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Once in the bat house, mothers will raise young and at the same time, your property can benefit from the natural insect control the bat colony will provide. Its shallow construction is designed specifically to attract bats, which like cramped, dark spaces for nesting. Kids can do lots of the work involved in making this bat house, including measuring, driving screws, and painting. Once you’ve finished it, hang your bat house high in a sunny corner of your backyard, and the bats will soon find a stylish new home.
Attaching the pieces of your bat house
In the warm South, a light color may be a better choice. Be sure all surfaces of the wood are painted and well sealed. Using a caulk gun, lay a bead of caulk along the face of the long 1×2. Line it up with the top edge of the larger piece of plywood, and clamp it in place with spring clamps. Using a drill/driver, drive 1-inch deck screws through the 1×2 and into the plywood every 6 inches to hold it in place.
How to build a bat house
Finally, attach the roof to your house with glue and screws. Be sure the angled ends of the sides and the beveled edge of the partition line up perfectly. We used self-drilling deck screws, and they worked like a charm. Next, stack the partitions and spacers (F) and dry clamp the two sides to the stack with their back edges up. This ensures the two sides are spaced perfectly before you attach them to the back.
The Pretty Bat House
Extend the netting all the way over the bottom edge, and wrap it around to the back. Using a brush and roller, paint the back piece black, from the top edge to the ends of the 1x2s. In the case for trying out more than one bat house, you may find that they prefer a certain color, or a sunnier location, or even a different style of box. Just as there are several ways to attract bats to your yard, there is more than one way to build a bat house.
Attracting bats to a bat house
For starters, most North American bat species eat insects—lots of insects. Some will consume up to their body weight in bugs every night! Think of them as living bug zappers without the annoying noise.
Each winter, remove unwanted pests after bats have departed. Also, reapply fresh caulk, paint or stain every few years to protect the wood against the elements. Be sure to monitor the bat house to detect potential problems such as predators, overheating, wood rot, etc. Any repairs or cleaning should be done when bats are not present.
Once you’re satisfied with the layout, spread a line of glue on each touching edge of the boards, and press them together. Tighten the clamps until glue squeezes out of the seams. Then add two more clamps between and parallel to the first pair of clamps, but on top of the panel instead of below.
Boy Scout Troop Builds Bat Houses To Save Endangered Species - News On 6
Boy Scout Troop Builds Bat Houses To Save Endangered Species.
Posted: Wed, 20 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
A pattern bit is my first choice for this technique. It allows you to align, clamp, and run the router without having to flip everything over. These bits have the bearing at the bottom rather than the top. That requires you to set your straight edge, then turn everything over so the bearing can run on the straight edge.
Unfortunately, bats face many threats, including White-nose Syndrome, a devastating fungal disease that has been spreading across North America. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is closely monitoring bat populations to respond to this threat. Assembly instruction videos for bat house kits can be found on the Habitat for Bats YouTube Channel. I used two layers of starter strip I had left over from roofing our house. Now we’re ready to hang the bat house on the barn.
The construction also makes the product more affordable, so we could not avoid adding this one to the list. Bat houses range in size from single-chamber to bat condos. I modified the plans I found on the BCI website slightly, substituting plywood for cedar and eliminating the ventilation slots as they are not needed in the far north where I live. The bat house we present here is designed for the northern tier of the US. Warmer climes may need to add slots for ventilation.
But pole mounts work well in climates that are moderate to hot, without extreme variance between day and night temperatures. You might wonder why you need to build a bat house. That is the challenge for many bat species as forests are cleared. Ideally they would live in a natural home but we build bat houses to help those who can't find space in a forest.
Setting aesthetics aside, the box is durable and tough enough to survive harsh, rainy environments. Plus, the mounting hardware is shipped with the house. Or you can use MassWildlife's instruction sheet to build your own four-chamber bat house. Bats are mammals, which like humans require a regular supply of fresh water. Placing a bat house in close proximity to a lake, pond or stream is key to attracting them to your bat house as they will need fresh water to drink daily.
I crafted my rails from the scraps left over from building the panels. I had several 12-inch-long boards, so I cut eight ⅞-inch strips out of those to make the four rails. Bats prefer roosts mounted on buildings or other large wooden or concrete structures to those mounted on poles or on trees (not recommended).
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