Greene County Daily World

Bats

Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2008, at 11:48 AM
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Some friends and I have been talking about Bats we see in the evening coming out of their daytime hiding places. I thought it would be interesting to see what types of bats we have in the area.

After checking several reference sources I found 9 different species of bat that include our area in its home range; Eastern Pipistrelle, Silver Haired Bat, Hoary Bat, Eastern Red Bat, Northern Myotis, Southern Myotis, Little Brown Bat, Big Brown Bat and the Indiana Bat. There are other species that their home range come close to Southern Indiana and could overlap.

Lets take a closer look at 3 species that I have seen in our area.

Indiana Bat is a dark colored bat with pinkish ears and lips. It measures about 3 inches long and weights 1/4 of an ounce. It lives in wooded or semi-wooded areas along streams and creeks in summer and hibernates in caves in winter. It feeds on small insects and is on the endangered list.

Little Brown Bat is a glossy brown colored bat and measures 3 1/2 inches long and weights 1/2 of an ounce. It lives along streams and lakes and forms nursery colonies in buildings and structures and hibernates in caves and mines. It feeds on small insects especially flies and moths.

Big Brown Bat is a larger bat with dark color fur(in forest area)and measures 5 inches long and weights 5/8 of an ounce. It live in a variety of habitats such as farmlands, parks, forests and cities. In summer it roosts in buildings, hollow trees and in winter mainly in buildings and other protected places. It feeds mainly on beetles and larger leaf eating insects.

Bats are a very interesting an necessary part of our eco-system feeding on many troublesome insects.

If your are having trouble with bats in your home or out buildings,one possible solution might be to build a bat box.

Comments
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I've heard it is difficult to get bats to take up shelter in a bat box.

-- Posted by EggMan on Tue, Jul 8, 2008, at 11:51 AM

Chuck, I remember a few summers ago while watching TV at night with the lights off in the house, I saw something flying around in my living room. At first I thought it was a moth, but then I realized it was flying way too fast for a moth. I discovered that I was in the company of a bat, so I opened up all the doors in the house and out he flew. Apparently, bats are just afraid of us humans as some of us are of bats.

-- Posted by Dairyman on Tue, Jul 8, 2008, at 12:09 PM

i have heard that if you fill pantyhose up with rocks and through them up in the air the bats will fly into it.

but then if you throw them up around trees in the summer time and they get stuck in the trees, come winter time your neighbors may wander what you have been up to........

-- Posted by TDavid on Tue, Jul 8, 2008, at 1:04 PM

TDavid,

Are you suggesting getting amusement out of an endangered species lack of good eye sight? That has to be one of the sickest things I have read on here thus far.

Chuck does an excellent job informing us about nature and its many wonders and works hard to preserve it in our little nook of Indiana.

Keep up the good work Chuck, some people just don't know what we have here and are willing to get amusement out of destroying it.

Now if you want to get amusement out of killing something, buy a buglight!

-- Posted by viaductman on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 8:39 AM

my apologies to all those that are offended.

that was not my intentions at all.

some people can be terrified of bats (wont mention any names) so I just thought I would add a little humor to it.

once again my apologies go out to any who may have been offended.

-- Posted by TDavid on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 2:55 PM

TDavid,

Can you believe how tense people are when it comes to jokes on animals?

I bet if it were a joke about a person or worse yet, gossip, they would be right in there.

By the way, a sock and a tennis ball also attracts the bats. However, I have never been fortunate enough to have one actually grab it.

Chuck,

This is an excellent article, and educational.

I have built and put up bat boxes for mosquito control and because I think bats are cool.

Some of the boxes took over a year to get some inhabitants but finally worked. I found the more bark on the inside of the box, the quicker it was inhabited. I think this is because it gave them something to hang on to.

Thanks for the information.

-- Posted by Greene County Patriot on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 11:05 AM

question..........the "bat boxes" are some of them purple and hanging from a couple of different places off of 159 up around Blackhawk??? I see them everytime I have a game up in terre haute and just never put a fnger on what they actually were.

and GCP.....in my profession I am used to having people criticize my words, it was just another day in the office, but I just wanted to let those people know that I meant no harm......

-- Posted by TDavid on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 11:47 AM

Bat boxes could be any color, but most of them are unpainted (usually cedar or redwood for insect resistance). They are also usually flat (no deeper than 6 inches or so.) I don't know about the ones around blackhawk. If you wanted to look on the bottom of it then that would tell as bat boxes usually have no bottom to allow the bats to enter.

A lot of bluebird houses around here are painted blue or purple and have a small hole in the front with no perch.

I guess a sure way to tell if the ones in Blackhawk are bat boxes would be to throw a panty hose in there. ;-[

JUST JOKING! :-)

-- Posted by Greene County Patriot on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 2:24 PM

well if i happen to run across a pair of them i may try that!!!! lol

thanks for the laugh!!!!

-- Posted by TDavid on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 3:51 PM

I found an article on the purple boxes in the trees, I hope this helps for those that were wondering about the colorful boxes.

Per the article:

"Eventually, said Phil Marshall, Indiana's state entomologist, there will be close to 7,200 of them across Indiana, with between 400 and 600 in Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties.

They're being used to determine if the emerald ash borer, which the boxes are designed to trap, is killing ash trees in Southern Indiana as it is in northeastern Indiana and several other states."

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs...

-- Posted by Sweet*Sassy on Mon, Jul 21, 2008, at 10:48 AM

i heard once that if you use old barn wood to make a bat house. they are apt to live in it.

-- Posted by hoosierdaddy47471 on Mon, Jul 21, 2008, at 6:43 PM