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    Flying Mammals: Number 21

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    lastoutrider
    Bats play an important ecological role by eating large numbers of insect pests. Their populations have declined due to habitat loss and pesticide use. This document provides information on the types of bats found in North Carolina and gives guidance on how landowners can encourage bats on their property by maintaining both foraging habitat, such as wetlands and streams, and roosting habitat, including installing bat boxes or leaving tree snags and cavities. The optimal bat house design shown balances temperature needs and allows easy entry and exit for bats.

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    Flying Mammals: Number 21

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    lastoutrider
    50 views4 pages
    Bats play an important ecological role by eating large numbers of insect pests. Their populations have declined due to habitat loss and pesticide use. This document provides information on the types of bats found in North Carolina and gives guidance on how landowners can encourage bats on their property by maintaining both foraging habitat, such as wetlands and streams, and roosting habitat, including installing bat boxes or leaving tree snags and cavities. The optimal bat house design shown balances temperature needs and allows easy entry and exit for bats.

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    Working with Wildlife 21

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    Bats play an important ecological role by eating large numbers of insect pests. Their populations have declined due to habitat loss and pesticide use. This document provides information on the types of bats found in North Carolina and gives guidance on how landowners can encourage bats on their property by maintaining both foraging habitat, such as wetlands and streams, and roosting habitat, including installing bat boxes or leaving tree snags and cavities. The optimal bat house design shown balances temperature needs and allows easy entry and exit for bats.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    50 views4 pages

    Flying Mammals: Number 21

    Uploaded by

    lastoutrider
    Bats play an important ecological role by eating large numbers of insect pests. Their populations have declined due to habitat loss and pesticide use. This document provides information on the types of bats found in North Carolina and gives guidance on how landowners can encourage bats on their property by maintaining both foraging habitat, such as wetlands and streams, and roosting habitat, including installing bat boxes or leaving tree snags and cavities. The optimal bat house design shown balances temperature needs and allows easy entry and exit for bats.

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    You are on page 1of 4

    Number 21

    People are becoming increasingly


    aware of the importance of the
    bats they once persecuted.
    Increased pesticide use, the loss of
    roosting and foraging habitat has
    resulted in the current decline of
    many bat species. North Carolina
    supports 16 species of bats,
    including three federally listed as
    endangered.
    This publication
    provides information about bats,
    their benefits, and steps
    to
    encourage bats on private lands.

    The Importance of Bats


    Bats serve as important pollinators
    of many food plants as well as
    provide useful aids for medical
    research, particulary for the blind.

    Distributed in furtherance
    of the acts of Congress of
    May 8 and June 30, 1914.
    Employment and program
    opportunities are offered to
    all people regardless of
    race, color, national origin,
    sex, age, or disability.
    North Carolina State
    University, North Carolina
    A & T State University, US
    Department of Agriculture,
    and local governments

    Flying Mammals
    Bats are the only mammals capable
    of true flight. Their wings are like
    hands with skin stretched between
    modified finger bones. They are not
    blind, but rely on echolocation
    instead of their eyes for locating and
    capturing food at night. Bats are
    more closely related to primates
    than the rodents with which they are
    often compared. They have slow
    reproductive rates with typically only
    one offspring cycle. Like all other
    mammals, female bats nurse their
    young.

    Bats are the only major predator of


    night-flying insects. Bat prey
    includes lacewings, cockroaches,
    gnats, and mosquitos as their major
    food source. A single Big brown bat
    can eat between 3,000 and 7,000
    mosquitos in a night, with large
    populations of bats consuming
    thousands of tons of potentially
    harmful forest and agricultural pests
    annually.
    Permanent wet areas are critical
    because they supply water and a
    consistent insect supply.

    North Carolina
    Cooperative Extension Service
    North Carolina State University
    College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
    College of Forest Resources

    Page 2

    Balancing Bat Habitat


    A balance of foraging habitat and roosting habitat
    is essential. Bats spend over half of their lives in
    roosts and rely on sheltered, undisturbed natural
    sites such as caves, crevices in rocks, and tree
    cavities to meet their needs. In the winter
    months, insulated roosts are important for
    hibernating bats, while in late spring and early
    summer, roosts that can sustain daytime
    temperatures between 80 and 90 degrees
    Fahrenheit are important for raising young bats.
    Bats are somewhat opportunistic in their roost
    selection and often utilize man-made structures
    such as attics, abandoned houses, church lofts,
    and barns where natural roosts are unavailable.

    Install properly constructed artificial roosts in


    areas were natural roosts are scarce or
    absent. Solitary species such as the Hoary
    bat will not use bat houses consistently as will
    the colonial bats, which include the Little
    brown bat, Big brown bat, and Eastern
    pipistrelle. Use the following diagram to
    build effective, maintenance-free bat
    houses for roosting and raising young.

    Promoting Bat Habitat


    Encourage bats on your property by furnishing
    foraging and roosting habitats in close proximity.
    Maintain and manage snags in mature woodlots
    to increase the availability of natural roosts.
    Ensure foraging habitat by protecting all
    permanent water sources such as beaver ponds,
    swamps, marshes, and streams.

    BAT HABITATS TO
    PROTECT
    Foraging
    Beaver ponds
    Marshes
    Streams
    Farmponds
    Seasonal pools
    Large drainage
    ditches
    River drainages

    Roosting
    Caves
    Dead, hollow snags
    Live cavitiy trees
    Abandoned
    homeplaces
    Old stone chimneys
    Crevices in rocks
    Travel corridors
    Basic Bat House Design

    N.C. Cooperative Extension Service

    Working With Wildlife # 21 - Bats

    Page 3

    Construction Tips

    Place bat houses 10 to 15 feet off the


    ground. Always seek assistance when
    using folding or extension ladders.

    Use cedar, cypress, or pressure-treated


    pine lumber to insure durable, longer-lasting Locate boxes where they will absorb
    boxes.
    maximum sunlight. Where possible, place
    four boxes per tree, one each facing North,
    Use rough lumber, cut shallow grooves, or
    South, East, and West, to allow the bats to
    attach fine plastic or wire mesh to the inner
    choose the box they need.
    surfaces of the box so bats can easily crawl
    up and into the house.
    Install bat houses by early April. Dont
    worry if bats do not begin using them
    Avoid painting or varnishing the inside of the
    immediately. A recent survey by Bat
    house.
    Conservation International (BCI) showed a
    52% occupancy rate for all boxes. It may
    Paint or cover the roof and the top four
    take up to two years for bats to find and
    inches of the sides with tar paper or another
    begin using artificial roosts.
    dark material to insure the high temperature
    ranges required by both young and adult Inspect bat houses annually and remove
    bats.
    any vegetation that could interfere with
    entry to the roost or allow predators to
    Seal all seams with silicone caulk to
    enter. Attach predator guards of roofing tin
    waterproof houses and prevent heat and
    on the mounting post or tree at a height of
    moisture losses.
    three feet to protect roosting bats from
    house cats, raccoons, and snakes.

    Installation Tips

    Place bat boxes close to rivers, lakes,


    ponds, marshes, or other permanent water
    sources where insects are abundant.

    Secure boxes to the sides of trees with a


    ten penny nail or with crimped wire or a lag
    bolt that can be loosened as the tree
    grows. Boxes mounted on fast-growing
    conifers may have to be remounted every
    2 to 3 years.

    Tilt houses at a 10 degree angle to help


    young bats stay in the box.

    North Carolina Bats


    Brazilian
    free-tailed bat
    Big brown bat
    Eastern
    big-eared bat
    Eastern
    pipistrelle
    Evening bat
    Hoary bat

    Indiana bat *
    Little brown bat
    Northern long-eared bat
    Red bat
    Small-footed bat
    Seminole bat
    Silver-haired bat
    Southeastern bat
    Virginia big-eared bat*

    * Federally listed as Endangered


    Prepared by:
    Edwin J. Jones, Department Extension Leader,
    Mark A. Megalos, Extension Forestry Specialist,
    J. Chris Turner, Extension Associate

    Page 4

    References:
    W.D. Webster, J.Parnell and W.C.Biggs, Jr. 1985. Mammals of the Carolinas,
    Virginia, and Maryland. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
    Tuttle, M. and D. Hensley. 1993. The Bat House Builders Handbook.
    Bat Conservation International, Inc., P.O. Box 162603, Austin, Texas 787162603

    Virginia big-eared bat illustration on page 1 used with artists permission.


    Other Wildlife Notes Available:
    No. 1 - Endangered Species
    No. 14 - Snags and Downed Logs
    No. 2 - Eastern Gray Squirrel
    No. 15 - Managing Edges for Wildlife
    No. 3 - White-tailed Deer
    No. 16 - Building Songbird Boxes
    No. 4 - Songbirds
    No. 17 - Woodland Wildlife Nest Boxes
    No. 5 - Wild Turkey
    No. 18 - Low Cost Habitat Improvements
    No. 6 - Wood Duck
    No. 19 - Pools for Amphibians
    No. 7 - Cottontail Rabbit
    No. 20 - Hummingbirds and Butterflies
    No. 8 - Bobwhite Quail
    No. 21 - Bats
    No. 9 - Ruffed Grouse
    No. 22 - Owls
    No. 10 - Black Bear
    No. 23 - Managing Beaver Ponds
    No. 11 - Raccoon
    No. 24- Herbaceous Plants for Wildlife
    No. 12 - Mourning Dove
    No. 25- SIP Wildlife Opportunities
    No. 13 - Wildlife Terms

    FOREST STEWARDSHIP
    a cooperative program for
    improving and maintaining all of the
    resources on private forestland

    10-94-4M-WWW-21

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