How To Set Up Bat House

Build a Bat Firm

Photos and story past Carla Brown

I love bats because mosquitoes LOVE to bite me. Pesticides can be harmful to mosquitoes' predators likewise as mosquitoes. According to Bat Conservation International, 1 little brown bat can consume lx medium-sized moths or over 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in one nighttime!

Bats are besides interesting because:

• In many ecosystems, they play a primal role in pollinating plants.
• There are more 1,300 species of bats in the world!
• Some bats use echolocation, or high pitched chirps which bounce off objects in front of them, to find their manner in the nighttime.

Before I share my bat business firm building experience, let me say that I am no carpenter. This was my first time using a round saw. Hopefully this tin assistance even the to the lowest degree handy person build a bat house.

Why Build a Bat House?

You might be surprised: bats don't always alive in caves. Some bats spend winter months in caves, but virtually bats spend summers in copse, under bridges or in old buildings, where they give nativity and rear immature.

Your goal is to make a bat house that mimics the space between bark and a tree trunk. That would exist the bats' ideal plant nursery. That's why the infinite inside a bat house is very narrow, unlike a bird house which would firm a nest. Bats similar tight spaces. They too need it nice and warm for the babies. That'due south why nosotros paint the box a dark colour in most climates and why we caulk the sides to go on the heat in. Also, you'll exist using a saw to rough upwards inside the box. That makes it more similar tree bark and easier for the bats to climb upward.

Y'all might wonder why you need to build a bat house. Why can't the bats just find a nice tree? That is the challenge for many bat species as forests are cleared. Ideally they would live in a natural home just we build bat houses to aid those who can't detect infinite in a forest.

A bat house is also is a great style to provide cover for wildlife, also as a place for wild animals to heighten young--two components of condign a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wild animals Habitat site.

How to Build a Bat House

Kickoff I printed a bat house structure plan from Bat Conservation International'due south website. (They as well accept a Bat House Architect'southward Handbook available for free in a digital version on their bat firm pages.) The big surprise was that this bat house ended up being bigger than I expected: two feet wide and almost three anxiety alpine! According to their website, a successful bat house can be smaller (14 inches broad instead of 24 inches wide), but this ane was designed to hands employ up a 2 foot by 4 foot slice of plywood with fewer cuts.

That was not how I had pictured a bat house. Have you ever seen bat houses for sale that are smaller or shaped like a bird house? I have. That just means those houses were made by people less acquainted with bat needs.

I read over the programme and I found that I needed a location with:

• lots of sunday;
• at least 15 feet off the ground (to protect against predators); and
• ideally a water source nearby (then the female parent bat doesn't have to exit her young for too long).

Interestingly, bats are less attracted to bat houses mounted on trees. There's a few reasons for this:

• It's too easy for predators to get bats as they leave
• The branches causing obstructions to exiting bats which drop down then upwardly into flight
• Information technology'southward besides shady from branches above.

Bat houses mounted on buildings retain heat improve and are less accessible to predators. Yous can put them on a pole though. Luckily my townhouse is iii stories high and has a sunny side. It'southward too virtually a stream. So I felt I probably had a good site.

Supplies Needed to Build a Bat Firm

The supplies on the Bat Conservation International plan are:

• 1/4 sail ( two' x 4' ) 1/two" Air conditioning, BC, or T1-11 (outdoor class) plywood. DO Non employ pressure treated woods.
• I piece ane" x 2" (3/iv" ten i one/two" finished) x eight' pine
• twenty-xxx 1 one/4" coated deck or exterior-class Phillips screws
• 1 pint dark, water-based stain, outside-grade
• Ane pint h2o-based primer, exterior-grade
• One quart apartment water-based paint or stain, exterior-form
• One tube paintable latex caulk
• 1" x 3" 10 28" board for roof (optional, but highly recommended)
• Blackness cobblestone shingles or galvanized metal (optional)
• 6-x 7/8" roofing nails (optional)

Tools Needed to Build a Bat House

• Tabular array saw or handsaw
• Caulking gun
• Variable speed reversing drill
• Paintbrushes
• Phillips bit for drill
• Tape measure or yardstick
• Pair of scissors (optional)
• Staple gun (optional)

For those of you who do non normally buy wood, here are some tips:

• Endeavor to purchase Forest Stewardship Council certified woods and/or recycle fleck forest.
• When y'all purchase a slice of wood that is advertised equally 1 inch past two inches, it is not actually that big when yous measure it. It'south more than like 3/iv inch by 1 1/2 inches. That was important for me to know because it immune me to use flake wood for role of the project.

The supply list in the bat business firm plan was very helpful, but I would add:

• Two clamps for clamping wood while y'all saw or drill
• Safety glasses for when you use power tools
• A pocket-size broom for sweeping sawdust

Likewise, the bat house plan calls for paint. I didn't know what colour and initially I thought white to match my business firm trim. Only then I checked their website and they have a map where y'all look up what color to paint your bat house. For my area, I need nighttime brown or gray.

Building the Firm

Step 1: Forest Cut (30 minutes)

Measure out and mark where you lot demand to cut the wood according to the plan. Clamp it downwardly to a sturdy spot for safety. You cannot safely concord the wood and the circular saw. Adjust the blade to the correct depth depending on the width of your wood. It takes only five cuts. Don't forget your safety spectacles.

At this point, I took the wood and laid it together to get a sense of how this was going to look. You'll come across that the bottom piece is the biggest. The 1X2 inch pieces grade the sides of the bat house and then in that location are two smaller pieces of plywood on top. The gap between those two is a ventilation slot.

Stride two: Putting grooves on the back piece (2 hours)

This was the almost hard part of making the bat house, but it's the most important. The goal is accept the plywood, which is very smooth, and roughen it upwards to provide places for the bat to crawl up into the business firm. The instructions said that you can do this by cutting grooves into the forest. If you are going to employ plastic mesh to aid the bats climb inside your bat house, now is the fourth dimension when y'all would staple it on. Make certain it hangs all the manner down to the "landing pad" expanse so bats have something to grab on to.

The instructions say that the grooves need to be about a one-half inch apart, and then I measured and marked where I idea the grooves should go.

When it came time to cut the grooves, what I establish challenging was that I didn't know what blazon of tool to use.

Since at first I was shy about using the circular saw, I tried to utilise a paw saw. Subsequently 30 minutes and only 3 grooves, I realized I would have to rely on technology.

I set the circular saw to merely 1/16 of an inch, reclamped the plywood and started cutting grooves into the backboard. They were not always perfectly straight lines, just that's not of import because copse exercise not take perfectly straight grooves either.

Once I had cut grooves over the whole backboard with the circular saw, I took my hand saw and deepened some of the grooves. I did this because I was not sure if the circular saw went deeply enough and also to roughen it up fifty-fifty further.

Pace iii: Staining inside the bat firm (1 hour)

Bats like it dark inside their houses so it'south important to stain all within parts a dark color. First you have to sweep all the sawdust carefully from the backboard, specially from the grooves that you cutting.

I chose a walnut stain because information technology was the darkest 1 at the store. It's important to use stain rather than paint because pigment would fill in the grooves yous just cutting. Stain simply soaks into the wood nicely.

It only takes two coats of the stain, and the stain dries fast if y'all are making your bat firm outside in the lord's day.

Step 4: Caulking and screwing on the sides (thirty minutes)

If you are going to use plastic mesh to assist the bats climb inside your bat house, at present is the time when you would staple information technology on. Make sure information technology hangs all the way down to the "landing pad" area so bats take something to grab on to.

Before adding the side pieces, apply caulk. This seals the bat house to help keep the heat inside. Baby bats need a warm dwelling - reaching 80 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in July.

Adjacent you use your power drill to adhere on the side pieces. Since these pieces are rather narrow, they tin easily carve up. A style to avert splitting is to pre-drill the holes with a drill flake that is smaller than the size of your spiral. So, when you lot drill in the screws, they go in much easier and your forest stays whole.

Step five: Caulking and screwing on the top pieces (30 minutes)

Side by side, attach the top two pieces of plywood. Get-go caulk to ensure a snug fit. And so follow the same communication for drilling and adhere the larger of the two summit pieces.

Before y'all adhere the smaller of the two pieces, measure to make sure your ventilation slot is most half an inch.

Step 6: Caulking the sides and adding the roof (xv minutes)

To ensure there are no gaps between all these pieces of wood where rut could escape, leaving our poor bats shivering in the cold, put some caulk all around the sides in any gaps that you lot see.

Finally, add a slice of wood to the summit to form a roof.

Step 7: Priming and painting the bat business firm (variable given paint drying time)

Finally, we need to ensure the bathouse lasts a long time and then we prime and paint it. Nosotros prime information technology with an exterior primer that discourages the growth of any plants or mold. Here I am applying the primer. Next I painted four layers of dark paint - in my case it was dark brown.

Writer'due south Note: I have to be honest with yous: I built this bat firm when I had little babies, and as any young female parent knows, hanging a bat house doesn't actually attain the top of the "to-do" listing. So I gave the bat house to a friend at the National Wild fauna Federation in the hopes it might get put up here. Unfortunately we don't know what happened to it. Nosotros looked all over, merely information technology'due south now been six years and there's no sign of information technology. So, here is how you SHOULD mountain your new bat house!

Step eight: Mount the Bat House (20 minutes)

Bat houses should be mounted on poles or buildings, which provide the best protection from predators. Wood or stone buildings with good solar exposure are fantabulous choices, and locations nether the eaves often take been successful. All bat houses should be mounted at least 12 anxiety above ground; 15 to 20 feet is amend.

I hope you enjoy building your bat firm, whether it'southward in celebration of bats at Halloween or any time of the year. Remember, once you put upward the bat business firm, information technology may accept a few years for a bat to detect it. They will come looking in the leap time, so ideally it should exist hung by late winter.

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Installing a bat house is a great manner to give bats cover and a place to raise their young. Now take your outdoor infinite a pace further! Add food and h2o sources to create a habitat garden that volition attract bats and other local wildlife. Already accept it covered? Celebrate your infinite by certifying today!

Source: https://www.nwf.org/garden-for-wildlife/cover/build-a-bat-house

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