Bats

A bat house built in my back yard in 2004 remained vacant until this year.  The house has room for 600 bats, but only eleven moved in.  The house is near three large stock ponds.  Dragonflies and hummingbirds find plenty of insects to eat during the day, so it seems reasonable to expect the site can support more than eleven bats.

The photograph of a Hoary Bat was published by M. Siders (BLM), 2006.  “Bats of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument”, poster.

Bats are encouraged in many places because they eat insects and pollinate plants.  Austin, Texas, for instance, is proud of its large bat population, and refers to itself as Bat City.  I am anxious to see bats increase because they eat mosquitoes, my personal nemesis.  Bats are good with mosquitoes.  Little Brown Bats, for example, can eat 1,000 mosquitoes per hour.  Perhaps other mammals in the neighborhood will benefit from having more bats.