Background
The first bat house in South Africa was erected more than
50 years ago at Komatipoort when the railway line was built in an attempt
to attract bats to eradicate mosquito carriers of the malaria parasite. (Click
here for picture)
Mr Nigel Fernsby, previous chairman of the Gauteng and Northern Bat
Interest Group (GNoR BIG), has been involved in bat conservation for 11
years and has launched the first bat house project in South Africa by
constructing the well-known bat houses at Ngwenya. (Photos on right.
Click on photos for larger view).
Because experimentation is the only way to determine the housing needs of
different bat species in different climates, Nigel Fernsby and other South
Africans are comparing information on the success of different bat house
styles, as Americans and Canadians have done through BCI’s North
American Bat House Research Project.
Nigel
Fernsby (photo, left) has achieved great success with bat house designs
attracting the ‘crevice-dwellers’ such as the free-tailed bats, to ‘cubicle-dwellers’
like serotine bats and yellow bats. These range from housing small
colonies to large 'hotels' that are able to house thousands of bats.
Wherever unwelcome bats are evicted and excluded from buildings, all
interest groups advise the owners not to use poison and to provide bat
houses as alternative roosting places.
According to dr. Peter Taylor, a well known South African
authority on bats and author of the book Bats of Southern Africa, Guide
to Biology, Identification and Conservation, there is every reason to
believe that the widespread use of bat houses in southern Africa will
greatly aid in the conservation of our bat fauna, help to reduce the
threat of malaria, as well as benefit farmers through the pest control
services of resident bat colonies.
Reasons
for Bat Houses
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All bats need somewhere to roost. With
increasing urbanisation, many bats have been forced to make use of
buildings as natural roost sites are destroyed or made unsuitable for
bats.
-
Roof-roosting bats can sometimes be a nuisance
in terms of noise at night, the unpleasant odour of the guano and, in
some cases, the bats themselves. In cases such as these, the
bats can be attracted away from the house through the use of bat
houses.
-
Bat houses can also be used to attract bats to
an area – farmers may wish to attract bats to roost close to their
crops and so aid the farmer in insect and pest control.
-
Bat houses can also be used to attract bats for educational
purposes,
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As a tourist attraction, for instance in game
reserves where the public will be able to see and learn more about
this interesting and fascinating mammal species. Ngwenya is an
excellent example of a lodge where visitors are able to view at least
six species of bats at close range. (More about Ngwenya on the Gallery
& links pages)
-
Bat houses should always be used when evicting
bats from a building. The evicted bats will need an alternative
place to roost and a suitable bat house should always be provided.
-
Bat phobia. Some people, in spite of being
informed about the truth about bats, freak out when bats inhabit their
homes.
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Reduction of the threat of malaria.
-
Conservation of bats and protecting vulnerable
species.
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Research purposes. Data obtained from persons
with bat houses on their property is extremely helpful to bat
scientists to study bat populations as a whole, their species
distributions, population trends and habitat requirements.
Not all bats are attracted to the
same design of bat house!
Several different types of bat houses are available to
accommodate the various species of bats and this has to be taken into
consideration when siting a bat house. Crevice-dwellers i.e. free-tailed
bats, will need a different design to the cubicle-dwellers i.e. serotine
bats and Yellow House Bats. Whatever the design though, the house
should be well sealed – draughts and leaky roofs are not appreciated by
bats!
How
Soon will Bats Occupy their New House?
If placed in good habitat in the early spring, it is
common for a few bats to begin using their new house the first season, and
even within the first week. If the bat house does not contain bats after
the second season, any of four problems might exist. The box is not
getting enough sun, a seal has opened allowing too much ventilation, the
box is in poor habitat or the design is incorrect for the type of bats in
the area. If you already have noticed bats around the property in the
summer at dusk, your only problem will be choosing the right site &
right bat house designs for the types of bats in your area.
The
basic rules for siting a bat house are:
-
Houses should be placed
high enough to allow bats to ‘drop’ down when they exit the
house. Bats need a drop before they actually begin flying. Any
height above 1.5 metres would probably be satisfactory.
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The temperature inside the
bat house plays a huge role. Nigel Fernsby recommends mounting
the bat house on a north-west to north facing wall, trying to get
about 2 hours sun onto the bat house in the late afternoon, so as to
warm it up a little towards the bats' evening hunting time.
-
The colour of the house in
South Africa is not as important as in the northern hemisphere. If bat
houses are sited in areas that are generally very hot, i.e. the Karoo,
then they may be painted a light colour. Houses in other parts in
South Africa do not require specific colours besides a good varnish.
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Erecting more than one bat
house greatly increases the chances of one being occupied.
-
Fernsby also recommends
that the open-bottomed houses should be positioned in such a way to
allow inspection for presence of bats from underneath.
Buy
a Ready Built Bat House for your Property!
Contact Nigel Fernsby for
your Bat House today!
Contact Details:
For as
little as ± R400, you too can enjoy the privilege and thrill to have bats
roosting on your property!
Please supply us with feedback regarding the
bat occupancy times, numbers, seasonal numbers, seasonal activities,
feeding behaviour, mortalities or any other factor you may observe!
Research scientists are always in need of extra information to fill the
many gaps of knowledge that exists. Contact
Nigel Fernsby. (Details above)
