FAQ Will I Disturb the Bats by Walking/Talking/Playing Music?

Have you ever wondered if your bats are going to love you as much as you love them? Is your very presence going to disturb them? Do they care about all the noise you make? Do they think your taste in music is bad? Are they so fed up with your watching them that they plan to move to a new neighborhood? Are you talking to them so much your neighbors are concerned, but all you care about is are the bats tired of listening?
While I build one of our cull bat houses (a bat house that is less than perfect that will occasionally admit happens because something went wrong while cutting parts) I answer a common question, Will we disturb our bats by walking by, talking, making noise?
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Music - "Electric Sunrise" by Josh Woodward. Free download: joshwoodward.com/

[@NS-rm7df]

I am building some bat houses similar to the one in your video. When they are finished I am wondering about hanging them on my Aeromotor windmill. It has full sun and is plenty tall, but I wonder about the noise and vibration from the turning blade. It is far from trees and near a pond. What do you think?

[@h4bats]

I think I answered this in another comment. In short, I have seen bat houses on private wind turbines before and not heard of any ill effects. My only concern would be proximity to the rotor if it turns at high speed, the bats could be struck by the end of the blades.

[@NS-rm7df]

@@h4bats I will try a couple on the windmill and a couple more on a 20 foot pipe. We'll see what happens and share the information.

[@Qwan0h]

Cool

[@paulfarmer6498]

How about weekly lawn mowing/weed eating? Would that be too much of a disturbance?

[@h4bats]

Our bats don't seem to care. I wave at them as I go by.

[@bryanshoemaker2494]

I had read that bat boxes on a metal building is not recommended. I have a metal boat house that gets good sun. I was thinking I would build a bracket above the roof line of the boat house. How high above the metal roof do you think I should hang the bat house?

[@h4bats]

That's hard to say without seeing some pictures. Typically a bat house should be at least 10 to 12 feet off the ground and clear below it to give the bats plenty of room to fly out. So long as the root is not bright sliver and focusing the sunlight on the bat house, it should be fine, just paint the bat house a little lighter than maybe if the metal was not there. We have mounted bat houses on the sides of metal buildings often and notice no ill effects. Generally, a couple of 1x4's secured to the metal building and then the bat house on the 1x4s does the job. Also, bats regularly roost behind the gutters on metal buildings and seem very happy to do so.

[@richdenver8]

I have a regular backyard fire pit 2-3’ across (not bonfire). It’s 25’ or so from the south west corner of my house. I’m planning on putting a bat house on the south face of my house. It’s a 2story house and I’m planning on putting the bat house just below the gutters so it’ll be 25’ or so above the ground. We don’t usually light the fire till just before the sun goes down in summer and very rarely during the day in winter. Will it bother the bats if bats move in? We’re just outside of Denver Colorado.

[@h4bats]

So long as it is not position so the smoke always goes into the bat house or go through it in huge volume, it should be fine. A little waft every now and then is not going to drive them off. A full column of smoke going into the bat house would be an issue and they would leave.

[@bigmac3006]

How can I provide water for bats? I do not have a pond, lake, Creek.....nothing.

[@h4bats]

Bats will find water somewhere and can go for miles to get it. Unless you are in the middle of the Gobi desert, I wouldn't worry about it. (I would wonder how I ended up in Mongolia though) Even animal water troughs, pools etc... can be used by bats.

[@bigmac3006]

@@h4bats thank you!

[@richdenver8]

Do bats eat moths?

[@h4bats]

Yes, lots and lots of moths and virtually any other flying insect they encounter while feeding. The larger the better, big moths, beetles, all can be a meal.