The Bat Cave

I'm the Bat Lady in my neighborhood. Pictured above is the side of our house at dusk. You can see the three boards going across the top. Those are the bat houses. We willingly invite the bats to live with us during the summer.

It didn't start out that way. After we moved in during the fall of 2001, we didn't know of the resident bat colony. We quickly found out in the spring, when the bats came back. They were seemingly everywhere - even once or twice in the house. We also learned that a dark brown house on a marsh attracts a lot of bats.

We quickly went on the offensive. Personally, I just wanted them gone, but I went to this website - www.batconservation.org and as a Mom and animal lover, I was horrified at some of the things people do to rid themselves of animals. So for the first year, we followed the advice and did not disturb the nurseries. However that fall, we prepared ourselves for the future. It included a lot of steel wool, plugging up holes, sealing gaps and making bat houses for our summer guests. Or we could have just painted our house a pale color as our neighbor suggested....

Over the next few years, the bats were happy to roost in their new bat houses and not under our deck or in the attic. It's totally worth having bat neighbors. They eat an incredible amount of bugs each night. For the most part we live in harmony. We get the yard during the day and most of the night. They get the backyard during sunset. And being as polite as they are, they really try to avoid getting too close.....