Songbird Essentials Bat House - Driftwood

4-Chamber Recycled Plastic Bat House Made from recycled milk jugs.

Bats are a welcome ally to combat mosquitoes and other insect pests. They work while we sleep, eating up to 600 mosquitoes and other night flying insects like cucumber beetles, June bugs, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, and moths in just one hour. Providing them a home on your property during the day will benefit them as well as everyone around you.

The Songbird Essentials Bat House is an environmentally-friendly bat house in more ways than one! First, this 4-chambered bat house provides room for 150 beneficial, insect-eating bats. Because it has 4 chambers, it will hold both males and females in a colony. The interior panels are grooved to provide easy landing and roosting for the bats.

The Songbird Essentials Bat Houses meet the standards recommended by leading bat conservation groups: each chamber is 1" deep, and the side ventilation slats are 3/8" wide. This is important because this eco-friendly bat house is made from recycled plastic! Exact dimensions are necessary for maintaining proper interior temperature and ventilation since it is made of 100% recycled milk jugs; 75 recycled milk jugs are used for each bat house. It is made in the USA, and the manufacturer guarantees this item! It will not rot, chip, crack, or split. Pre-drilled holes are already positioned for mounting.

Dimensions: 19 3/4" x 8" x 6 1/2".

Researched in Yellowstone National Park, this house was shown to be an effective bat box. The species of bats that use this house are the big brown, cave, eastern pipistrelle, evening, little brown, Mexican free-tailed, northern long-eared, pallid, Pallas' mastiff, Rafinesque's big-eared, southeastern, and Yuma bat.

See the instructions tab above for setting up your house with general information on bats.

The Songbird Essentials Bat House comes in Hunter Green or Driftwood.

Availability: Ships in 1-2 business days.

Bat House Instructions & Information

There are many myths surrounding bats, and many species are being threatened with extinction as they and their homes are destroyed. Your Bat House will provide an alternative shelter for these valuable, threatened creatures.

The bat house is designed to meet the preferences of roosting bats, with interior boards located closely parallel to one another so the males and females can live seperately. Bats swoop up into the house, crawl between the boards and hook their claws onto the precut grooves. They will stay warm and hidden until dusk when they reappear to feed on insects.

Locating Your Bat House
Bats prefer to roost high off the ground and near a permanent source of water such as a pond or stream. The house should be hung 13-30 feet above the ground in an area protected from strong winds. Access to the house should be clear of obstructions. Avoid placing the house in a forest or near utility poles and wires.

Temperature also affects the location of your house. Bats prefer warm temperatures in the house (large brown and pallid bats, 80°-90° F, smaller mouse-eared bats 90°- 110° F). Place your house facing east or southeast so that after a cool night, the house will receive the first rays of the morning sun to warm it up again. (If your climate is cool, you have a better chance of attracting bachelor bats who prefer cooler temperatures.)

Mounting Your Bat House
Before mounting, turn your Bat House upside-down. Empty the bag of guano into the house and let sit for a day. This helps your house to smell like attractive vacant real estate. There are pre-drilled holes in your bat house to ease installation. You can thread a heavy guage wire through the holes in order to tie the house to a pole or tree or you can simply place screws through the holes. Raccoons have been known to disturb bat roosts, so if raccoons are numerous in your area, you may wish to place a metal band around the post or tree to keep them away from the house.

When Will the Bats Arrive?
Bats will not appear right away. It may be weeks, a month, or even up to a year before bats will find your house. If there is no activity after a year, you may wish to position the house more to the east, or find a new location. If there is still no sign of bat activity, it may be that the bats have plenty of roosts in your area or the house is too far away from a water source. Some houses have remained vacant for as long as 3 years.

Will Bats Stay in the House Year-Round?
Only in warm southern coastal areas. Bats migrate south or find hibernating sites for the winter.

Are Bats Dangerous?
No. Bats are not vicious, filthy, or likely to attack people or animals. Even sick bats rarely bite except in self-defense. Do not handle any bats that you find lying on the ground. The Bat Conservation International has this to say about sick and rabid bats:

"Like all mammals, bats can contract rabies, though very few (less than half of one percent) do, and even when rabid, bats rarely become aggressive. Like other animals, they quickly die, and outbreaks in their colonies are extremely rare. The odds of being harmed, even by a rabid individual, are remote if you simply do not attempt to handle bats. Any bat that is easily caught should be assumed to be sick and left alone."

FedEx Ground Shipping Required*
No other shipping methods or upgrades are available to ship this item.

If your total order includes other items, FedEx Ground shipping charges may be applied to ship the other items. You may want to place a separate order for items that need Overnight or 2nd day shipping.

Be aware that your order may arrive in 2 or more shipments depending upon what you have ordered. For example, beneficial insects may arrive a few days ahead of other products based upon the shipping method that was selected or required for particular items in your order.

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