Bat House in backyard - pros/cons

[Anonymous]

We have bats in the neighborhood. DH wants to install a bat house in the backyard. Pros: fun for our young kids, natural mosquito squad. Cons: bat droppings, rabies, potential bat infestation (i.e. too many bats take up residence).

Any other negatives to consider? For example, if a rabid bat, living in our bat house, bit a neighborhood kid who then died of rabies, could we be held accountable in any way?

[Anonymous]

Are you living in a neighborhood or out in the country.

I am very relaxed about a lot of things but someone putting in a bat house next door would really piss me off (for all the cons you mentioned). It is right up there with getting a pet skunk with functioning stink glands.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP, your neighbors will hate it.

[Anonymous]

We have bats in the neighborhood. Our hillbilly neighbor put up a bat house thinking it would work. Turns out the bats like him just as much as the neighbors do

I wouldn't bother, OP. Bats are not interested in a bat house. Do some solid research and you will find out they rarely work. In the suburbs I believe the odds are zero.

[Anonymous]

Bats do not all have rabies. You are more likely to have a rabid racoon in your neighborhood. My dh and kids just built a bat house this morning. We live in Arlington. All of our neighbors are excited to have the bats. Placement of the house should be that the droppings fall in an area away from your vegatable garden. I would vote for having one.

[Anonymous]

I love the idea behind your idea, and I like bats.

Something to think about, though. If someone gets bitten by a bat the doctors will require the bitten one to get rabies shots. This is because there's no way to test all the bats, so better safe than sorry. This actually happened to my sister, who was helping a neighbor trap a bat in her bathroom, was bitten, and had to get the shots.

[Anonymous]

OP, PP here. YOu will not get bitten by a bat. There are SO many irrational alarmists here, its crazy. A bat house will not attract bats like you think it will, however. I know bats.

[Anonymous]

Pros: great idea on paper.
Cons: you have to be batsh*t crazy to think that bathhouses actually work, especially if there are many of them (bat houses) in the area. Dumb,dumb,dumb. Show your intelligence by NOT having one, OP.

[Anonymous]

13:49: I'm not a nut job, I'm just a bit batty.

I have Googled the topic and I am aware of the difficulties.
http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/bathouses/attractingbats.pdf

14:46: Hi Batman. What is your background? What types of bats are we likely spotting overhead around dusk most evenings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bats do not all have rabies. You are more likely to have a rabid racoon in your neighborhood. My dh and kids just built a bat house this morning. We live in Arlington. All of our neighbors are excited to have the bats. Placement of the house should be that the droppings fall in an area away from your vegatable garden. I would vote for having one.

Bat guano is actually an excellent oranic nitrogen rich fertilizer that costs @ $8-9 a lbs at the garden center. Free fertilizer? Go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bats do not all have rabies. You are more likely to have a rabid racoon in your neighborhood. My dh and kids just built a bat house this morning. We live in Arlington. All of our neighbors are excited to have the bats. Placement of the house should be that the droppings fall in an area away from your vegatable garden. I would vote for having one.

Bat guano is actually an excellent oranic nitrogen rich fertilizer that costs @ $8-9 a lbs at the garden center. Free fertilizer? Go for it.

OP, you give fresh meaning to the totally over-used DCUM canard, "batsh!t crazy".

I couldn't resist. Actually I like this idea.

[Anonymous]

Bat houses are awesome. I hate mosquitos and would much rather have bats. People here are not very educated about bats. Ignore them!

[Anonymous]

I've thought about getting a bat house, too. And I live in Arlington. The cons are what hold me off.

My neighbor, who had a raccoon family living in one of the branches of her large oak, had that limb cut out as soon as possible. She didn't want raccoons in her yard. I regretted telling her. Some people just go crazy about nature in their back yard.

[Anonymous]

Bat houses don't work. Sorry to say so, OP.

[Anonymous]

What a bunch of nervous alarmists on this Board. Rabies? Nearly 40% (of an already pretty low number of rabies cases) are from raccoons: http://rabies.emedtv.com/rabies/statistics-on-rabies.html
If you're going to get worked up, be informed before you do.

Bat houses DO work if they are set up to succeed (they need proper placement to get the amount of sun they need at certain times of day). Check out sites like the bat conservancy or speak to you local park authority (as we had done). We had a bat house to set up but didn't have the proper exposure for it (I think they need morning sun, I recall.)

As for the neighbors, it's your yard. You're not going to please everyone. And, as long as the bats are not harming them or their property, end of story.