. Thanks for the help.


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## nanuk (Aug 14, 2011)

Robpo said:


> Ha Ha Yea that's legal in NV.
> The moths are mostly in the garden. We turn the lights on out side to attract them from coming in under the doors when we have the lights on in the house. Thanks for the help.


Have you considered those electric bug zappers? Your moth problem is likely seasonal so you only need to run one for some time every season.


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