BATS EAT SCORPIONS?!

Living in Nevada we don't see a lot of moths or have many run ins with mosquitoes. We do however have an abundant supply of cockroaches and scorpions! Ask anyone that lives in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas even parts of southern California and they will agree, desert cockroaches and scorpions are the hardest bugs to get rid of once they are in your neighborhood!

Growing up in Canada I loved bats for taking care of all the black flies, mosquitoes and other blood sucking insects that would torment my summers by the lake. With out bats I would not have been able to survive, let alone enjoy, my vacations at the cottage. I used to watch the bats fly around the forests edge by the lake swooping down and gobbling up all the bugs! It was great.

Now living in scorpion country Nevada, until recently, I never knew that some species of bats specifically eat scorpions and cockroaches by the dozen!

The Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus), unlike most bats which hunt for flying insects, feeds almost entirely from the ground and captures little, if any, prey while in flight. With their big cute ears they can detect insects simply by listening for footsteps.

After swooping down upon its prey, the pallid bat carries the insect to a safe perch to enjoy its meal. Its most common prey include cockroaches, crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, and even scorpions. What I find amazing is the pallid bat is actually immune to a scorpion's sting!

Pallid bats make their homes in rock crevices, buildings, bat houses and bridges in arid desert regions. They are know to live across the western part of North America, from Mexico and the southwestern United States north through Oregon, Washington, and western Canada.

The Pallid bat is just one of 1,100 species of bat. I am sure there are more species of bat that also eat gross ground bugs, but with their cute ears, hungry appetite for the bugs I despise and their strong desire to live in my bat houses, I would have to rank the Pallid bat as my personal favorite bat!

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!