Bat House Forum

[#93]

I have been making slow but steady progress on my bat houses. I decided to use PVC because I wanted a no maintenance house. The top is aluminum cut from a stop sign the property room was throwing away. It is cut to match the OD of the 10 inch PVC pipe. Then a 3/8 thick piece of plywood was cut to match the ID. I will use liquid nails to hold the aluminum to the plywood and seal it to the pipe with silicon caulk. The OAL is 35 inches and there is a 1 inch gap between the roof and the baffles.

All the baffles are made out of 3/8ths plywood as well. I scratched it using Iowa Nate’s method. A tool was made by driving 3 drywall screws through a piece of scrap wood so the points were all about 1/2 inch. This was used to scratch the baffles. I also welded a couple of stops to my table that held the board being scratched in place. This made the job a lot easier.

The baffles all have 2 holes drilled through them. Two 1/2 inch carriage bolts run through these holes to hold the baffles in place. The baffles are separated by 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe cut in 3/4ths of an inch lenghts. The bolts also run through the outer PVC pipe and the mounting bracket to tie everything together.

The only mounting options I have in my yard are on trees so I designed the brackets to hold the houses 10 inches away from the trees. I did this to make it harder for predators to get to the bats. I think it will keep them safe from everything but a larger black snake.

I live in south west Ohio so they will be painted black.

I plan on making 2 more like this. Does anyone see any fatal flaws in the design before I make the other two?

Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

[Terry Lobdell]

Nice design and workmanship.........I like the wider pvc spacers which maintain an even crevice thickness all the way across.

I might have used a thicker piece of wood under the aluminum roof...........

You might want to consider having the baffles tight to the roof to cut down on wasp nests.

Overall, I really like it, especially the 2-bolts straight through that tie everything together!

[#93]

Thank you for the reply Terry. I thought the gap between the roof and baffles was a desired feature for maternity colonies and to make it easy for the bats to go from one baffle to the next? I do not like wasp though and the gap can easily be removed by trimming the tube or adding a spacer like the thicker wood under the roof you recommended.

I am not sure if I would use 3/8ths plywood again. At least not with out more support. It is very flimsy. I plan on making a brace to add to the top to keep the baffles separated with 3/4 inch gaps.

[Terry Lobdell]

It looks like the bats can move to different crevices with the space around the sides?

[#93]

I cut the baffles to allow for a 3/4 inch gap between the PVC and the baffles. Unfortunately when it all came together the gap is closer to a half inch. Is half an inch enough or should I cut a little more off the baffles? I did not worry too much about it because I still had the gap at the top, but now that I am considering removing that gap...

[Terry Lobdell]

1/2" should be plenty of room around the sides. I would sand the edges smooth so the bats don't tear their wings. Plywood can develop some wicked splinters especially as it dries out.

[cloudman75]

Just a suggestion that since you are planning to build two more houses. leave the gap at the top on this one.
All three of my houses have 1 inch gaps at the top without problems so far. I have had a wasp nest in the chamber,
but the bats did not seem to mind and I knocked it out with a long pole during the winter. I put a horizontal
board across the chambers on one house for the little ones to rest on if they desired. They seem to enjoy crawling on it when small. I am anxious to see if you get any bats this spring so keep us posted please.

Frank