Build a small Bat House

[Lambsbreath]

Have someone already build one small houses for our friends the bats ?
What dimensions and orientation is the best would be best.

I planning to build one, to collect the mess as i grow organic and they will help to eradicate mosquitos in raining season which are plenty (i live in french guiana- south amerika).

Any ideas are welcomed ...

 

[Jack Crevalle]

That sounds like too many risks just to collect poo..
It would be easier to start a worm farm and collect hummus, which is awesome and not toxic.

Bat poo, depending on the bat, could give you some gnarly diseases...
there's also many other poos that work great, why raise bats? Mosquito nets are the only I am aware of that really works on mosquitos. Repellent in the tropical jungles is like marinade, and bats don't eat nearly close to all the mosquitos which will be buzzing around at 7:00 p.m.

Been there, done that, let me know if your idea works tho...just seems kinda iffy..

 

[Habibi]

resident bats will eat moths, thats what you should be after, the mosquitos too i guess but moths to keep the catterpillars away.

i dont know about collecting bat shit could be dangerous

 

[Lambsbreath]

I used to collect bat mess from a small old broken house, and it was a very good fertilizer, but unfortunetly they have pulled the zinc roof of this house and all the bats had to go find a new place.
I was always wearing a paper mask when i collected, i also heard that it could be dangerous for the lungs but this kind of problem occurs to people living in house where they have bats under the roof, and they breath the bat dust during long time.

 

[Lambsbreath]

The aim is mostly to collect bat mess, if they can help with the mosquito a little bit too that's a plus although i know that it's impossible to get rid of millions of mosquitos, but they can slightly reduce the population locally at the buzzing time 7.OO pm.

I grow guerilla and the only way sometime to work (especially transplantation work ) is to make a little fire and add green leaves tree to make a deep smoke. Mosquitos are hating smoke !
A fat joint can help too

 

[jaykush]

your going to need a lot of bats

 

[Lambsbreath]

They are plenty where i am, and as soon as they find a good refuge they come steady, i had to tap all the small holes in my house in oder to prevent them from coming inside.

I thinkthey were more than300 hundred in the old house of only 10m2.
I don't need to much mess as i use it mostly as water tea.

I have a good stock left too, so that i can wait a year before needing to collect some in the new bat house.

 

[Stone]

bat guano is a very cheap organic fert. I agree that the potential risks outweigh the benefits. I suppose if you were very careful about your extraction process, wearing masks and gloves, etc... it could work. But to me that just seems more trouble than it's worth. It would have to be a pretty big "cave", as I wouldn't want to be sticking my hand in some tiny little hole that would cause a bunch of bats to bite me or come flying out in my face!
P.S. i like the worm idea better.

 

[Pimpslapped]

Just the result of some random poking around: click me. Looks like collection would be fairly simple, if I interpret correctly the mess will simply fall out the bottom and be fairly simple to gather from the ground.

 

[Lambsbreath]

Thanx pimpslapped ! exactly what i need, th site have plans for the bat house , they also say one bat can eat more than 1000 mosquitos a day ,multiply by 300 bats , it should reduce mosquitos in my area ;especially if the bat house is not too far from my house.

 

[Guest]

french guiana has internet?

 

[Lambsbreath]

french guiana has internet?

Yes we have adsl and cells phone, and the latest technology working with sattelites .

We have a spatial base in Kourou ( french guiana) where they send the european Ariane rockets and russian soyouz rockets in the space and set the sattelite in orbite, so that you can phone and look your tv !

 

[Pimpslapped]

Might be an interesting idea to place some sort of container such as a rubbermaid, or other sealable box with a bit of drainage below the bat house. When you want to collect your bat crap, you go there, put the lid on it and cart it off, replacing as needed.

Seems like this could minimize risks involved with collecting and some of those from handling the mess. Also it would minimize the time spent 'disturbing' the bats, don't know if that's much of a factor or not, since they don't seem to have a problem moving into peoples homes.