I am hating the mosquitoes here and wondered if a bat house would help. Anyone have any?

A bat house?? Now what can that be? :icon2:

Maggie, this is a bat house.

http://www.batroost.com/ProductImages/bathouses/singlesm.jpg (http://www.batroost.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=9)

http://www.batconservation.org/content/bathouse/bathouse.htm

Sara, we don't have bat houses, the bats just live in our attic. They do eat mosquitoes and a huge amount each night. In fact, thousands a night.

I have a funny story. The first summer we were here, a bat got into the house. Remember that Sara. It flew on to our curtains in our living room and I crawled on hands and knees to our m/bedroom and shut all the doors. I was petrified. Dh got it out okay. Even now, in the summertime, I'm not out after dark, because they fly all around and you can hear them, but can't see them.

My Gram has one at her camp. (General term for a cabin in the woods by the lake) They come out at night and eat tons of mosquitos. One was flying in her cabin one night and I totally freaked out. The only thing is the smell of the guano. Phew stinky :icon2: . the only problem there is out in the woods the mosquitos are so thick that they need to encourage more bats with more bat houses to take care of the horrid bugs. As far as bat houses goes: If you build it they will come...but if you build another, more will come. More bats = less mosquitos. :icon_wink

I kinda have my doubts. For starters, I can't say I've seen a bat here. (then again no bat houses either) rofl

I picture ok I put up the house, but will they actually use it? I wonder what makes it so inviting.

Would be weird to have an empty house just sitting hanging in a tree.

Not sure which is worse. Ugly bats or yard full of mosquitoes. How many can be in one house? Is it a studio bat house or a family house? lol

WE have lots of fruit bats here. they live in the rain forest and eat our mangoes during summer. WE still have a lot of mozzies. I totally love bats, they are extremely intelligent and can make loving pets BUT a wild life carer died here a couple of years ago after being bitten by a bat. Apparently our bats now have some sort of deadly disease.

Grams are up against her house in the eves at the highest point of the house. we rarely actually see one in there, 1) too far up and 2) dark at night and 3) the bottom part is hard to see up. But we do see them swarming around out there in the evenings having their batty salad bar. We had no way of counting by on PBS it said once that depending on the species, there can be upwards of 30-50 in one little house. That eliminates lotsa bugs! :D

You won't regret getting one Sara. They eat tons and tons of mosquitoes. You don't think you have bats, but I'd be surprised if you didn't. Even in Winnipeg, they set out bat houses at schools to keep the mosquitoes down.

We often look out the upstairs windows when its dark and you can see them flying around. They scare me though because I always think they are going to get in my hair. Everyone tells me though they won't. Can't convince me of that!!!

BUT a wild life carer died here a couple of years ago after being bitten by a bat. Apparently our bats now have some sort of deadly disease.
My neigbor found a bat in her tree during the day. She never should have handled it but she did. The fact that it was out during the day should have been a red flag. Turns out the bat had rabies. They had to track her down and she had to go in for a series of rabies shots.
For mosquito eating, I prefer to have barn swallows. I'm sure they don't eat as many but they are not near as creepy. lol

When we lived in Brisbane there were bats in a tree outside our flat. We used to hear them at night and I was always terrified I might meet one face to face when I came home from work late at night. Thankfully I never did. That's as close as I ever want to be to a bat! :icon2:

Heck no LOL they freak me out.