I have been hearing from a wildlife interested friend that bat boxes can help bats not subcumb to or perhaps not catch the white nose fungus disease. ( and they eat mosquitos!) This seems worth doing, and so I am looking for sources for bat boxes.
Just a little batty in Brooklyn
HeatherY
welcoming bats
Bat boxes are easy to build, as long as you don't use treated lumber. I had one hanging in a tree for years and it was immensely popular with the bats in our area; not so with the ignorant neighbors. The ground under the bathouse will receive a generous helping of guano. Let it decompose and use it mixed in with compost. Your plants will love you for it.
Googling "bat box" will generate a host of results for plans, for sale and how-to links that might prove helpful. My bat box was 2 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 5 feet high, with 6 or 7 vertical boards hanging vertically from the inside. The bats enter and leave through the bottom, snuggling and sleeping between the vertical boards. It was made of wood from a barn that collapsed from old age and snow accumulation on my friend's farm, so no worries about chemical treatments. When the time came to sell our house, the ignorant Realtor recommended we take that thing down and clean up the mess at the bottom. Luckily, it was winter and there were no bats living in there. A friend from the horticultural society came to get the box and as far as I know, it is still hanging in a tree in one of Montreal's suburbs.
Take care.
Sylvain.