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Bat Boxes

Got bugs - but don't like chemical mosquito controls? Want a more natural solution?

Bats love eating those pesky bugs that come out in the evening. DRS offers hand-crafted bat boxes to attract small colonies for roosting during the day. Bats are amazing creatures to watch as they swoop through the sky, and their presence enhances the ecological well-being of lakeshore properties.

<-- Our hand-built, flat-front cedar bat box (4' tall x 2' wide x 1' deep) can house about 200 bats. This larger size makes the box more likely to become occupied than smaller commercial structures. We leave the box unpainted to avoid toxic effects and to avoid overheating, which can kill sleeping bats in the summer. For best effect, we mount the box high on a post or south-facing wall away from human activity.

$800, including installation

<-- Our hand-built, four-sided cedar "rocket box" (27" tall x 10" wide x 10" deep) houses around 50 bats and is an attractive sculptural addition to any lakeshore. property. Mounted on a 2" galvanized pipe with a fitting that allows for easy cleaning, this model allows bats to choose a roosting chamber that isn't too hot.

$450, including installation

Bats are pest control experts who feast on beetles, mosquitoes, moths, and flies. They usually roost together under loose bark or within small tree cavities. However, human-developed areas, like the Michigan lakeshore, don't offer enough natural shelters.

- West Michigan’s bats are not a threat to people, pets, pollinators, or plants; they are not aggressive and will avoid human contact, which means the benefits of having bats far outweigh the marginal risk of bat/human contact.
- Bats need to live near clean water, so they love Lake Michigan!
- Bats are communal creatures that live in colonies. They hibernate from November to March or April; most mother bats give birth in June to a single (tiny!) pup, which they feed with their milk. At six weeks old, the young bats begin to catch insects for themselves and no longer need their mothers’ milk.
- Michigan's most common bat box inhabitants are the Evening Bat, the Little Brown Bat, and the Big Brown Bat.

The little brown bat is about 3" long , weighs half an ounce (the weight of 5 pennies!) and has a 9" wingspan. They love eating spiders, mosquitoes, and beetles.

The evening bat is about 3.5" long, weighs half an ounce, and eats beetles, moths, and winged ants. It typically has twin pups in June (photo by David Arbour).

The big brown bat is about 4.5" long, weighs just under an ounce, and has a 14" wingspan. They especially love to eat beetles (photo by Paul & Joyce Berquist).

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