I want BATS!

[Lisa0825]

I have always thought bats were really cool and fascinating, since I was a kid. I wasn't a "girly" girl, I was a future scientist who loved snakes, bats, and worms, etc. I have been reading about bats as mosquito control, and I think I am going to order a bat house next payday. I thought that if I successfully attract bats, I can also collect the guano for fertilizer. Anyone here have a bat house in their yard? How quickly did the bats find it?

How CUTE are we????

[asdjrocky]

1. Yeah, er, you just want to cuddle 'em.

[Lisa0825]

4. I really do! LOL

I think they're sweet! I don't think THEY would like to cuddle, but I would! Look at those cute faces!

[ailsagirl]

14. I've heard they can get tangled up in your hair-- that'd be a bummer

[MuseRider]

2. They have a fascinating

social and family structure. I used to work as a zookeeper and we had a ton of Giant Fruit Bats and did some research on their social structure. They are cool.

[Lisa0825]

5. Someday I'd like to go watch the mega colony in central Texas

leave for their nightly hunt. I have seen video and it looks amazing!

[ailsagirl]

13. I've heard about the mega numbers of bats in Texas-- lucky you

[Vinca]

3. Build a bat house that looks like my garage and you're in business.

We can't get rid of them and they leave their droppings all over the stairs in the garage. The braver ones sneak into the house once or twice a summer, although I'm still puzzled about how they get in. So far we've managed to eject them without any fatalities (despite the cats).

[Lisa0825]

6. WOW! I very occasionally will see/hear one fly by in this area,

but have never known anyone who had a problem with them. I'm in a big mosquito area, so I think more bats are a good thing. I don't have a garage... I'd prefer not to get them in the house... I'd feel bad if I found the carcass left after my 8 foster cats got done.

[Blue Gardener]

7. Bats can have rabies

You most certainly don't want them in your house. A boy in a small town near here died from rabies he got from a bat. They lived in an older home and the bat bit him when he was sleeping. By the time they figured out what happened, it was too late. I love bats as long as they stay outside. Anything that eats mosquitoes is ok in my book. As you may have heard, it's been a little damp here in Iowa this year, and the mosquito population is booming.

[Vinca]

8. Rabies - that's why I'm not a big fan of bats.

Apparently there's another problem with them this summer, too. They're found dead with whitish stuff around their noses. We've noticed a decline in the numbers, but haven't found any sick or dead ones.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/24/MN7GV2KNU.DTL

[Lisa0825]

10. That's very sad.

poor bats :cry:

[Lisa0825]

9. We haven't had a case of rabies in my county in at least 25 years.

Occasionally up north in Houston, I hear about a rabid bat, but haven't heard of any on the coast as long as I've lived here.

[ThomWV]

16. Actually I believe they rarely if ever are carriers

I seem to recall - and I could be dead wrong on this - but I seem to recall having read that there has never been a reported case of hydrophobia being transmitted by a bat in the United States.

[sazemisery]

11. We put up a bat house cause of the mosquitos but...

the dirt daubers (wasps) immediately took it over and the bats didn't have a chance. They must hang out somewhere close (pun intended) 'cause we see them every evening at dusk darting around the pond having a hearty supper.

I was not a girly girl when a youngster either. One pastime was to get under a blanket at dusk with two rocks and hit the rocks together. The bats think it is something edible and would swoop down and hit the blanket. Needless to say, I was easily entertained as a youngster. :evilgrin:

[ailsagirl]

12. They sure are cute-- I've always loved them n/t

[me b zola]

15. I watched something on PBS awhile back about bats

Would love to have some myself. They are terrific in assisting a natural habit, eating bugs that you don't want eating your garden. The show stated that the bats need a water supply (somewhere that they can swoop down to drink ie a pond, creek, river, etc...) within a mile. I'm going from memory on the distance, but at any rate it was not a far distance.