Bat House Forum

[Terry Lobdell]

Here is an almost completed bat condo built by the PA State Game Commission and PA Conservation Corps. The lumber (with the exception of the plywood and interior osb baffles) came from trees planted by my Great Uncle back in the 1920's. He was very conservation minded and passed a way the year I was born. It means a lot to have lumber from his trees be used for a project like this. I can't wait to do an exit count when it becomes occupied! I will post more pictures later.

[BatMan]

Very nice Terry, What are the dimensions of the condo ?

[Terry Lobdell]

Batman, the outside is 8' square. The height I'm not sure of......probably about 6' plus the attic. The Pa game commission has detailed plans of this design on their website.

[Terry Lobdell]

 Here is an interior view of the baffles.......they are all scored osb board.

[cloudman75]

Terry,

Now that's a bat house supreme. What was used to score the osb baffles? I dislike

the task of scoring more than anything else when building my bat houses.

[Terry Lobdell]

Cloudman, I'm not sure but I'm guessing they used a board with drywall screws in a row to score it........I'll ask and find out for sure! 

[Joe Spencer]

Terry, nice bat house and site!  Is this bat house reasonably close to your residence enabling you to monitor it occassionally?  Also has anyone had any concern with OSB and its inherent expansion when wet?  Bat urine penetration would likely only be minimal with totally verticle parititions as in this setup.  I wouldn't recommend OSB for angled partitions in shutter style houses.  Terry, what type of body of water are we looking at and if known what is its size?

[Terry Lobdell]

Joe, the site is at a state gamelands in NW PA. It is a very large marsh area near where Muddy creek enters French Creek. I'll try to post a map later..............It is about 15 miles from my home but is on the way to where I work so I can easily monitor it and post more pictures.

Kent expressed concern about the glue in osb board and is looking into exactly how much glue it contains. The game commission used the osb board because they can get it donated.

On the subject of osb board I helped do exit counts last summer at a state park on bat houses that had osb baffles. The houses had flat roofs of hemlock with no barrier to rain at all.........They had been there quite awhile and the leaking had weathered the osb board to the point where it appeared to actually be easy for the little browns to grip. However, in time I could see where it will have to be replaced. I will post pictures of these houses sometime this summer.

[IowaNate]

  I think the OSB will work fine as long as it is protected from direct water contact (which it is with this design). Some manufacturers use formaldehyde in the making of both plywood and OSB, but I would assume most of the vapors which could be harmful have dissappated by the time it reaches stores.

[Gran]

How tall are the legs?  It seems that all houses don't have to be mounted as high as some recomend

[Terry Lobdell]

Gran, the total length of the legs is 16'. I'm guessing the bottom of the condo is at least 10' maybe 11' off the ground. I will measure the next time I'm over there.

[IowaNate]

 I really like this design because even if the bottom of the house is only 10 feet from the ground, it also has side and attic entrances higher up.  The old Missouri style bat house (even though it had limited success) paved the way for bigger and better designed houses such as this one.

[Terry Lobdell]

I was just over there today and measured the posts/legs. The lower side is 9' and the higher side is almost 10' off the ground. It looks like they cut off about 3' from the 16' 6x6's I gave them.........it probably would have made the structure too top heavy and wobbly.

[Terry Lobdell]

Here is another view before the siding is put on.

[Terry Lobdell]

This view overlooks the marsh and also shows the concrete/metal foundation the posts set on. Another option for posts on a structure of this type would be hollow construction of 4 - 2x6's. This would give an outside finished dimension of an 8" square post. I have found hollow posts to be more rigid than solid wood posts or even utility poles.