bat box?

[camueller]

My wife proposed the idea of building a bat box for the back yard, to invite bats to live and eat bugs. Supposedly they'll take care of all the bugs in the yard. I told her I had memories of being in our swimming pool at our home on a farm at night and bats swooping down into the pool scaring the daylights out of me as a youngster.

What do you guys think? Am I risking getting dive bombed in my pool if I invite bats to roost nearby? We do have them in our neighborhood now, but I don't see them in our pool yet.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I recently brought up this same idea to Skippy :batman: and he said "No Way, No How!"... what kinda batman is he?!?!?

He felt that we have them around the neighborhood already and we live in a very foresty place. We even paid a fortune a few years ago to have them removed from our soffit after they took up residence on the side of the house. He says he doesn't want to encourage them any more than nature has around us. He doesn't want the bat poop to be all over and worries about disease. My brother had to go thru rabbies shots once (manym many shots) after a sick dying bat fell on him and bit his leg. Four little fang marks and everything.

I understand their bug killing abilities, but Skippy is adamant. And he's the one outside mowing and doing all those outdoorsy things that he'd come in more contact with it all than I.....

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Bats are very peculiar creatures but very beneficial when it comes to bug control. Just make sure the bat box is designed in a way that attracts them and not other unwanted vermin. Bats have very specific tastes when it comes to the confined spaces that they make their homes in. Lots of bats here in the southwestern desert.

Downside - someone will eventually have to clean the bat guano that gets left behind.

Upside - bat guano makes for great fertilizer.

 

[camueller]

I recently brought up this same idea to Skippy :batman: and he said "No Way, No How!"... what kinda batman is he?!?!?

He felt that we have them around the neighborhood already and we live in a very foresty place. We even paid a fortune a few years ago to have them removed from our soffit after they took up residence on the side of the house. He says he doesn't want to encourage them any more than nature has around us. He doesn't want the bat poop to be all over and worries about disease. My brother had to go thru rabbies shots once (manym many shots) after a sick dying bat fell on him and bit his leg. Four little fang marks and everything.

I understand their bug killing abilities, but Skippy is adamant. And he's the one outside mowing and doing all those outdoorsy things that he'd come in more contact with it all than I.....

I'm kind of in the same boat as your husband. And so far I'm winning this argument, but honestly I like the idea of it in some ways.

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Bats are very peculiar creatures but very beneficial when it comes to bug control. Just make sure the bat box is designed in a way that attracts them and not other unwanted vermin. Bats have very specific tastes when it comes to the confined spaces that they make their homes in. Lots of bats here in the southwestern desert.

Downside - someone will eventually have to clean the bat guano that gets left behind.

Upside - bat guano makes for great fertilizer.

Good point about cleaning. I don't need any more household chores, so I think that's going to be the final blow of excuses I use with with the wife. We'll burn citronella candles instead.