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Bat House Placement Tips

If you are considering placing a house for bats in your back yard, you should be aware of the best bat house placement in order to successfully attract a bat colony. Your success or lack thereof will depend on the location you choose to place the bat box or house.

It is not as simple as, if I put one in my yardthe bats will come. The bats are going to be more than a little picky about where they decide to rest during the day after having spent the night eating those unwanted mosquitoes all night long.

Since we want the bats to dine on the insects in our yard, we owe it to them to provide a proper house located in a desirable location on our property. Just as in our own real estate, the bat house placement is all about location, location, location.

Select A Good Bat House

One important thing to take into consideration as you plan the best bat house placement in your yard is to get a proper bat house. I recommend getting one that is built to the specifications of the Organization of Bat Conservation. Bats need a safe place to roost with proper ventilation and either grooves or plastic mesh to attach to while resting. This particular bat house will accommodate 100 bats.

Looker Single Chamber Bat House

Where Do I Put The Bat House?

One would think that placing a bat house in a tree would be the most logical location for a bat house. However, that seems to be the least successful placement for a bat house. I am not saying that it wont work but this method appears to be not as desirable as other methods.

• At least 15 ft from the ground
• Have 20 feet clearance from obstructions
• Facing in the proper direction for your locale (more on that later)
• Painted the proper color for your location

Image Credit: Bat House Located On A Tree from the St. Louis Zoo and used under the

Why Should We Want A Bat House In Our Yards?

The above image is of a brown bat that used to be very common in North America. There is a disease called White Nose Syndrome that is killing our bats at an alarming rate. Since 2006 there have been over 7 million bats lost to this disease.

Bats are important to our eco-system! They eat unwanted insects, especially mosquitoes, keeping a balance in nature. By providing bat houses in our yards, we should be able to help the bat population survive. Many caves across the U.S. have been closed hoping to stop the spread of this horrible disease.

Bats Eat About 600 mosquitoes in an hour!

Finding the best bat house location near our homes will help save these little creatures and help us keep the mosquito population at bay. It might even help with the West Nile Virus as bats eat the mosquitoes that carry this disease but do not transmit it to humans.

Finding Your Best Location

If you live in the Northeast or Northwest portion of the U.S. your bat house should be facing the south or southeast to allow the proper amount of sunshine during the daytime, keeping the bats warm. You can paint your bat house black or leave it natural. Obviously follow the criteria of being at least 15 feet off of the ground and have 20 feet of obstruction free space around it. Black will draw heat into the bat box for additional warmth.

Living in the Southeast or Southwest portions of the U.S. requires your bat house placement to be facing east or southeast. You can paint your bat house white or leave it in its natural state. The same 15 ft requirement and 20 feet of space also applies. The white paint will allow the bat house to be cooler in the warmer temperatures of this area of the country.

Mount Your Bat House On:

a 4 by 4 Post

a sturdy pole

between two poles or posts

Hopefully this has helped you decide on the best place in your yard to put that Bat House, if not feel free to ask a question here in the comments.