Forget whether I mentioned about finding a hibernating bat in my woodshed. Was loading the wheelbarrow from the covered shed and noticed a 2x2 inch brown wafer that was actually a bat. He was tucked in between two flat splits and was obviously alive, as he twitched a little bit, but asleep. I had not been aware that some bats hibernate rather than head south for the winter. He didn't appear harmed at all so I tucked him in between splits at the back of the shed where I wouldn't be getting wood this year. Probable ID is a "Little Brown Bat"! Hope he is alive this spring and eating lots of mosquitoes!
Did you show Mrs. metalcuttr? I found hibernating bats once while tearing a roof off in November. Have run into them plenty of other times during warmer months. They say i scream like a girl!
We put a couple up at my sister's house. They were sleeping up in her closed outdoor umbrella over a table and making a guano mess on the table. Put a bat house at either end of her tool/storage shed on the gables and they moved right in and out of the umbrella. They apparently like being up higher. There are a bunch of kits and plans on the internet. Amazing how a 16"W X 24"H X 2.5"Deep bat house can hold literally hundreds of bats.
Better than "bats in your belfry"! I know the city put some bat houses up in the park last year...no tenants yet that I've heard of...
Did not have my phone with me as I was loading firewood in the wheelbarrow. Wish I had. I was pretty concerned about getting him tucked in again. If it happens again I will take pictures.
I got my info from here, I want to put up at least one house and get rid of mosquitoes! Bat Gardens & Houses - Bat Conservation International
Good for you for leaving the little bugger alone. They are such good little critters. We get them here too. They are hardy. I love to watch them swoop through the air in the evening, murdering skeeters. We have a bat box that I bought on Amazon a few years ago. The directions said to hang it on a south facing wall, as high as possible. I guess the heat they absorb during the day, helps them stay limber at night. I mounted mine about 25 feet up. We get lots of little brown bats zooming in and out of it in the summer. In 2022, I re-stained our house (big job). So I took the bat house down for a few hours while I stained that area. I peeked inside. There were probably 10-20 bats in it. I set it down, leaning against a rock - then put it back up after I got that area stained. They never budged.
And they eat (the equivalent of) a thousand mosquitoes a night. So an average bat box can get rid of half a million mosquitoes a night! I put one up in our TN yard (before moving to LI).
Several bats have been/are going to be uplisted to the endangered species list, so it's good to help them out. PSA, if you have to handle a bat, wear gloves at the least. They carry some nasty diseases. A lady at church picked one up (twice) without gloves and got bit. She won the amazing prize of getting rabies shots
Check out the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website. Do a search on Bats. There is a lot of good information about the bat program and instructions for building bat houses.
Haven't got a chance to look thru/read the whole thing but quickly looking there seems to be a ton of info in this pdf. Several bat house plans in it. https://wiatri.net/inventory/bats/aboutBats/pdf/BuildingBatHouses.pdf
