Wooden Bat Box (three chambers)

Do you know that a single bat can consume up to 1000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour?

Bats are much more effective at controlling unwanted insects than those “bug zappers” and they work during load shedding!

• This medium sized, multi-compartment bat house can house up to 200 bats.
• It has a netted landing pad and ribbed plywood insides to help bats land on and climb up the box
• Size: 400mm wide x 550mm high x 100mm deep.
• material: pine and plywood construction

Installation:

• Install bat houses at least 4m above the ground (6-8 is even better)
• Bats need heat to survive so install bat houses where they will get 6-8 hours of sunlight a day. Preferably North or North West facing in South Africa.
• Against a wall, under the eave of a house provides some protection from the wind and rain, but a bathhouse can also be installed against trees or on poles
• Some research indicates that 75 % of bat houses are occupied within 2 years of installation but this depends on the bat populations in your area
• Bats need water and water also attracts the insects they eat so a location near water is ideal, but not essential.

Additional facts:

• Contrary to popular myths, most bats have very good eyesight and echolocation, so they do not become entangled in human hair.
• Bats are very clean animals and groom themselves almost constantly
• All mammals can contract rabies, however, less than half of 1% of bats do
• Installing a bat house outside will almost surely cause any bats inside your house to move to the bat house
• Bats will not attack nearby humans. The diving motion you see  is to catch insects, often around lights
• A single little brown bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in a single hour
• Bat guano (excitement) makes great fertiliser

Bats need our help! South Africa has 56 recorded bat species. Of these, 22 are listed as threatened and 9 as critically endangered. According to SPCA “there is scientific concern about the conservation status of bats as many species of bats are increasingly affected by multiple actions of humans such as ignorance, suspicion, pesticide poisoning, roos destruction and closure, habituate loss, over-exploitation, and extermination as pests.”