must also be sited appropriately for bats to find and occupy. Bats are fiercely loyal to favorable roosts and will return year after year as the colony grows in number. This two-chambered bat box has been hanging in this location above my back deck, on the south side of the house, for nearly 20 years. Today more than 200 little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) occupy it during the summer, some even giving birth.
Benefits: Fewer insects around the house and each year I gather several pounds of nitrogen-rich bat guano and give to my gardening friends. Sitting on the back deck at dusk and watching them emerge is pretty cool, too.
Hang a bat house. Bats need friends!
This is the volume of guano produced by the occupants of the bat house over the last several months, a clear indication of a large and healthy colony of bats.
My dear late wife, Donna Hensley, was a bat biologist and she compiled the first editions of this authoritative book while working at Bat Conservation International: The Bat House Guide.