Attached Link: Bat Box

AKA- A Bat House...

Just a plain old Bat Box... for bats,you know... Not tested in DAZ Studio, but it should work.
May need resizing, I don't really know because I have not scaled it to any bats I have... Model is based on a real one I made a couple of years back... Which no bats ever inhabited, but was loved by earwigs and wasps.
Enjoy.
Stupid picky bats.

getting bats to move in is a little of science I'm working on a presentation for youtube on what needs to be considered were to place and what colors foryour location I also show you how to make an ecology chart for your location to map the temperature and the season of the bat hybernation, pup season when females are looking for a bat house, mating season, migration and winter hibernation.

Here is a partial medical record I keep on all my patients the graph are feeding charts but also an ecology chart with the local temperatures you can make on of these from the NAOO website with your location historical temperatures plot them and they will tell you what bats are doing at different times of the year.

All locations should start with a black bat house since bats move in the fall and need a warm place depending on your summers will determine the color of your second bat houes for the bat to movve to when it gets too hot. contact me for more info.

http://fewerr.org/PDF/misc/Partial_Medical_Record_Bat_Skunk.pdf

 

The 2 biggest news items here right now is "Worst year for West Nile Virus" & Brown Recluse and other spiders enfestations. both very good for bats. I'm building bat house that hold around 1000 bats I'm trying to get the city build neighborhood bat houses of 10,000 bats or even a community bat house of 100 - 200,000 bats like Texas has done. I'm working on an animation I'm going to send to the TV news shows here with a bat talking about the problems in Oklahoma and how petty it seams for a bat when it's just every day food for them. Big browns also eat wasps and we have a lot of those this year. The NABHRP North American Bat House Research Project a 20 year study from Bat Conservation International with 1200 bat houses proved the bigger the house the better so all of mine are atleast 9 chamber  some 5 chamber for the broke customer it will jst take longer to get them to move in. I'm also using recycle privacy fence so all my houses are recycled wood. keeps the cost down too. stilll working out deals witht he fence companies..

Yeah, I figured it was more my fault (I mentioned it in the other thread). Around here the bats tend to "fill" any of bat boxes that the State parks department install (much bigger than mine which I copied from a commercial design) and they tend to install them near the marshes and swampy areas around here. I live about 1200 feet from a swampy conservation area and my property is only one acre with the best local for the box being the back of my shop/garage. I had never considered painting the box black (figured the smell would repel the bats, since they tend to stay away from the boxes till they seem a little run down (which in retrospect may be because the wood turns darker and thus is warmer).  I actually considered making light weight cast concrete boxes, but because the cement I use has epoxy additives (to allow for very thin castings) I figured it might also drive away the bats. I also suspect that the yellow jacket wasps are another reason... around here they are vicious and will make a nest under the brim of your hat if you sit long enough... In warm weather I do weekly inspections of my house and shop and rarely does a week go by where there is not at least one nest in or on a structure (never mind the 3' x 6' x 4" nest we once found in a wall)... so I could easily see the wasps also being a deterrent.

How big is good sized bat box? Mine were about a foot wide, eighteen inches tall and had about two and a half inches between the three chambers... (I say "were" because they fell apart after about 10 years of vacancy and I removed them about two years ago). The state  boxes seem to be about 4 times as large. 

Bats are still a large mystery reason I'm researching them.  All sizes of bat houses can be filled. I talked to one park ranger that has rocket boxes that house 30-50 bats usully the males like these and he has them at 10 feet  not sure why but would guess they where put up by boy scouts (standard project for them) and they jusg got the post that was available at the standard home depot. and they ended at 10 feet instead of the normal 15-20 feet suggested. He said his are all full and where full with a few months after they where put up  from NABRP 20 year study the largeest one filled the quickest 90 % with 2 years the smaller ones with in 5 years. If yours don't then you need to experiment new location different color etc.  if there on a pole try the side of the house facing NE if possible (most of the sun) which they determined was prefered over poles becuase of the stability of a house and radiated heat the house can get from the house. Trees are the worst location preditors like hawks can hide in the limbs squirrels will knock down or just pester the bats. writing my book I've accumulated tons of information and will be redueing the 2 bat house movies I have up and I've added the pfd of the unfinished movies so you can read and see the graphs.

click on the speaker if there is a narrative you can hear it. there just a rough I'll be adding more and changing some of the slides.

lesson 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FC46mq8U9s&list=UUxNsDlJZkI4iBT0m77PvM9Q&index=2&feature=plcp

lesson 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-8rV0rk_0&list=UUxNsDlJZkI4iBT0m77PvM9Q&index=1&feature=plcp

lesson 3 pdf not finished

http://www.fewerr.org/PDF/Bat_House/Bat%20Houses%20part%203-4.pdf

lesson 4 pdf not finished

http://www.fewerr.org/PDF/Bat_House/Bat%20Houses%20part%204-4.pdf

you can get non toxic paint called enviro paint at the store. I recommend painting all of the hosue inside and out. inside use stain outside the heavier the paint the better for the weather. I've been thinking of experimenting with Rhino the truck liner stuff but it's really expensive so not cost effective but should last for ever. maybe something for the government would be worth it. inside you want to protect for urine and warping.

material all kinds of stuff has been used basically anything the bat can grab with his claws will work.

size is basically what you can afford for me it's what size sheets are availableat the store so I can convert my houses into easy kits. I'm working on plans for privacy fence and exstending theposts to 20 feet they are usually 8-10 feet between so the size I'm using privacy fence so I'm limited to good used pickets of 6 feet so cut of the bad top and bottom I usually get 5 feet weight is another problem because a 1 man operation have tyo be able to lift it even using a crane there is a safety requirment. mine are modular 5 foot cleanup picket will make a 2 1/2 foot wide house by 3 feet long and 2 x 12 for the side for 9 baffles using dagoes'  then put 3 side by side and 2 back to back for 6 houses makes on very big house the owner can add 2 houses the firs year then 1 or 2 each year so the price won't kill him. then put up a couple rocket boxes so the males have a place to stay as well you have created a bat environent and no bugs. on bat eats about 5 lbs of bugs ayear you figure how many bugs that is then multiply for each house of 350-700 bats. wow a lot of bugs. oh a mosquito weighs .002 grams figure out how many mosquitoes a year even if a bat only eats 10% since they usually eat moths.

 

 

Have you ever considered using lightweight cement boards?  There are several brands available at most big box home improvement stores... on average it costs under $10 for a 3'x5'  panel... combined with PVC "Tuff Board" (or equivalent material) spacer and frame parts it could make a fairly durable, maintenance free structure.

Both Lowes and Home Depot carry light weight backer cement board (used for backing tile installations)... Mostly a 1/4" thick panel weighs about the same as a 3/8" piece of OSB.

The PVC board is more expensive than wood, but is fairly durable and has decent longevity, especially when painted.

Overall, it would probably cost twice what wood would cost and be slightly heavier, but would last three times longer, with no maintenance.

sounds good I'll look at it next time I'm over there

The only thin I'd wonder about probably have to build one and test the temperature cement and plastic are both insulators so the house wouldn't hold much heat

I've also thought about putting a heat lamp in the roof of one for the spring to heat it this would allow for other materials summer will take care of it self with the ambient temperature.

You could paint it black or dark grey, that would absorb heat... though at night it might cool a bit. One other possibility is to use wood for the interior baffles, and just sheath the exterior in the light weight backer board.