Bats need friends
Ever hear of someone with "bats behind the shutters"? It's the classic example of desperate bats moving into something man-made that replicates an old, sunny tree roost with protective crevices. Our long-lasting bat houses provide safe haven for bats to propagate in their own dedicated space to continue to benefit communities with insect control.
Bats once commonly thrived living in large, dead, old-growth trees with numerous crevices and peeling bark. Land clearing and forest management have drastically reduced these kinds of roosts desired by bats. A few bat species have adapted and "followed the wood" into buildings, bridges, and culverts.
Bats don't chew into buildings, but they exploit existing crevices often around the eves. Buildings heat up fast and provide protection from predators, so for awhile they go often unnoticed.
Bats don't just "hang out" in buildings for fun; in the spring those are likely pregnant mothers-to-be. They specifically want narrow crevices in wood or rock that warm up fast every morning. ~100°F is great for pup development. Also the roost should be high off the ground, near freshwater and good foraging ground.
These big brown bats used to live in the wood siding of a riverside farmhouse in Pennsylvania until the building had to be torn down. Here they are grooming their young during the day inside 3/4'' wide roughened wood crevices of a BCM bat house.
Just one Mexican free tail bat can eat enough moths in a single night to prevent the laying of more than 20 thousand corn ear worm eggs. This is enough natural pest control to allow some farmers to skip spraying pesticides entirely, saving them an average of $74 per acre.
During the spring, these bats go thousands of feet into the air and intercept egg laden moths migrating from Mexico. One super colony in Texas can consume over 100 tons of insects in a single night.
The Mexican (or Brazilian) free-tail bats are common in all the southern and southwestern states, and readily move into BCM bat houses. These are extremely social bats and can form large, showy colonies even in residential backyards.
This homeowner established a colony of free tails in east-central Florida, but her wood-exterior bat houses fell apart after only 2 years. She upgraded to a larger BCM Super Duplex and now has hundreds protected in her backyard for decades to come.
A Super Duplex is a larger investment, best for places where a colony is already known. We offer less expensive ColonyCabins and a DIY DayLodge kit which are great to test in new areas.
This big brown bat is widespread across North America and a frequent bat house resident in suburban areas. Big-brown bats are big beetle eaters and their diet includes the destructive cucumber beetle. Just 150 big brown bats can eat enough cucumber beetles each summer to protect farmers from 33 million of these beetles’ larvae.
The larvae of the cucumber beetle is known as a root worm. Root worms attack corn and cost farmers close to a billion dollars annually in crop loss and control measures.
This big brown mom is exiting a ColonyLodge bat house in south-central Pennsylvania. BCM's founder John Chenger realized wood-exterior bat houses often fall apart before bats occupy them. The ColonyLodge was our first bat house made with a complete resin exterior, easily quadrupling (at a bare minimum) the life of the roost.
Researched since 1990 & made in the US today by BCM's bat biologists
Almost all bat houses need direct morning sun for mothers and pups. Review our manuals and consider your mounting options.
This assembled bat house can mount to walls or posts and is minimal investment when experimenting with attracting bats.
