Has anyone here ever put up a bat house? Were you successful in attracting a colony of bats?

I'd like to try it. I live near a large park that has somewhere between 500 and 1000 bats during the warm months (mostly little browns, some big browns, and possibly even some reds). I've heard that a lot of them roost in the eaves of buildings near the park.

Funny you mention this today. I was at a graveside funeral service yesterday and someone told a story about being sent up to granddad's attic to find a photo album, turning on the light up there, and finding a few dozen suddenly-agitated big bats hanging from the beams.

built a bat house as a gift for my wife at our last house, but we never got any occupants. we'll be trying again, no that we've moved, and have a known population in our neighborhood (including one little guy who simply flies around and around our house like he's in orbit).

This works? Like, you can build a little awning-thing with a roof and beams and little else and bats will just show up? Tell me more! The day comes that i ever buy a house in the country i'ma totally do this. Um, cuz, for eating bugs, right?

There's a bat house in a park in Gainesville, FL that houses thousands and thousands of bats. When my ex moved down there we checked it out. At the same time every night, the bats would just stream out of it like something out of Batman Begins. So cool.

the ideal geometry and placement is on the internet.

i have seen it work elsewhere, just not at our house.

jayryan wrote:the ideal geometry and placement is on the internet.

You big city fly boys are too much for me.
How do you get your bats to roost on the internet?

heheh. surprisingly, bats prefer macs, and you have to set the screen geometry to like 600 x 800 for the lil guys. they HATE DSL modems, so please use cable.

[insert joke about bugs in your operating system, since bats eat bugs]

I must live in a bat house since once a month, I find a bat flying around in the basement. I have no idea how they're getting in as I went around and sealed everything that might have looked like it was somewhere they could get in. Obviously, I'm missing something.

My grandmother up in Missoula used to make bat houses all the time. I thought this was the coolest thing when I was a kid, and I would go out to them every morning when we were staying with her and peer in from below to see if I could see anything.

She got me a subscription to Bat Fancy Magazine, which was maybe the coolest thing in the world. I know I didn't make it up, since I still have a copy. Mostly, it was about making bah houses.

Make sure you leave a little slot at the back on the bottom, so that little kids in your neighborhood can come check and see if there are bats living there.