Build and install a bat house for next spring

This is on – if it weren’t for a car accident that husband was in, we would have been a go for installation. (I didn’t want him to do that much heavy work on a ladder until he was done with PT – and by then, it was late in the season.)

This spring!

I painted today – it’s drying now.

And we’ve assessed where we’re going to mount it…and we’ve run into some issues. We are going to mount it on the porch, but it looks like we have some issues with the facing board. We’ve had some particularly wood-hungry bees attacking our facing board and it needs to be replaced. So we’ll be involved in a bit more construction than we initially thought…

But the house is painted!

Here’s some of the construction from last night. Husband did a fine job after I reminded him that he’d promised this was “no problem” two weeks ago. :)

In the first photo, you can see see the construction that will allow for the various chambers to go in place. We have a three chambered bat house with a slight opening at the top (this way, if they pick the wrong chamber, they can just climb to the top and go to the next chamber instead of scooting all the way back down). In the next photo you can see that we only screened one side of the middle chambers – the notching is done on both sides, though.

It’s just left to be painted. The caulking is drying on all of the seams now.

The inside chambers are a bear – they have to have both sides done with the 1/4” cuts on both sides. One is done – one more to go! Husband assures me that it’s on his list tomorrow. He tells me that he has a system in place to make cutting even faster. :)

The back has been constructed and the sides are fastened. And while this may not seem like a lot, the back wall has been done with 1/4” spaced grooves cut all along the board for grips for the bats. We’re using screening, but this is some extra gripping in case the screening falls out or wears down. The sides were not only screwed in, but sealant was applied as well.

Husband has cut the inner chambers. Pretty soon we’ll be down to final construction and painting. I’ll be taking photos soon.

That materials are to be gathered and organized in some sort of organized fashion.

Whatever mis en place is for carpentry, it’s time that we do that part. Must make sure we have screening and the wood that we need. Also must make sure that we have enough outdoor paint leftover for the box (although I don’t really recall using all that much porch paint from before, so I’m hoping we’re good!).

Goal is to have carpentry mis en place done by this weekend!

We happened to go to Wild Birds Unlimited today to pick up birdie supplies – Supreme Blend Bird Seed and Finch Feed – and did our normal looksee around the store at all the bird supplies we’d get if we ever had insane cash and about 40 acres of wooded land.

When you move beyond the bird seed, they have lots of cute, but very spendy stuff by way of feeders, houses, baths, miniature motion activated night vision cameras (I’m not kidding) and garden benches. We like to look. :)

We were in the back by the bird books and we saw a bat house! They wanted $70 for a very SMALL bat house that was two chambers inside. Even more inspiration to get cracking on our plans for the four chamber house. I was excited to see that the store version had basically done what I’d thought to do on the inside.

See, we’ve been putting up “pet proof” screens. All that means is that it’s a heavy-duty coated fiberglass instead of weak thin metal that can be pawed through. The rolls we have leave this trim that’s not wide enough for an extra window. However, most of the bat house plans say you need something inside that the bats can “cling” to – I mentioned that our screen scraps would likely fit the bill. That’s EXACTLY what this $70 tiny bat cottage was using at the store.

So, now to remind husband that I did scan the plans for this…

I am on the verge of a bigger goal for next year about turning the back yard into something more nature-y and livable, but today I just picked up two more books from the library.

Well, one’s nearly just a pamphlet-ish thing. The other is Beastly Abodes.

This one is not only bat houses, but things for butterflies, birds and other wildlife. I’m hoping to find some inspiration and ideas.

Last night on the local news (I know, fear central!), we apparently have had mosquitoes test positive for West Nile virus.

I generally don’t buy into this, but this summer seems like a fear-laced summer. A recipe I’m trying tomorrow had to have a pepper substitution because our grocery isn’t carrying any jalapenos due to the salmonella outbreak. That was decided just after we got tomatoes back! And a local grocer was found to be selling ground beef that had e-coli. Now it’s the West Nile!

Point being, I’m growing some of my own veggies now, so that solves issues. I go to butchers for meat, so it’s a bit more reliable. The bat house will invite bats. Bats eat their body weight every day in mosquitoes.

I need to stop watching the local news!

These plans are pretty straightforward. I’m more midwest than southwest, but some friendly boards have found people in Ohio with successful installs. I love that it’s a great way to control mosquitoes and to give bats a place to rest after their insect banquet.

Before spring, there’s the following to get done:
- Acquisition of building materials.
- Construction of box.
- Design of appropriate mount (do we get a pole? can I make a bat-box extension on the back porch? do I try something different?).

Either way, I love having more nature around. The bird feeders have already been a great deal of fun and we’ve had nests this year, so I think the bats will be a good addition. Pic is basically what we’re hoping ours looks like.