Bats, Bat boxes, and Bat-pups ?

nurturing

Apparently deer put their pregnancies in storage, so to speak, if it's a particularly hard winter. Then the fawns won't be born before there is plenty for the adults, and then the young, to browse on.

The storing sperm has tickled me a bit. Is it the lady bats way of getting out of sex for months? "Sorry I am not in the mood, I am storing sperm for spring"

When my children were little one of the highlights of their youth groups was the chap known as "the bat man" who gave a talk and brought with him an injured bat he had rescued. I never knew before that how fascinating they were. They have such a bad reputation, but they are amazing.

What a lovely thread, thanks Fanny. We live in the country and often see bats flying around. The way they breed is fascinating, you can learn so much on GN! I don’t know where ‘ours’ roost, haven’t seen any evidence that they do so here. I remember when I was a lawyer having a client who was very disgruntled not to be able to cut down a tree because bats roosted in it. He wasn’t very nice so I thought it was Karma!?

We had a workman at the house and he threw a brick from the utility room wall onto the patio. After he had done this, he was horrified to see there was a bat on it.

The ranger at our local woods was a bat fanatic so I phoned her and she came and spread out the bat's wings and said she thought it was ok. She put him in a box and said 'when it gets dark, hold him in your hand and stroke him gently until he flies off'.

When my husband came in from work I said 'I've got a little job for you'. The bat rewarded him by leaving a message on his hand!

Around May we had a bat roosting in some wall tiles and he was flying round the garden at dusk. I was going to get a bat box but then he disappeared and I haven't seen him all summer. Maybe I should get the bat box and hope he and his family come back.
I have to say, it does seem ridiculous that you can't fix your roof if it needs repair. Are you supposed to let the rain in? Much as I'd hate to disturb the bats a decent roof is essential to any property.

Baggs, I had no idea that was bat poo! I have seen evidence of it too. We do have bats though as I see them on the back garden. They really are fascinating.

I had no idea about the sperm storing

MaizieD yes, our garden is very wildlife friendly.
Our house is also old, but we don’t have any ‘outbuildings’ (unless you count the shed!) we don’t have a stream, but we do have a teeny tiny ‘pond’ made out of a sink. The pond is full of frogs, but unfortunately I don’t often see them as I’ve overdone it with duckweed this year.

Was thinking...should we still be 'preserving' bats, if they suspected that is where the coronavirus originated from??.....

I have nothing to help with bat boxes but huge applause to all who plan to or have bats. I went on a bat walk with Kensington Council around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens some years ago with a bat detector, listening to the creatures flying over the Serpentine. And in North West London we have bat walks around the local reservoir, wonderful to see them swoop and dive at dusk.

We do have an old house and lots of outbuildings, plus a stream round our boundary. We're pretty well provided with bats. Nice to see in an evening when they start hunting.

If you have bats flying around they probably already have roosts.

You could possibly do more to help them by having an insect rich garden, including some water, and not using pesticides.

Water seems to be important; when some neighbours had some radical alterations made to their house the work was held up for some time as they had to have a bat survey done because the house was near to a watercourse. I assume because water attracts some of their important food insects (gnats and mosquitos?)

If I needed to have the trees pruned, it could be problematic. I'd have to have it done when the bats are elsewhere (in their winter roosts, perhaps) and get someone qualified to check - from the bat group. The same would apply to any work on the house.

FannyCornforth, pups? I really don't know as I never disturb them. It would be lovely to have wildlife cameras in there!

ExDancer there is a restaurant quite near to us called La Gondola. It was quite the place in the 60s and 70s, but is now infamous for its appearance in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.
Its a really big place, and it’s completely derelict now and basically falling down, but plans to demolish it have been scuppered due to bats living there.

A word of caution.
I worked in a shop that had bats in the attic (we think they got in through a ventilation grille) and we loved having them.
However, the shop owners weren't so happy. The property needed re-roofing which involved removing the slate roof to the rafters, and they couldn't get planning permission because its illegal to disturb the bats.
I'm not sure what happened because I left before things were resolved, and I noticed it did get re-roofed a few years later. But I know it was going to cost a lot of extra money.
So if you think you may one day want to extend your home - be wary.

Oh, thank you Hetty, I will do.
I hadn’t thought about that with the boxes!
Have you had many pups?

FannyCornforth, get in touch with your local bat group to find out more about them. They have separate summer and winter roosts, in different places. They are protected by law. I have bat boxes on the house wall and in the trees. You cannot touch them at all, so they're permanent, until they rot and fall down!

Their poo looks very like mouse droppings - that shouldn't be surprising, really.

Yes, thank you Baggs!
They really are phenomenal creatures aren’t they - flying mammals.
It’s strange to think that they breast feed…

Another occasion where I'm amazed by the breadth of knowledge on this site. Thank you Baggs
I'd always thought bat poo was like bird poo, rather than pellets. (Don't know why). Seeing how easy it would be to sweep up, I might encourage bats to lodge when I move.

As you can see, our house wall is pretty rough (old stone house).

It's not so much special little ladders as just something to hook onto, so if you're using smooth wood to make bat boxes you need to score some small grooves where they will land and climb inside.

Hope you do get some bats.

We've had one or two in the house a couple of times. You just open windows and doors and they find their way out pretty quickly.

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Where they roost between the house wall and a porch support beam. And some of the droppings on the doorstep.

Bat shit crazy house, this, and we love it