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.

Anonymous wrote: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?
I know someone who has bat houses. He loves them. The bats take care of the mosquito population. Just so some research. From what I have read, they need to be pretty high up and it can take a year for the bats to actually find the houses. I have been thinking of putting some up too. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all the replies, but:
1. Most bat houses remain empty unless you are evicting bats from a nearby roost/building.
2. Bats eat very few mosquitos. Too small for it to be efficient for them.
3. Very few bats have rabies, and unless you are picking up rabid bats bare-handed, there is almost no chance of contracting rabies.

So basically, there aren't really downsides, but the benefits you seek aren't very likely. But you could at least try.

-bat biologist

Rabies in humans is rare in the United States. There are usually only one or two human cases per year. But the most common source of human rabies in the United States is from bats. For example, among the 19 naturally acquired cases of rabies in humans in the United States from 1997-2006, 17 were associated with bats. Among these, 14 patients had known encounters with bats. Four people awoke because a bat landed on them and one person awoke because a bat bit him. In these cases, the bat was inside the home.
One person was reportedly bitten by a bat from outdoors while he was exiting from his residence. Six people had a history of handling a bat while removing it from their home. One person was bitten by a bat while releasing it outdoors after finding it on the floor inside a building. One person picked up and tried to care for a sick bat found on the ground outdoors. Three men ages 20, 29 and 64 had no reported encounters with bats but died of bat-associated rabies viruses.