Bat in the stack!

love them bats for sure!

I have never uncovered any bats but have considered making bat houses under the the rafters. I have brown metal roofing though and think it would be too hot in Summer and too cold in Winter.

That's cool.

fv

Don't care too much for Bats...probably would of freaked and whacked it with a shovel

That's cool! Too hard to tell species from the pic, but looks to be some type of Myotis - different Myotis around your way than what I'm familiar with in the east. How cold do your temps get? Below freezing? If so, strange that the bugger should be there now - likely a bad (Dawinian) mistake!

P.S. I'm a bat biologist, so I love this!

Cheers!

More bats = less bugs.

quercus_kelloggii said:

NH_Wood said:

That's cool! Too hard to tell species from the pic, but looks to be some type of Myotis - different Myotis around your way than what I'm familiar with in the east. How cold do your temps get? Below freezing? If so, strange that the bugger should be there now - likely a bad (Dawinian) mistake!

P.S. I'm a bat biologist, so I love this!

Cheers!

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It was probably about 3-3 1/2" long max. It moved a teeny bit, then I could see it breathing and it's ears move. It has been unusually warm around here, I hope I didn't upend it's winter hiding place? It has not gotten to freezing here, at least nowhere lately, been in the low 60's during the days and maybe 40 deg over nights. Supposed to cool down here soon though. Not sure where winter went but I see that's an issue for a lot of folks, I know it is just a matter of time.

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Do the temps in your area usually go below freezing? Cheers!

Blue Vomit said:

More bats = less bugs.

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More bats = more bat shat........nasty little batsturds

I found one in my stack a month back. I was loading up a wheelbarrow of splits to move to my patio and started to hear a buzzing sound. I thought it was a bee coming out of hibernation, paid no attention and kept loading. The buzzing kept getting louder and louder and I couldn't figure out what it was until I grabbed a split and this thing dropped out onto the floor of my shed. Never seen a bat before in my wood pile. I tried to grab my cell to catch a pic of it when it stretched itself out. I'd say it was a good 6 inches from wing tip to tip.

I just got skeeved out badly. Once in Costa Rica hiking and going into some caves i touched one of those things. they are cold and damp.... Im a lover of all living things but the bat is probably way down there with cucarachas...(roaches)

NH_Wood - Whens the best time to put out a bat house?

Wife hates bugs, I like bats. I believe thats what we call a Win/Win?

Remmy122 said:

NH_Wood - Whens the best time to put out a bat house?

Wife hates bugs, I like bats. I believe thats what we call a Win/Win?

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Remmy122 - you can put up the box anytime, but give it several years to allow the bats to finally find and use it (sometimes they never do). If on a tree, place at least 15' high, facing southeast to south, with no major obstructions below or that would hinder sunlight from warming the box (this is typically good for the bats). If on a house, same deal in terms of exposure to sunlight. Yes, the bats are the major predator for night flying insects and White-nose Syndrome has really hurt the bat populations in the east (mainly northeast). For example, I do all of the winter mine surveys for bats in NH, and we lost 99.6% of our winter bat population by last winter. We didn't even bother with a survey this year. Very sad. Cheers!

NH_Wood- unfortunately White Nosed Syndrome is showing up as far south as my area (western North Carolina). I know some folks are not fond of bats, but they play an important role in nature. I fear the crash in the bat population will result be a boom in the mosquito population.

FireBall said:

NH_Wood- unfortunately White Nosed Syndrome is showing up as far south as my area (western North Carolina). I know some folks are not fond of bats, but they play an important role in nature. I fear the crash in the bat population will result be a boom in the mosquito population.

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Yes - as far south as NC, west to Indiana and western KY and TN for certain, and into Ontario and eastern Canadian Provinces, etc. Certainly one of the worst wildlife disease epidemics ever, not just for bats. Just seems to keep spreading west - really unfortunate. For a person like myself, who made bats their life's research, it is a very sad thing indeed - I'll certainly never visit our historic hibernacula and see typically healthy bat numbers in my lifetime. Fortunately, or unfortunately, bats don't eat mosquitoes (or at least it is VERY uncommon), so our mosquito numbers will remain the same, unless a compounding factor affects them. Get dragonflies for your skeeters! Cheers!

So sad what is happening to our bat population. I live about a mile from white nose syndrome ground zero. Spent my college years caving and working for one of the two show caves in the area, and thus gained an appreciation for them.

I was admiring a Jotul at a friend's one day and opened the door to find this guy stuck between the inner and outer door lip. I think they were more than happy to let me keep it. What do you think, NH_wood? M lucifugus?

homebrewz said:

So sad what is happening to our bat population. I live about a mile from white nose syndrome ground zero. Spent my college years caving and working for one of the two show caves in the area, and thus gained an appreciation for them.

I was admiring a Jotul at a friend's one day and opened the door to find this guy stuck between the inner and outer door lip. I think they were more than happy to let me keep it. What do you think, NH_wood? M lucifugus?

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Hard to say - fur looks like a big brown bat to me - if you still have the bat, I can give you a tooth character to check and it will let us know. Were you at Howe Caverns? Cheers!

I'm open to suggestions as to species. I still have the bat.. it came pre-preserved.

I understand that white nose was first discovered in the original entrance of Howe Caverns. I worked at the "other" caverns, but that was a long time ago.