Central Midwest Gardening: Anyone counting the bats?, 1 by shortleaf

shortleaf wrote:
I did a search online on making a bat house, their are many free plans. I may have to scale mine down a bit because the only 1/2" plywood I got is only 24" wide, not their 26" they say.
I might do This Old House's free plan, although, I'm a little intimidated at the drawings of cut-outs they have. I do like their plans though, I looked at one for sale, it was a cool one with a diagram of a bat on the front, but it was $359! This is This Old House's link. - http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20166044,00.html
Here is the $359 one. - http://bathouse.com/products/the-complete-bat-bunker It is nice and bigger but I don't have $359 for a bat bunker! Yeah, they must really be little for those high occupancies. Oh, I'd be the Man Of The Year if I built a bat house here! My friend here, the homeowner is real anti-mosquito, and bats consume 600 insects an hour they say, (I hope they don't eat Butterflies though). She has turned over countless of my empty containers and pots for fear of breeding mosquitoes. She dropped the hammer on my water garden too because she said it bred mosquitoes!
Sorry to hear about your house, beckashoe, that musta stunk then.
That's funny Jnette, they fly around your head at night! Just think if they were vampires!
I thought I read that the inside of a bat house shouldn't be painted, (but rather darkly stained), which is one procedure, (painting the interior) I don't really agree with in This Old House's plans.
It says 15' up on a South or West facing position I believe. Apparently bats want some sun sometimes to keep the house warm for the babies and stuff, but they like it dark most times sounds like. Here is my plywood I can use for a bat house, it is 24" wide. -
Will


This message was edited Apr 9, 2013 7:21 PM