In my backyard here in South Texas we have a pond which at times means we have a ton of mosquitoes. We’ve tried fish, but since we have cats who don’t care about water and raccoons live near by once they get bigger they don’t last very long. So, I went searching the web and found that attracting bats by building a bat house can be a particularly good way to rid your yard of the pesky blood sucking mosquitoes. I had no idea bats loved the things so much. Did you know a single brown bat could eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour?
In my searching through google and stumbleupon I came across a site that offers free bat house plans and thought I’d share it with you all incase you have a mosquito problem like I do. I always see old fence boards at the street around here as people replace their wooden fences and will probably stop by and pick up some nice sturdy boards to build a few bat houses.
I’ve always been fascinated with getting rid of pests with out poisons by using natural enemies or natural deterrents. I’m planning in the future to do a write up on other ways to deter or rid your yard of pests naturally.
I’m sure I’ll be putting up pictures and a tutorial on how I build my bat houses. If you’re interested check back for that or subscribe to the rss feed at the top right of the page. Do you use natural means to get rid pests in your yard?
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May 23rd, 2008 at 7:26 am
I’ve seen these and people swear by them…but they kind of scare me, too. I’m not a big fan of bats
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May 23rd, 2008 at 7:38 am
Go to the web site and look at Mosquito surveillance map. In Texas and San Patricio Co. is an excellent example of mosquito breeding sites – the two pictures to the left. In products they have access to Bat Attractors which will help Bats find your new bat houses sooner. Having bats in your neighborhood helps assure you that your mosquitoes wont live to be 12 days old – that is when they can transfer West Nile Virus
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May 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hooray for bats! As you can tell I love ‘em!
Thanks for posting this info. Bats are amazing natural pest control–some bats can eat up to 2000 bugs in a single evening. Visit batcon.org for more info on these fascinating creatures.
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May 23rd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Posted this link in http://www.surfurls.com
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May 24th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Terri: Thanks for sharing that site with us Terri I’m glad you stopped by.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:29 am
gibsy: I appreciate that gibsy. I’m glad you enjoyed it enough to share with others.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:30 am
John R Schuehle: It’s crazy how effective bats can be against the little blood suckers. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and website John.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Chelle: Come on Chelle you probably wouldn’t even see much of them.;)
May 24th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Jason,
A Dr. Campbell solved the malaria problem south of San Antonio, Tx in the 1900’s. See Bats, Mosquitoes and Dollars by Dr. Charles A. R. Campbell. The bats eating the mosquitoes simply did not let enough of the mosquitoes get 12 days older after a blood meal – Therefore they were not Malaria conveyors. The same is true today with WNV.
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May 24th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Give me where you live & the approximate area of your city where there are mosquito problems. Let me see what I can do!
John R Schuehles last blog post..1
May 24th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
John R Schuehle: That is some awesome history and something I never knew. I love facts like that. Well hopefully I can get a bat house or two up and get the numbers down in my area.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
John R Schuehle: That is very generous of you to take time out like that. I’m in San Antonio as you know, but my zipcode is 78250 on the northwest side of town.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
J,
I dont know how to look up a zip code map of where you are – but you are right between the Bracken Bat Cave and my old family cave the Ney Cave. You should not have many problems with mosquitoes? Don’t you have a friend somewhere else we can help?
May 24th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Well I’m in luck then I guess maybe in a whole our area doesn’t have much in the way of the pests. It’s the yard right now that I have a problem with. I figured a bat house here would help keep my localized problem down instead of poison in the water pond that my cats drink from.
If anyone wants to see how John can help you please let him know your where abouts and he’ll try and give you some useful tips on the mosquito problem.
May 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am
J,
I just found out that Hummingbirds eat a lot of mosquitoes. Check it out at
http://www.nj.com/columns/expresstimes/koch/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1211688435191000.xml&coll=2
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May 25th, 2008 at 9:36 am
J,
I gave you the wrong website to check the mosquitoes. try: http://www.friocon.org and look at the mosquito surveillance map and San Patricio, Co. or Nueces Co. which is Corpus Christi. We are in the process of updateing approximately 70 maps. We are obviously working on the highest concentrations of Mosquitoes with the greatest exposure to people.
John R Schuehles last blog post..1
May 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
John R Schuehle: Holy moly it’s a mess down there! I’m glad I don’t live in Corpus, but I do own some land in Matagorda County so I’m sure I’d have the same problem there being about 1-2 minutes away from the river.
May 25th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
J. You would not believe this but last year one of your neighbors (from rockport) took me to Matagorda to see if I could help with the mosquitoes – because of his investments in cottages on the beach. You do have a problem with mosquitoes – but I think we can fix the problem.. Small World!!
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May 26th, 2008 at 11:32 am
John R Schuehle: Wow, it is such a small world! That’s neat though that bringing in wildlife or really giving them homes in strategic areas can have a direct impact on making our lives better.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Hey John
My name is John Jung and I live in the Philippines. I am a Sophmore right now in a school called Faith in a city name Antipolo. I need to do a project on ECOP(Employers Confederation of the Philippines.)Since there are many mosquitoes around the Philippines Ive decided to do something related to killing mosquitos. So I searched for things such as predators that would kill mosquitos and I found your site! I want to do research on this building bat house and teach it to people in Philippines so that they wouldnt suffer from blood eating insects like mosquiotos… I need your help John!
Thank you for your consideration^^