Bats can be a big benefit to your yard. But they can be picky when it comes to where they actually decide to roost. Knowing when to put up a bat house can help to tip the odds in your favor.
Basic Seasonal Bat Behavior
Many people don’t realize that in most locations bats simply aren’t around during the winter months. They typically either hibernate in places such as caves or migrate to areas with a warmer climate and available food supply.
So the average backyard bat house isn’t actually occupied throughout the year. Instead, it usually functions as their summer roost, which they use beginning in the spring, throughout the summer, and into the early fall.
Take Advantage Of Their Routine
Putting up a bat house in January through April is generally considered the best time. This will allow you to take advantage of the fact that the bats will just be coming out of hibernation or returning for the warmer months and looking for a place to stay.
Alternatively, you may want to install a bat house in the fall, that way it’s ready and waiting for the bats to when they return the following spring. Could you get lucky hanging a house late in the summer months?
You might, but this would typically only happen if a group of bats were forced to abandon their current roost for some reason. It’s more likely however that you’ll end up having to wait until spring for all of those bat house benefits such as free nightly pest control.
When You’re Kicking Bats Out
Most people who currently have bats in the attic, garage, or in another area of their property are not very happy about it. However, it can give them an opportunity to easily move their resident bat population into a bat house instead.
That’s because one of the best times to hang a bat house is just before you will be bat-proofing your space and thereby kicking the bats out of it. By installing a house as close as possible to the location, bats will have a convenient option that they can move right into.
If you will be bat-proofing your space in the fall months, after the bats have already left, this would be another opportune time to install a bat house nearby. This way when the bats return to the same spot in the spring and are unable to get in, they’ll have another choice readily available.
By planning when to put up a bat house you can significantly improve the odds that a colony of bats will move into it. But don’t forget there are other important factors to consider as well that may influence whether or not they do, such as if you’ve applied a bat attractant and exactly where it has been installed.
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