Why are there bats all over my suburban neighborhood? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: Today 4:27:03 AM EDT
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I posted about this before. There are bats all over at sunset. They look kind of small. The area is 100% new construction. There are no abandoned building or barns (where there used to see them In NY. I don't think there are caves nearby. I don't think they're in the attics of new houses. Maybe there's a cave or somewhere a ways away and they fly here for the insects in the trees and bushes or planted here as part of the development? |
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You have bats in the neighborhood because you have a large insect population. Perhaps the more relevant question is why is your neighborhood overrun with insects? Near as I can tell, you decided to relocate to an area with both bat and insect issues… did you look into this before you closed on the new house? |
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Originally Posted By 753rd: What makes you think they are not in the attics of newer houses? If everything isn’t sealed tight, they can get in. They are tiny and can fit through tiny cracks. Years ago they put in a huge development of McMansions. The gaps the contractors left all over was insane, places like the soffit on dormers met the main roof had 12-18" openings lol. I was doing NWCO work there for years |
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Bats are like snakes. They eat organisms that humans don’t like, and don’t make spectacles of themselves. |
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Originally Posted By Caeser2001: This one bat can eat 1,000-1,200 insects in an hour and they love mosquitoes. I have seen several Eagle Scout projects that were bat house installations. Bats are good to have around. |
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They can live under porch roofs, eaves, car ports ect. I don't know about their habitat in the desert SW in particular though. I've been sitting in a tree bow hunting and watched them fly up to shag bark hickory trees and tuck themselves under the curled bark. |
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Originally Posted By Shazbat: Bats are awesome, love watching them catch insects. Dragonflies, frogs, toads, bats, all friends of mine. Same. A bat flew into my house once when I was taking the dog out, and I very carefully captured it and took it back outside. Love watching them hunt when the sun goes down.  they really do a number on the bugs.
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| At 5:30 am while having coffee and a big cigar on my patio, a bat is making circles in my yard right now, including flying under the covered patio. I enjoy it and understand the benefits. The bat will sleep in a semi hidden spot under the patio. I will not disturb it. |
| I used to be a big fan of em, as my wife would tell me about all the insects and undesirables they'd eat. Then when I read about rabies transmission to people I'm kinda terrified of em. There was a news story recently about the hunt for a young woman that picked up a dead bat, as the medical authorities are now concerned about potential rabies. |
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"Woman seen picking up a rabid bat in Minneapolis sends city into a PANIC putting up flyers trying to find her" Linky to Article on Daily Mail |
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Originally Posted By Butternut: I used to be a big fan of em, as my wife would tell me about all the insects and undesirables they'd eat. Then when I read about rabies transmission to people I'm kinda terrified of em. There was a news story recently about the hunt for a young woman that picked up a dead bat, as the medical authorities are now concerned about potential rabies. You can get the rabies vaccine if you have any close encounters. It's only like eight horse tranquilizer sized injections. 
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| One decent sized bat colony can be 1000's of them. They (construction activity for new houses) probably cut down or demolished one or two places with big colonies and now they are all over looking for new places and new patterns to inhabit. Stick a bat house up in your yard away from the house to take the pressure off them finding a place IN your house to live. They are very good at finding little holes to hide in. |
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Originally Posted By Duke117: You have bats in the neighborhood because you have a large insect population. Perhaps the more relevant question is why is your neighborhood overrun with insects? Near as I can tell, you decided to relocate to an area with both bat and insect issues… did you look into this before you closed on the new house? This. When buying a house, everyone thinks "realtor," but they never think to bring a lizid peeples along with them during their house hunting. The lizid will tell you what you need to know about the insect population. - plat - title search - home inspection - lizid inspection Sure, a lot of people are just fed up with ever growing closing costs as it is, and think this is just another alien welfare program, but it can save you from future troubles like this. |
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"There aren't any caves". That's a quaint thought, but you are forgetting that your town is ringed by miles and miles of sandstone cliffs. Bats will live in the cracks in the rocks of the cliffline. One of the most amazing spectacles I've ever seen were the bats at Chasm View Wall on Longs Peak. It wasn't until a couple years later when I was bivouaced down closer to Chasm View Lake that I finally saw what the bats were feeding on. It was like something out of a nature documentary. |
| Bats are cool. There aren't a ton where I live, but there are enough so that seeing them is a normal occurrence. I like seeing them because I know they're eating critters that I don't want around. |
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Make DDT great again! I’d love to chase the DDT truck again, but this time I’d have to get me an electric scooter to keep up. Few years back our daughter’s home was infested with bats in the attic. Called out a wild life guy that really knew his game. I asked him about those bat boxes people build and mount outside their homes up in the trees. He said that’s the worst thing you can do. A bat house will hold a few bats. Bats live in colonies of hundreds. If there aren’t enough bat boxes, they’re going to get inside your house because they need the space. Every time I see some do-gooder on a DIY TV show installing bat boxes around the house, I cringe. |
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Don't bats migrate kinda like birds? Might be a seasonal thing. I see them occasionally at my place. They like to sleep in the big old hollowed out live oaks. You see them come out at dusk and start fluttering around catching bugs |
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| I had to have a bat guy come to our 100 year old farmhouse because we got bats in the attic one year. It was the year after a huge derecho had come through. He mentioned he was going nonstop because all the homes with new roofs were getting bats. He said contractors weren’t sealing them properly and bats were getting inside. Many were new or nearly brand new homes. You might want to check just to make sure everything is sealed up. |
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we have a shit ton of them here in South Texas. Whole caves full and such. But most people don’t notice them in the neighborhood unless they’re out after dusk and looking at the “little birds” flying around. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Caeser2001: This one bat can eat 1,000-1,200 insects in an hour and they love mosquitoes. Exactly. Bats are freaking cool, and do a lot of good. You must have the following in your area to have bats: -a roost. Either a structure or cave that is relatively unmolested -a large surface water source. When bats “emerge” for the night’s hunt, the first stop is to skim the top of a water source and drink on the fly. We have seen them even skim the top of swimming pools -bugs. Mosquitoes are thier favorite, but they also eat the hell out of moths and whatnot that damage crops. As long as they are not roosting in your attic and shitting everywhere, bats are a great thing to have in your area. I would consider it a bonus to have enough bats that you notice them. Put up a few bat houses and purple Martin houses and enjoy your bug free back yard |
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Originally Posted By 1Andy2: Don't bats migrate kinda like birds? Might be a seasonal thing. I see them occasionally at my place. They like to sleep in the big old hollowed out live oaks. You see them come out at dusk and start fluttering around catching bugs Some bats migrate. I know the Mexican Freetail Bats are pretty famous for it |
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Originally Posted By thorm001: we have a shit ton of them here in South Texas. Whole caves full and such. But most people don’t notice them in the neighborhood unless they’re out after dusk and looking at the “little birds” flying around. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/160746/IMG_7026_jpeg-3830555.JPG I know exactly what cave that is. Seen the bat emergence there twice |
