Hi guys,

I build a 3-chamber bat house in Switzerland some 3 years ago
I made it as "academical" as I could in terms of construction, materials and placement

Though, after 3 years, no bat settled in

Many bats fly above this garden usually, it's a quiet place, though relatively urban, not much disturbing light, no cats or foxes can access the house, no spiders or wasps inside, it's oriented south and receives direct sun from early morning till approx 2 p.m., there were much less leaves at first, but I always kept the landing area clear, no one ever opens the windows below and there's litterally no light coming from there, the latitude of Switzerland is 45° (Europe is warmer than North America for the same latitude)

I'm out of solutions to have this house populated

Any hint?

Thanks in advance!

I'm having the same issue also. I got a bat house from the local wildlife, mounted it on a 20 ft pole, painted it a light color and its been 6 yrs with no occupancy. My home which is 50 ft away meanwhile has bats in the pillars on the front porch all summer long. This is in Prescott Az and I'm thinking that its just too warm in the bat houses. Do you think trying to get a shade over the top will help?

No one inside

John,

You might want to repost your issue in the WNS area or on a new post I only saw it because I was reading this bat house discussion.  Post as a new topic at least that way more folks will see it and be able to respond.

My thoughts for you would be related to what type of colony size you've had in the attic for years prior that you've counted, has anything changed to the structure?  Dozens of reasons why bats relocate, I've had big brown colonies that use 3-4 different homes within a mile of each other switching weekly often for reasons that are unexplained by human presence or disturbance of known commodity.

To the folks on the original thread, logan makes solids points that are important and true.  Usually people get frustrated because they fail to realize that if you have a home already, you don't need a new one.  This doesn't mean bats might not prefer your bat house to the natural crevice, tree, rocks or porch that they are using now, but if they are "happy" lets say, with the setup they have, they won't just leave it for the new digs.

Kathy - I'm in ABQ, NM area and your story reads like that of most of my residential bat issues here.  Southwest architecture is something bats really get good use out of, decorative latillas and vegas provide room for night roosting and often for day roosts as well.

When are you seeing the bats using your porch?  While we have colonies of pallid bats and a variety of myotis species using porches as day roosts and even maternity colonies, many people simply see night roosting and don't realize the bats are there for resting and hunting.  Pallids are right at home hunting in shrubbery and leaf litter around the lit up areas and piles of grasshopper and cricket legs and moth wings will tell you why they are there, along with urine staining and guano of course.  If your home is well sealed and the decorative logs or other wood pieces don't have holes of 1/2" and larger you probably have night roosting, but if you do have holes and can see staining and other than you may indeed have an active colony.

Feel free to email me with other thoughts or questions, always happy to help, we are working on some boxes made specifically for the southwest in an unrelated venture.  We don't see wood boxes as best for everyone and surely in the southwest where rock crevices and stucco abound, wood is more of a rare roost type.

Best,

Justin

Hi Might you be able to offer advise on how I can relocate a colony that is living underneath the house of my neighbor and of which lost much of their colony last year because of my neighbor's fear and ignorance. He killed them with a shovel. I of course was saddened and angry to hear of this and assumed that all were killed. But today when I was asked to come over and help set up a new water heater I was delighted to see a few left. But much to my dismay and although I have tried to educate him on the importance of bats, he only wants to kill them.
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