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A few years ago, I took my children to a summer program at the local library put on by the Florida Bat Conservancy. For those of you unfamiliar with the habits of our winged mammalian cousins, bats spend their days sleeping in a warm, enclosed space. A dead tree trunk is a favorite spot. They emerge at dusk to start feasting on insects all night long.Â
In the case of the Florida bat, mosquitoes are the insect of choice. One bat can consume up to 3000 mosquitoes in a single night! Take that mosquito fogging trucks!
By the end of the very informative, entertaining lecture (complete with live bats), I was convinced that the best way to control mosquitoes on our 2-acre property was to install a bat house. My husband located an average sized bat house that could serve as the sleeping quarters for up to 30 bats (they really pack themselves in tightly).
We figured out which tree in our front yard got enough direct sunlight during the day to qualify as an “ideal” bat house location. We then borrowed our neighbor’s giant ladder and installed the house about 20 feet high.
Then, we waited. And waited. And waited some more…
Bats Finally Move In
After 3 years of eagerly anticipating a family of bats to take up shop in the bat house, I honestly forgot we even had one! Â Â The Bat Conservancy had warned me that it might take a while for the bats to find the house, especially since the numbers of native Florida bats are dwindling due to the rapid loss of habitat.
At the time, I thought six months might be the longest amount of time we might have to wait. After 3 years, though, I had basically given up all hope!
Well, never give up hope where nature is concerned! Â About a month ago, I casually mentioned to my husband that there didn’t seem to be any mosquitoes around our front porch.
I could sit out at dusk and not be eaten alive like in years past. This was unusual given the extremely wet winter and the enormous amount of standing water around the neighborhood.
Funny that it didn’t even occur to me that the bat house might finally be occupied!
This past Friday night was a beautiful evening at our house, dry, cool and clear. Perfect springtime weather. Suddenly, one of my  boys comes racing into the house and shouts “Mom, we’ve got BATS!”
Excitedly, I ran outside to witness a family of bats, swooping and diving in the fading sunlight. They were happily feasting on the airborne mosquitoes and other insects buzzing around our front yard!
If you haven’t considered a bat house for your home as the best ever mosquito control, I highly recommend it. Even if you don’t have a tree to attach one, you can attach one to a pole instead. Â You may have to wait a while (hopefully, not 3 years). But, like many of the best things in life, it is so worth the wait!
Thank you so much for this article! I didn’t know there was alternative to bug sprays besides being covered in bites. My husband will be building one of these for me asap.
I've heard bats are extremely effective at controlling the surrounding mosquito population, but unfortunately my wife is deathly afraid of them.
I have a good friend who has a mosquito magnet and I remember being at a party a few years ago at her home and this machine was on and I thought it made too much noise and was kind of annoying to have around. Despite the noise, it did work ..no bugs!
Thanks Sarah, I'm going to get one! I can remember when my daughter was young, we used to go out at dusk and play frisbie just to watch the bats dive back and forth at the frisbie Now there doesn't seem to be as much and I've been hearing reports about how the bat population has been threatened by some kind of white fungus. So sad. I'll try and encourage more people to get a bat house in my area.Have a Blessed Day,Rebecca PitreGalena, MD
I don't think it's the squirrels as we have a lot in our yard as well. Our bat house is in an oak tree .. don't know if that makes any difference. We also made sure the house got a lot of direct sunlight during the day as this evidently makes a difference when the bats are choosing where to roost. To some extent, it may be just a bit of luck as the numbers of bats are so much lower now than in years past. There are far fewer looking around for a home.
Sarah, I only live about 3 minutes from you. I don't live on a lake but there are many small ponds all around the area. We put up two bat houses at least 10 years ago after reading all the info about how high, best direction, etc. (I still have the beautifully illustrated books) Both houses remained unoccupied until they finally fell apart about a year ago. I wonder if our squirrels had anything to do with keeping the bats out as they liked to use the giant pine tree as their playground and often ran all around the bat houses and even sat on top of them to rest! I am not completely discouraged though and would love to try again.
I love bats but right now they are living in my walls, again. I have several bat houses around the property so why do they like my house better!!! I have installed one way baffles so they can leave but not come back. Hopefully they will find one of the lovely houses. I have had to do this several times over the years, and the baffles work. Karen you don't need to put a bat house on a pole you can mount it on your house or on a pole next to your house,( the entrance they use to get in my walls is only 10ft off the ground). There is a lot of information online about bats and bat houses. You can also purchase bat houses at your local home improvement store. And yes they really do help with the mosquitoes.
Wish my property was big enough to have a bat house. I don't think my homeowners would approve of me setting up a 20 ft. pole in the backyard : )
I've always wanted one though.
If you're ever in the vicinity of the University of Florida (Gainesville), there is an enormous bat house on campus that is supposedly quite a sight to behold at dusk when thousands of bats come swooping out all at once!
My brother does this in Minnesota. He has bat houses all over his property and it does a great job controlling the 'skeeters'. If any of you have ever been to MN… land of 10,000 lakes.. the skeeters there are the size of humming birds… lots of good bat food.