Native Plant Wildlife Gardening

Yesterday was a good day. We were able to help our neighbor raise a bat house in his backyard. I’m all for that, more bats means less bugs. This particular style house is a rocket box and you can find the plans to build your own at: Rocket Box Bat House Plans.

First, the bat house had been mounted on a 16×4x4 pressure treated post.

A 3′ hole was dug where the house was to be located.

Some cement mix and water was poured in the hole before the 4×4 mounting post would go in it.

The bat house was raised! Yippie!

Temporary braces were nailed to the post to keep the house level while the cement dries. The base of the mounting post had been set in a thick plastic trash bag to help keep it dry. This is not mandatory.

Before securing the braces, the men checked to make certain the post was straight.

With the post level, the men then filled the rest of the hole with cement mix and water.

All straight and braced.

After a few days the support braces will be removed and the plastic trash bag trimmed to ground level.

A job well done.

More Information:

For installing a bat house and bat house placement, please visit the experts at Bat Conservation International.

For questions about bats in general, please join the Bat House Forums. The bat community is a small one but here I have found very experienced bat hosts. It’s a very friendly group and all of my questions have been answered by people who have been doing this a long time.