Whether you live in a rural area or in the middle of the city, building a bat house is not only lots of fun, but it helps out our ecosystem. By adding a bat house to your area, you are assuring that those little creatures of night have a safe place to rest during the day. Some may ask, why would you want a bat living near your home? Well, I am glad you asked!
Bats are incredible little helpers. For one thing, their favorite food is mosquitos. A single bat can eat more than 500 mosquitos a day. With many viruses being spread rapids by mosquitos, I would say, bats make a great repellant. Also, bats are fantastic pollinators. So much of what we choose to eat in the day, is actually helped to grow by bats in some way.
There are many ways to get a bat house made. You can purchase a premade bat house online. You can make on from scratch. Or you can do what we did and purchase a kit online. We bought this one from Home Depot. It only took about an hour to put together. It could probably take less time, but we made sure all of the little hands helped in putting it together so it took a bit longer.
After we assembled it, we let the kiddos decorate it. I traced a bat shape and let them color it in. Then we hung it on a tree in our backyard.
Fall is a fantastic time to do this project because nighttime comes earlier and so it is easier to let the kiddos outside to check to see if there are any flutterings around the box.
Please keep in mind, bats are wild creatures. Although they do not intentionally bite people, they will try to themselves if any fingers come near them.
To learn more about bats and find more family friendly bat activities visit: http://batweek.org
Also, one of our favorite videos about bats in the Los Angeles Area is the following episode from the the Curiosity Show from the Natural History Museum.
