Bat Houses

[druryj]

We have a horrible problem with mosquitoes every summer, maybe because we have about a billion plants outdoors and we water frequently. I have read and been told that installing a bat house or two would help attract bats which feed on skeeters. Anybody tried them out?


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[Perplexed]

I have. It's a hit or miss proposition whether the bats will roost in the houses, though. Seems the best ones are on poles at least 12'-14' tall, away from trees. The design of the house and its orientation relative to the sun will play a big factor, too.

 

[mtnboomer]

Check with the Wildlife Department. They used to have plans for bat houses.

Bats can eat their own weight in mosquitos every night. I would suggest mounting a bright night light (one of the outdoor LED lights would be perfect and cheap to operate) near where your plants are to attract the bugs that attract the bats, then mount the bat houses about 8 to 10 feet off the ground to keep other critters (cats and kids) from bothering them.

 

[Dale00]

It is iffy as to whether or not a bat house will be populated by bats.

 

[MacFromOK]

Some bug whackers have a pan for mosquito attractant to lure them into the shock grid (they're only slightly drawn to UV light).

Just a thought.

 

[druryj]

It is iffy as to whether or not a bat house will be populated by bats.

Yeah, I figure you have to have away to get the bats to move in, or some bird or a squirrel is gonna take over the thing. I have no idea how to lure a family of bats to a new house. Need to google that or something maybe.


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[skyhawk1]

You might be surprised how many mosquitos a dragon fly eats

 

[Frederick]

You can cut your water with bleach or oil. Should help kill larvae. Probably toxic to plants but in Florida it worked on standing water like ponds.

Mosquito bits was pretty effective. There are several larvacides on the market...

Bats are unreliable and won't eat near enough mosquitoes to make much of a difference, from what I've heard.

 

[Perplexed]

Bats can and do eat mosquitoes, but the species commonly found around here aren't really food specialists. The bats are opportunistic and eat whatever is in the air within their feeding ranges - mosquitoes, moths, June bugs, crane flies, and so on. If there are more mosquitoes in the area, the bats will eat more but won't single them out.

Someone mentioned bug traps; there are mosquito traps that release carbon dioxide or octenol and have a heat source. Their effectiveness depends on the brand and placement.

But really, the best way to control mosquitoes is to reduce their breeding base by eliminating standing water. If you water a lot of plants, try watering only enough that there's no water left in puddles around the plants, and no water left standing in pot saucers, etc.

 

[dennishoddy]

We have bats that come back every year. Don't know where they spend their days, but at night we see them swooping around the mercury vapor light in the yard and drinking from our swimming pool.
We built a bat house one time using the directions from the Wild life department. Couldn't keep the wasps out of it and had no bats take up residence that we knew of.