What is a Bat House?
Bats need a warm, dry, tight space that mimics a tree trunk to live and to raise their babies. We built our bat house to do this for the bats.
We used plywood and shingles to build the bat house. We filled in the cracks and seams with caulk to keep out the cold air. We also chose a place that gets a lot of light. If you look at our bat house, it is black because we live in Maryland. The color of the bat house depends on the climate where you live. Somewhere like Texas, where it is hot, would have a lighter color house. It is cold in Maryland so we need it to be black, which absorbs heat. We put it on the side of the building that gets the most sunlight, so the house will stay warm.
When placing the bat house, there were things that we looked for and things we avoided. We looked for brick, stone or siding to put the bat house on. But, we avoided metal siding, because it would heat up too much in the sun. We didn’t want there to be any loud noises because that would scare the bats away. The bat house couldn’t be near a tree either, because there might be predators in the tree. The bat house has to be at least ten feet off the ground, because bats can’t take off from the ground, they need a higher place to take off.
The best time to put a bat house up is in the spring, which is when we put our bat house up. We hope to get bats soon, but it could take a couple of years for the bats to move in.
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Do you want to learn how to build your own bat house?