General Bat Information

There are four major considerations to take into account when choosing a location for your bat home:

  Exposure to sun

  Distance to water

  Height off the ground

  Absence of obstacles in flight path

Mounting your bat home -    Where you mount your bat home plays a major role in its internal temperature. In warm climates, homes on poles can better take advantage of solar heating and cooling breezes. If you live in the south, try mounting two houses back to back, so that one faces north and the other faces south. Bats find houses mounted on poles or buildings more than twice as fast as on trees, which are less preferred. Houses mounted on metal siding are rarely used. Wood or stone buildings with proper solar exposure are ideal, and sunny locations under the eaves often have been successful. All bat houses should be mounted at least 12 feet above ground. Fifteen to twenty feet is best. Poles or pipe allow houses to be located 15 feet or more above ground, which is a significant factor in occupancy success. Although poles are best suited to receiving optimum solar radiation, the sides of wooden and masonry buildings are suitable as well, particularly in cooler climates. This allows maximum solar warming from hot air rising up the sides of the building. For maximum success, avoid mounting bat houses in trees. Bat Houses should not be lit by bright lights.
     In southern areas, where free-tailed bats are common bat house occupants, it is an excellent idea to place houses on poles as high as possible to attract these high, fast fliers.
     If mounting houses on poles or pipe, be sure to place the support poles out in the open or at forest edge where a position with correct sun exposure can be chosen.
     Current BCI research on bat house documents how slight modifications, often as simple as moving a house only a few feet higher or into slightly more or less sun, can substantially improve the odds of successful occupation by bats.

Choose the appropriate color of your bat house for proper heating  -     No matter what part of the country you live in, exposure to sun and proper color are critically important to success. Temperature is a critical factor in determining bat house use. While northern bats often need considerable heating in their roosts, southern bats, especially in lowland desert areas, may need much less. By taking advantage of solar heating, you can significantly alter the temperature in your bat house. The amount of sun exposure needed vary with local climates.
    Middle and northern latitude should be medium to dark colors. This increases the temperature in the house. They should receive at least six hours of daily summer sun, preferably 8-12 hours. Southern houses may be dark, medium, or light colors. In exceptionally hot areas use a very light color. In the southeastern US, free-tailed bats will use dark houses, while evening bats and Big Brown bats prefer light - and medium - colored houses. In all but the hottest desert areas, the houses should receive at least six hours of sun, particularly morning sun.

Again, much depends upon the amount of sun exposure. Adjust to darker colors for less sun.

Additional criteria for successful bat houses:

    Habitat - Bat houses located near a permanent open source of fresh water, especially a marsh, stream, lake or river are by far the most likely to attract bats. Most nursery colonies of bats chose roosts within 1/4 mile of water. Greatest bat house success has been achieved in areas of diverse habitat, especially where there is a mixture of differing agricultural use and natural vegetation. Bat houses are most likely to succeed in regions where bats are already attempting to live in buildings.

    Protection from predators - Houses mounted on sides of buildings or high up on poles provides the best protection from predators. This may be a key factor in determining the bats choice. Locations at least 35-40 feet from the nearest tree are best. There should be no obstacles (limbs, branches, etc.) in the flight path. However, houses may be found more quickly if located along forest or water edges where bats tend to fly.

    Avoiding Uninvited Guest - Wasps can be a problem before bats fully occupy a house. Use of 3/4" roosting space reduces wasp use. If nest accumulate, they should be removed in late winter or early spring before either wasp or bats return. Open-bottom houses greatly reduce problems with birds, mice, squirrels, or parasites and guano does not accumulate inside.

    Timing - Bat houses can be installed at any time of the year, but are more likely to be used their first summer if installed before the bats return in spring. When using bat houses in conjunction with excluding a colony from a building, install the bat house 2-6 weeks before the actual eviction.

    Importance of Local Experimentation - We have much to learn about the needs of individual bat species in differing climates. It is important to test for local needs before putting up more than three to six houses, especially comparing houses of different darkness and sun exposure.

    Observing and counting bats- Observe roosting bats by shining a bright light into the open bottom. (Use caution to not touch the mounting pole or houses and do not shine bright lights more than 10 seconds). If you have a small colony of bats, you may be able to count them by looking up through the bottom with the aid of a flashlight. Some of the larger models are designed with an attic to gain additional heat in the home. The best way to see bats in the larger homes and also larger numbers of bats is to observe them as they emerge in the late evening. To determine if you have a nursery, briefly look inside after the adults emerge. Young (pups) are always left behind over a roughly 4-6 week period - normally in June in moderate climates, May in the warmest, and July in the coolest climate - until they learn to fly. The mother bats will return and nurse the "pups" several times during the nighttime.

     As a research Associate volunteer in the BCI/North American Bat House Research Project, Maberry Centre Bat Homes is participating in the experimentation of designs and alternative materials for bat houses to gain information that will help this project. We urge you to join and volunteer in this research project. Contact Bat Conservation International, P. O. Box 162603, Austin, Texas, 78717 or phone (512) 327-9721. Find BCI on the World Wide Web at www.batcon.org.

Excerpted and summarized from "The Bat House Builders Handbook," 2000 Revision, Copyright 1993 by Bat Conservation International, Inc.

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