Bats

[Bigboyskioti]

Hey all,
I have around 10 bats living in the shed. I don't have a problem with them being there. Haven't seen a mesquito(SP) all year. I do have a problem with whats left over! They leave the droppings all over my workbench. Any ideas as to how to keep them around but without the droppings on the bench?

 

[Soundguy]

Put up a bathouse in an area near your shed.. ( build or buy.. ) and then make your shed less hospitable.. like.. leave a bright light on for a while.. etc..

soundguy

 

[schmism]

Put up a bathouse in an area near your shed.. ( build or buy.. ) and then make your shed less hospitable.. like.. leave a bright light on for a while.. etc..

soundguy

+1

any thoughts on how to attrack them in the first place? Ive done my best to invite the barn swallows and it has been sucsessfull.... In the evening now i can count 20+ flying around and have noticed a drop off in bugs....

 

[Bigboyskioti]

I thought about the bathouse. I was trying to find out how to keep them from in the shed. That's a great idea using the light.... Thanks.

 

[Soundguy]

Anything to make them less comfortable there should make them more comfortable somewhere else.

moth balls in a pair of panty hose hung up in the rafter may help in addition with the lamp..

Soundguy

 

[HappyCPE]

Collect those droppings - bat guano makes excellent fertilizer for the garden.

 

[Highbeam]

I had a bat in the house so have read about them a good bit and the pros seem to all favor exclusion as the means of control. You just wait for them to leave and then prevent their return using all of the various methods of rodent proffing the structure such as mesh and sealing off holes and gaps. The trick is to make sure that they are all gone before sealing it up. In some homes they even suggest a one way outlet to allow the release but prevent the return.

I took care of the one in my home with a shop vac at 2 am. Large looking critters but compress well. I really enjoy them outside and with our new place and its open fields I am able to watch them eat bugs.

 

[Soundguy]

Shop vac.. i love that one.. I bet it was a rude awakening for the bat!!

Soundguy

 

[ByronBob]

I had one flying around in the bedroom one night. Flicked the light on and the poor fella smacked into the wall. They don't like lights.

I'd leave the light on too.

 

[Highbeam]

I bet it was a rude awakening for the bat!!

Soundguy

So there I was in my sleeping attire with a bat cornered and hissing after one unsuccessful attempt at smashing him with my maglite. I thought, now what?, so I grabbed a close by shop vac and plugged it in to a kitchen outlet the whole time keeping a close eye on said critter. I got the nozzle close to the bat and then flipped the vac on and firmly sucked the bugger to the end of the nozzle. Oh boy was he upset about that but he couldn't get me because he was sucked.

Uh oh, now what?

The shop vac cord is only 6 feet long, the motor is in full stall. If I shut the motor off the bat bites me in the neck. So there I am at 2 in the morning in the darkness with a screaming shop vac holding a ticked off bat temporarily. Wife thinks I am sleep vacuuming.... again.

Before I had to formulate a plan B the bat seemed to wiggle a little bit and then fold up and head down the tube. I shut down the vac and brought it outside. The next day I released the still alive bat that crawled away and then disappeared after about an hour. Could have killed him but bats are pretty beneficial so long as they stay outside and I figured that I had put him through a pretty tough time already.

Is that poaching? I had a flashlight and a vacuum.

 

[Bill Barrett]

Good info, I like bats around the place.
bat, bat houses, bat information

 

[3RRL]

Is that poaching? I had a flashlight and a vacuum.
lol...Was the vacuum loaded?
I looked up "Bat Season" but could not find one so I think you are OK.

You guys know I have an outdoor bathroom at camp. One day while sweeping it out, I broomed this little guy. He did not fly away and seemed stunned.



I picked him up and he stopped acting all tough like that. I put him outside the bathroom and he flew away after a few minutes.

 

[Soundguy]

Is that poaching? I had a flashlight and a vacuum.

Probably only if you were on your own private property.. and the LEO's/public officials in your county have a head 'wedgie'... (wink)

Soundguy

 

[TedLaRue]

I had a problem with bats roosting in the cavities of the trusses of my house before it was closed in. I stapled cardboard (from cereal boxes) over the cavities and that helped a lot.

I caught several of them. I took one of them in to my daughter's 2nd grade class. Cloth gloves (like the kind that have the rubber dots on them) are sufficient to keep them from biting you. Their teeth are very small and they don't have a powerful bite (after all, they're only after insects!). I released them far from my house.

On a positive note, their droppings are quite dry, so you can usually sweep them away without a major mess where they were.

 

[dieselalles]

We had a number of bats flying around our farm when I was a kid. They nested in the deep woods in the river bottom, under bridges and in buildings in the area.

And on Summer nights under our mercury vapor light there was always tons of bugs flying around. And there was a ton of toad frogs sitting around waiting for an encounter with a juicy bug. As well, the air was filled with about a half dozen bats flying around going after the bugs as well.

It was a hoot watching the frogs catch the bugs with their long sticky tongues, and equally fun was to throw pebbles or acorns in the air and watch the bats chase them almost to the ground.

 

[curly]

Soon after we built our log cabin we started noticing the bats had found a roost up in a little cavity under the eaves. I had built 2 or 3 bat houses and never put them up so I quickly put one up right in the area they were roosting. They completely left!

They have since returned, but never seem to move into the bat box?