Anyone have a bat box near to their pool?

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marcgr

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Bronze Supporter
Oct 4, 2015
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Austin, TX
Hi all,

I want to put up a bat box to help keep summertime night flying insects under control. We have seen native bats around our street lights, if we can set up a home for them near the pool, we're told they'll set up a colony of as many as 300 bats in a small bat box and they'll eat a lot of flying bugs. People are pretty tolerant of bats here in "bat city".

Just wondering if anyone else has a bat box near to their pool, and if so, do you have any problems with guano? Do the bats become a nuisance (drinking from the pool for example)?

The ideal spot for a bat box would be on a pole about 10' from the pool.

Thanks,

Marc
 
I have a bubble cover over my pool when not in use. At dusk and dawn they would drink and swarm into us and it's scary. I understand they eat insects and are good for ecosystems but Freak me out while swimming. The cover seems to keep them away. I also had aluminum pie plates hangin from poles for a while.
 
We have bats that skim our pool most every night in the summer time and we love them! They have never once even gotten close to a collision with us and I am thrilled with the number of mosquitos they are consuming. We don't have a bat box, but these are in some neighbors attic. We have never seen guano in the pool from the either.
 
We have bats that live in the eaves of our house. They are cool to watch and as far as I can tell, poop when they are resting, (ha! On my deck...), not on the fly so to speak, the way many birds do.

The only time bats have flown close to me was when I was in an enclosed room with them and the mosquitoes were buzzing my head attracted to the CO2 from my lungs outgassing!
 
Thanks all, good points. I guess it makes sense that they poop while resting... we have a bridge downtown that is home to 1.5 million bats in the summertime and while it's pretty nasty under the bridge, people gather at the sides of the bridge (underneath where the bats come out) to watch them, and I can't recall anyone getting pooped on. I think I'll go for the bat box, hopefully 10' will be far enough away that a collection of guano underneath it won't be too troublesome. I could always clean up under the box with the hose too if it becomes too nasty.
 
Jamie: They say it's not hard, if there's bats in the area and you put up a good bat box, they will come, but it might take a year or two. Best to have the box up when they migrate up from Mexico looking for places to breed. There's lots of good info on the 'net from bat conservation organizations but not much about bats AND pools which is why I asked about the pool part here.

Marla: That's a great idea. I might just leave a composter under the bat box so that the guano drops right into it.

We also looked at purple martin houses, but they sounded like a lot of work to keep the purple martins happy and healthy.
 

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Good question. Nobody around here is concerned about flying rabid bats, but everyone knows not to touch a bat that's on the ground. Rabid dogs are dangerous because they get angry and confused... in a bat I would guess they would lose the ability to fly long before they turned into something out of a horror movie.

Thousands of people gather under the Congress St Bridge in Austin to watch the emergence of 1.5 million bats every night in summer - apparently there have been zero incidences of people being bitten by rabid bats in that setting. Rabies Info

If I found a few on the ground I'd probably call the county extension office to see what to do.

Marc
 
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