Spooktacular Bats

I love Halloween, not only because it’s my birthday, but also because there is candy everywhere!!!  Not to mention all the costumes and decorations  - You begin to really know that fall is here! 

Seeing all the bat décor around town makes me think about how awesome bats are in our environment and how much they do for us!  According to NRCS, bats are the single most important controller of night-flying insects, including mosquitoes, moths, and beetles. For example, a single little brown bat can catch up to 600 mosquitoes in an hour. Watching bats fly around light posts catching bugs can be an interesting nighttime activity.

A bat house in your yard will help attract bats and provide them with much-needed roosting habitat. The house should be placed on a pole at least 15 feet high in a spot that receives sun most of the day. Tree trunks are usually too shady for bat boxes. Some bat species such as gray bats, red bats, and hoary bats will use shrubs and trees for roosting under loose bark or in cavities.
Here are instructions on how to build your own bat box.....
Build a bat house directions

It's not particularly good to have bats living in your home, so here are directions from NCSU Cooperative Extension on how to exclude bats from a dwelling....  Bat Exclusion Directions

For more information about bats visit Bat Conservation International  http://www.batcon.org/

Many species of bats migrate in the fall and hibernate throughout the winter months in caves, mines, or buildings. If disturbed during hibernation, their metabolism is increased, depleting fat reserves and reducing their chances of survival.

Information for this article is from the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA.