WARNING: BEFORE YOU BUY A BAT HOUSE!

BE CAREFUL OF FRAUDULENT BAT HOMES!

It angers me that literally half the so called "bat houses" sold online are so poorly designed and built that bats will never live in them! Many people nail together scrap wood and claim it is a "Bat house" when it is nothing more then nails and wood! For example, there are sellers on eBay that post broken wooden peach crates claiming they are quality craftsmanship! As long time bat enthusiasts and animal lovers, we want everyone to know what it takes to have a successful bat house.

DO NOT BUY A BAT HOUSE IF:

• It does not have a landing pad! Successful box style Bat Houses ALL require a landing pad of two or more inches.

• It does not have gripping surfaces! Bats require that the chambers and landing pad BOTH have horizontal striations. Unfortunately, many fraudulent bat homes are being sold without horizontal striations! As bats will not live in a house that does not let them grip the sides of the chambers easily, the typical eBay bat house, with no gripping surface, is just useless nails and wood, wasting your money and time.
  

• It does not have ventilation. Bats are just like you and me. They want a warm, dry, ventilated house to live in. Too many bat bat homes have NO ventilation or too much ventilation! Too much and the house is damp and cold. To little and the house is stuffy and hot. Both problems lead to an unsuccessful bat house.
  

• All joints are NOT nailed and glued or caulked. Studies have shown that once bats roost in your bat house they will return year after year. If your bat house is not built to last, what is the point? You want to make sure it does not look like it was just thrown together. If it looks like shady craftsmanship, then it probably is. Be sure that the carpenter who built your bat house took the time to glue each joint and seal the outer joints with outdoor caulking. Also, if plywood is used, be sure that they painted or stained it with a non-toxic outdoor treatment. MOST BAT HOUSES FOR SALE DO NOT HAVE THESE FEATURES!
  

• IT'S TOO SMALL! Bat Homes will NOT be successful if they are too narrow or too small! Each chamber space should measure between 3/4" to 1 inch apart on the inside. Bats will not roost in a bat house where the chambers are too big! Bat Homes that are successful are wide and tall.
  

My husband and I care about Bats too much to not warn you of the BAD BAT HOUSES out there for sale. We would love for you to buy our bat house of course, and before you do, please take a moment to do some research. Once you do, you will see why we warned you.

Please visit the Bat Conservation International website for more details about what makes up a successful bat house. Even if you don't buy our bat house we want to do everything we can to steer you in the right direction.

We at Laughingbat.com put bats first and believe that with a little education and compassion we can all be successful bat house owners!

BAT FACTS!

The more you understand about bats, the easier it will be to make your bat house a successful one. Now, when I say a successful bat house, what I am really saying is a bat house that is home to happy bats. Anything else is just some wood nailed together and NOT a bat house!

What is scary is I have seen really poorly built "bat houses" for sale online and it makes me sad and angry knowing that good people spend their well earned money on these fraudulent "bat boxes" in hopes they will reap the benefits of hosting a local bat colony. Little do they know, they have been had by an ignorant "bat house builder"! I have even seen what appears to be nothing more then broken wooden peach crates being sold as BAT HOMES! This is a shame! My husband and I strive to not only provide quality bat homes, we also make a conscious effort to educate everyone as best we can so they do not end up with a broken peach crate for a "bat house".

I promise to cover, in later blogs, all the details of what makes up a REAL bat house. I also plan on busting all of the old bat myths that have haunted these poor and gentle creatures. Lets just say, Hollywood has done these cute little mammals no justice!

As the chief predators of night-flying insects, bats play a critical role in maintaining the balance of nature. Bats protect local farmers from the pricey assault of 33 million rootworms each summer. Cucumber beetles, June beetles, stink bugs, leafhoppers, cutworm and cornearworm moths are all well-known pests that are just a few of the many insects contained in the bat's regular diet. Some species of Bats in North America even eat Scorpions and cockroaches making them my best friends!

The increasing trend of bat house ownership may contribute greatly to saving the species of bats that are in fear of endangerment. By preserving your local bat population you work to maintain nature's balance.

The sharp decline of the bat populous contributes to the growing demand for toxic, harmful pesticides that continue to threaten our personal and environmental health. It is a well-known fact that exposure to pesticides significantly lowers the immune system, leaving the human body open to developing disease and, in the worst cases, to chronic and life-threatening illnesses. A wide variety of health problems that have occurred in the last 20 to 30 years, for instance behavioral problems in children, food allergies, sensitivities, autoimmune disorders, etc., have been cited as being caused in part by the increase in toxic pesticide consumption.

So, as you can clearly see, by supporting your local bat population to regain its foothold and strengthen, the pests that wreak havoc from your garden to the crops of your local farmers will be brought back into balance. This balance will allow for a significant decrease in toxic pesticides. By being exposed to fewer pesticides, your health, along with the health of your local ecosystem, will strengthen!

This is where people often ask themselves, "Why doesn't everybody have a bat house!?" Good question! I hope you can take what you have learned in this blog to help educate your friends and family about the exciting benefits of bat house ownership! If you would like to refer your friends to purchase a great quality bat house please have them visit our website! Laughingbat.com!

Stay tooned for more interesting Bat Facts!

The Birds & the Bats

An interesting fact that many may not know is that bats are not birds! Bats and birds both can fly, yet they belong to different animal classes; birds are in a class called Aves while bats are in the class Mammalia. Bats are mammals, just like humans, which means that all bats are warm-blooded, have hair, bear live young, and feed their babies milk.

Most people think bats are some kind of flying mouse, or related somehow to rodents. Rodents will give birth to many many litters and increase their family tree by the hundreds in the span of a year. Bats on the other hand have more in common with humans as most bat species will give birth to only one baby each year! Few species will give birth to twins or triplets each year but that still pales in comparison to the multiplication power of rodents!

You will hear me talk about the importance bats play in our ecosystem and just how tragic it is that more than half of North America's 45 species are listed as endangered or close to being endangered!

Bats play a key roll in maintaining the diversity of life on earth. To give you a specific example, the Mexican Free-tailed bats from just three caves near San Antonio, Texas, consume a million pounds of insects on average nightly over local towns and farms. Two thirds of Mexico's tequila production can be attributed to the pollination of the giant cacti and agave from which tequila is made. without bats whole agricultural industries would be in jeopardy!

In fact bats play an essential role as the primary pollinators and seed dispersers, around the world, for countless trees and shrubs that are of great economic value. Bananas, dates, figs, avocados, even the endangered saguaro cactus, are dependent upon bats for pollination because they bloom at night.

Bat-dependent products:

bananas breadfruit avocados dates figs

mangoes cloves allspice nutmeg cashew nuts

cashew fruits guava chewing gum naseberry

kapok for stuffing life preservers rope tequila

balsa wood for carving and for making model airplanes

important new heart medicines

Bats are also responsible for 95% of the reforestation of the tropical rain forests through their dispersal of seeds. However, the talent that they are most known for is their enormous capacity for consuming insects! A nocturnal mammal, the bat eats when the insects are out, in contrast to birds, which eat during the day. Some bat species consume half their weight in bugs in a single night!

Birds and bats do not compete for food or space, so your bat house is compatible with your bird houses and bird feeders, should you have any. I would however warn you to keep your dogs and cats away from the bat house while you are working on attracting occupants.

Bats my not be related to birds but they do share the same predators! Outdoor cats, snakes and raccoons will pray on bats. There are snakes that learn to climb trees or buildings in order to get into a bat house or roosting site! This is why I believe mounting your bat house on a pole to be the safest option.

In later blogs I will go into greater detail about the optimal strategies for mounting your bat houses so stay tuned!

Visit our website Laughingbat.com!

WHY OWN A BAT HOUSE?

As longtime animal lovers and bat enthusiasts, my husband and I were surprised at the number of people who have never heard of a BAT HOUSE! Since we started offering our handcrafted Redwood Bat Hotels for sale, our inbox has been flooded with questions about how to manifest a successful bat house.
My goal for this blog is that after reading it you will not only want to have a bat house of your own, you will also hold a deeper understanding, love and appreciation for our bat buddies and the great benefits that come with living in harmony with our friends of the night sky!
Why Own a bat house? Why go to all the trouble to buy a bat house, find a good spot to mount it, take the few minutes every season to do light maintenance on the bat house? What is in it for you?! Besides looking cool and being a great conversational piece during your back yard BBQ party's, owning a successful bat house will bring you many benefits you many not have thought about before today.

Bats are an invaluable natural resource. It is unfortunate that from years of unfounded human fear and persecution, the bat population has taken a significant downturn. In the last 50 years the bats natural habitat has been compromised by the increase in urban living, by taking away their homes and poisoning their food and water source with the overuse of urban and agricultural pesticides.

We have seen a rapid decline in the North American bat population and now it is time to fight back. YOU are doing bats a huge service by hanging just one bat house. With a little education, understanding and compassion we can help to bring balance back to our local ecosystem. You will greatly benefit from the kind act of investing in a small piece of Bat Real Estate, as once bats occupy your bat house they will begin to eat the pesky bugs that infest your lawn and neighborhood! As you may have heard, the average small bat eats around 600 bugs per hour!

The Two Chamber Redwood Bat Hotel that we make houses an average of 40 bats. That's 24,000 bugs per hour on average! Installing a bat house would consequently require less and less toxic pesticide use, ending the vicious cycle of decreasing the bat population. In return you can safely save money by no longer needing to use chemical sprays and insect repellents!

Although I will often refer to the North American species of bat, if you plan on mounting your bat house in a different region, you will find that many facts in this blog will still apply. I encourage you to research the needs of your local bat species. All bat species however, prefer their home to be warm, dry, well ventilated and clean. Our bat homes have been successfully mounted not only in Canada and the United States but throughout Europe as well!

If you are an avid gardener or farmer you will love knowing that bats not only eat the insects that eat your flowers and tomatoes, they also help to pollinate your plants! If you have fruit trees bats are especially helpful in aiding the germination process by traveling from tree to tree, much like bees do, carrying with them the pollen from the previous plants.

So, as you can see, the small yet significant part you play will, over time, have a great impact on your local ecosystem. In addition, studies have shown that the same bat colony will return to your bat house year after year, so you will have FREE pest control for years to come!

For more information or to order a Bat House please visit Laughingbat.com!

Now, lets just get the bats IN your bat house, shall we? Stay tuned for great all natural bat attraction tips & tricks!