Bat Habitats and Bat Houses Placement

Bats live and thrive in most habitats around the world with of course differing species in each location. With the majority of bats having a diet of insects, they are more active when and where there are said insects to eat, and become dormant, hibernate, in areas that go through a cold winter season. In some tropical areas where bats are eating fruit, there are plants that rely totally on bats to spread their seed,survive and multiply. 

Because of the bats ferocious appetite for insects, they are welcome in many backyards and gardens as a mosquito control. The best way to bring bats into your yard is to supply a bat house or two. The bat houses placement plays a vital role in getting the house occupied quickly, so following are a few guidelines.

We will cover here the bats habitats for the USA and into Canada.

Placement of Bat Box

All bat houses/boxes should be placed at a height of between 15 feet and 20 feet, above 20 feet is better than below 15 feet.

All bat houses should be placed as to receive the warmth of the morning sun, so they should face a south to southeasterly direction.

Your first best choice as to what to hang your bat house on is a stone building, second best choice is a wood building, third best choice is a pole and lastly, your forth choice would be a tree. 

In the Northeastern USA and the Northwestern USA into Canada, the bat houses should be painted or stained a dark color.

In the Southeastern USA and the Southwestern USA, the bat houses may be painted or stained white OR left their natural color.

The one difference between the Northern USA and the Southern USA is that in the North the houses need to get 6-8 hours of sunlight, in the South different species of bat will occupy houses that are placed in the sun, part sun or even shade, so in the South there is certainly more flexibility as to where the bat house is placed, if you wish to attract a particular bat and you live in the Southern USA more research than we offer here may be needed.