How can you help at home?

HELP SAVE THE INDIANA BAT

FIRST OF ALL, WHY BATS?

Bats help us out in many ways, such as:• Pollinating flowers• Advancing the medical field for humans• Eating THOUSANDS of insects

Did you know that one bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitos in

one night?

Imagine your next cookout or bonfire with thousands of less mosquitos and bugs, sounds

pretty appealing right?

By building your own bat house not only can you help control the bug population near your house, you can actually increase summer habitat for the endangered

Indiana Bat.

The Indiana Bat (Myotis Sodalis) was listed as federally endangered in 1967 (Womack, Amelon, Thompson, 2013). This bat’s native habitat lays across the eastern United States (see

map).

Threats to the Indiana bat:Humans disturbing their winter hibernation cave habitat by exploring or

spelunkingLoss of summer roosting habitat by removal of dead or dying trees.

ARTIFICIAL ROOSTING SITES

Creating an artificial roosting site, or bat box, is a great way to create habitat for these endangered creatures. Indiana bats

generally prefer to roost inside the bark of dead or dying trees, but a study in Indiana found that the Indiana bat does use a bat box for roosting in some areas near the airport (Whitaker, Sparks, & Brack,

2006).

According to the National Wildlife Federation, it is important for these bat boxes to mimic the area between the bark and the trunk

of a tree, prime roosting habitat. Bats like tight, small, warm spaces. Unlike bird houses that tend to be large enough to hold a

nest, bat boxes need to be small and compact.

WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN BAT BOX?Here are some great resources to get you started:

http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bat-House.aspx

http://www.batconservation.org/bat-houses/build-your-own-bat-house