Bats

JO~* · Jun 27, 2006

Does anyone know when bats have their babies?

On the east side of our house we have some bats that roost up in the overhang area of our house, they slip into a small hole. I also put up a bat house in the same area a few years ago.

The other evening when I went out with our Poms and a bat came down pretty low and it worries me now after reading the other post about rabies.

I want to seal up the hole they go into and move the bat house so they are not roosting above the dog area.

I don't want to seal up the hole when there might be babies inside. I thought I would seal it up some night after all the bats are out and not having babies.

So who here knows about bats? Guess I can do a search easy enough but thought I would ask here to.

Thanks, Jo

Jacquee' · Jun 27, 2006

Gosh, it depends what type of bats they are. Here is a great article from the Wikipedia: About Bats which also includes a ton of references (links) that you can look up. For instance, under the part about bats possibly carrying rabies, it has links to places where you can learn how to control bats in your area, and how to keep them out of certain areas.

The article says that only 0.5% of bats carry rabies, but that you should always be careful and not handle them. I think you are making some wise moves here. It is good to have bat houses (they do keep the insects down to a tremendous degree) but you don't want them to be in your house. You might want to put the bat houses somewhere a little further away, so you can still enjoy the protection from insects without actually having bats come too near.

JumpinJackFarm · Jun 27, 2006

I don't know about the baby schedule but I do know that they are very active this time of year getting the various flying bugs that are out there at night. I can almost guess that they were dive bombing you due to your movement that attracted their sonar/radar vision. If I go out at night and the bats are around ...I do attract them...but then when they realize I am not a bug...lol...they just continue with their nightly hunt in the evening. I don't have a "bat cave"

here so I don't about the babies....but I would wait till Fall...I would think for surely they would be gone by then...maybe?

Miniv · Jun 28, 2006

You might try Googling the subject......

My guess would be that they are like most mammals and are birthing and feeding their babies throughout the Spring and Summer.

Bats overall are a good creature to have around for the balance of the eco-system. They control the insect population and the risk of rabies from them is much less than other creatures, such as skunks or raccoons.

MA

CharmedMinis · Jun 28, 2006

It very much depends on what part of the country you are in and what type of bats you have.

We have over 600 bats in our bat house, and our neighbors on all sides of us also have bat houses. We have to with the mosquito population we have. Our bats had there babies throughout May. We have bat activity through October. And it starts up again in late March/early April.

We've never worried about Rabies until this year, and it's not because of the bats. This is the first year I'm giving my horses Rabies shots, because it's been a local problem with skunks and other small animals.

Off the top of my head I think we have Mexican Brown Bats, and some Fruit Bats.

RainSong · Jun 28, 2006

Most of the time, you don't just seal up the hole... you make a small trap (I think they're called) that makes it so the bats can leave once they are all flying, but can't get back in. I'd probably just set up a second bat house for them to use, and move the first once it's empty- rather then risking driving the bat family off completely.

They really are great things to have around. When we have our own place, I hope to have a bat house eventually