Because you know what I’m like..I’m already planning another project before I’ve finished the ten I’m currently working on. Today may be rainy and cold, but the glorious Saturday that had us all out and lovin’ life, also had mosquitoes. ALREADY. I thought the harsher than usual winter would give us more time….but NOOOOOOOOO.
We needs bats. Last year, the bloodsuckers got so bad I had to take some (technically illegal) action on the adjacent parkland. There is a spillway that fills up in spring and becomes a stagnant mother of all breeding grounds. It’s about 100 yards back in the woods from the mailbox, and last spring, while getting the mail, I was seriously swarmed. I trotted out to the Depot immediately and bought a supersize pack of those floaters that kill the mosquito larvae and hiked back through there and hurled all of them in the “pond”. That seemed to help, and I replenished again before summer dried out the area. We can do better.
If we build it, will they come? I’ve found some good info here and here, and I think we can make a good looking bat house or 2 in a weekend…no? I wonder if it’s better to have many smaller houses or one Batmansion like this?
photo via batroost.com
This pitifully plain looking thing can hold 300 bats and comes in a kit for $95. Ouch!
If we really want to freak out the neighbors…and our own children for that matter….we can make one of these…..
photo via Greayer.com, via Gritty Kitty
A naval officer built this shrine to bats in Iraq. Impressive.
Now this is what I call a wee bit extreme….
photo via ecotality
In the end…I envision a dark stained simple bat house…like so…
photo via bsdhome
If successful, we can build more. Apparently there are about 15 species of bat living in this state, so which ones actually come will be interesting to see. Their poo/guano can be used as fertilizer, but we’ll see about that. They may be nasty looking things, but anything that can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes an hour will be my new best friend.