FAQ Will Bats eat my fruits and vegetables?

[@liamlive100]

Thanks for making these videos!! There aren’t allot of videos educating about bats and the questions you answer are great. When I mention bats on a farm or making a bat box for them people instantly mention disease. If on a farm they ask what if a pig or dog ate a sick bat like in the movie Contagion. Bats spreading disease seems to be the first thing to jump to people’s mind when I mention them.

[@h4bats]

Bats are wild animals, they can get disease like other wild animals and should be treated with respect and understood for what they do for us in the environment. There is no need to fear them but Hollywood movies find them an easy trope to trot out when they need some scary thing to bite people in the neck and spread some strange disease that causes you to turn purple and crave eating brains.

[@tlpphillipson]

I am putting a bat house on my house. I noticed some neighbors putting plexiglass on their house just under the bat house. Is that to protect their house from guano?

[@tlpphillipson]

Also I'm in Dayton OH. Any thought right off about the color I should have to keep it warm enough in there? I have an Audubon Society cedar house.

[@h4bats]

I've seen that done too, a matter of preference for the most part unless the bat house does not have a landing pad. Bats cannot cling to the surface of the plexi and without a landing pad bats would not be able to enter the bat house as easily.

[@h4bats]

A medium to medium dark should work OK in that area.

[@mantis2938]

I have several questions for you. What do you think about using a rubber product called Flexseal to paint your bat house with. It’s black so it absorbs the sun and it weatherproofs it. I have another question to add: Is having an owl house 20 feet away a bad idea? I like owls as well and I get regular visits from Eastern Screech Owls. Can there be a compromise? What should the minimum distance be from the bat houses if possible. I only live on a quarter acre.

[@h4bats]

I can't speak for Flexseal, I use caution when selecting paint and use a good water based latex paint due to its non-toxic nature and lower propensity to gas off once fully cured. Owls love to eat bats, if owls are living, perching nearby and have easy access to the bats as they come out in the evening, it may deter the bats from roosting there. I would suggest 20 feet is the minimum "perching" distance from the bat house. Any closer and the owl would easily be able to catch the bats right as they leave the bat house.

[@mantis2938]

Habitat For Bats Ok thanks for clearing that up.