I have a bat house I am putting up in the backyard. We live right on the bend of a river and though the beautiful view is worth about anything, being able to enjoy it between all the bug bites is always the challenge. Sure, when I first brought up the idea of the bat house my family met me with the typical frightened response of a mother and sister. After calming their nerves from the fear of millions of bats getting caught in their hair they finally came around to the more beneficial side of things.

Now I had some concerns at first because we are taking the time this summer to turn our yard into a butterfly farm and I wasn’t exactly sure if I was setting up for a failed butterfly farm and some very fat bats. After a bit of research I learned I was pretty much on the  safe side and no longer had to worry about turning our yard into a butterfly genocide. I found an advertisement in the local weekend hand out for exactly what I was looking for. Though by all means; if you’re any good at wood-working these wood be super simple to build with a little instruction. It’s better to go with the larger size bat house (at least three chambered) as it could give you a better success rate of bats actually occupying the space. Some tips when picking one out; get it painted, this helps protect it from the elements, you don’t need to have it looking all fancy and polished, in fact just the opposite! Let the wood be rough as this helps the bats to cling on the bat-house while coming in for a landing. There are lots of different tips on the internet telling you the perfect places to hang your house and many sites will tell you not to hang them directly against a building; though personally I have seen this work successfully. You do however want to keep it low enough to allow you to keep the maintenance up on it. I do suggest to look up as much information as possible and pick out the pieces that sound like they would work best for you.

The benefits of these little houses are priceless; bats are of course Mother Natures natural insect repellent. And as far as old bat spook tales go the truths behind them are far and few between. Yes blood sucking bats exist in SOUTH AFRICA! And either way they eat off pigs and other animals and rarely humans. As for the old fear of bats getting caught in everyone’s hair, well they don’t very often. I have lived in areas thick with multitudes of bats and I have wild crazy big hair when I let it grow and never did a single bat get stuck in my maniacal hair. Bats echolocation is better than most people give them credit for. These little creatures can even tell what the textures of things are with this super-power like ability. They are a natural and safe alternative from dangerous pesticides and most do not carry disease. Maybe at one point and time and in some area but it is not so common now as it once was.

I can’t wait to get mine up and running and will definitely give some updates on the progress and success of my own. Please leave some comments on your own bat house! What better way to learn than to share!