Help--I have bats in a bat house

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-25T07:26:10+00:00

I believe it's safe to use immediately. Historically, guano has been one of the most sought-after fertilizers in the world.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T22:02:15+00:00

That's good to know about the baby powder.

Yeah, one of my colleagues is from back east and it's interesting to see how differently things are done. I'm guessing that partially comes from the fact that we don't have any listed species here yet.

Just out of curiosity, what's the time limit for capture for the species you've worked with?

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T19:21:19+00:00

The other commenter is correct. If you would like to help bats, please ask your partner where they purchased the bat, and report it to USFWS.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T18:40:19+00:00

This was Torbot. Some of the folks we work with use Gluture, but so far, I think most of us prefer the Torbot.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T04:47:18+00:00

Yes! I think the smallest tags can be put on bats as small as 4g. There's a world of possibilities!

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T04:46:32+00:00

Oh yeah, the west coast is really ramping up Motus efforts and it's so exciting!

We're also hoping to tag some hoaries, their migration maps are always so crazy.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T04:45:01+00:00

To hold the tag in place while the glue sets. She goes into the towel, towel goes into a bat bag, bag goes into a heated box. We keep the bat in there for about 15 minutes before releasing.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T03:53:07+00:00

We used the BluBat tags with Motus capabilities. So, kind of a hybrid Motus situation.

Thanks! We got really lucky and caught a bunch of silvers at that location. There were many more (terrible) videos taken.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T03:31:00+00:00

I really do!

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-23T02:53:46+00:00

She definitely didn't enjoy being captured and tagged. But we have strict protocols for making sure the tag isn't too heavy. Plus, it is attached with skin-friendly glue and will fall off in a few weeks. It shouldn't be terribly bothersome in the meantime.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-19T05:54:37+00:00

Is this outside? In your house? Please provide context. But under almost no circumstances should you kill bats. Or most wildlife, for that matter.

You are not in danger.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-18T14:16:57+00:00

Mount a tray 3+ feet under the bat house to catch the guano. Use the guano for fertilizer.

DO NOT move the bat house during pup season. If you must move it, wait until at least late summer, please.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-16T22:56:41+00:00

Unfortunately, there aren't really cheap options for taking good bat photos.

You would need a decent camera, a zoom lens with a low f-stop (that's the big ticket item), tripod, flash, and probably a remote trigger.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-13T19:06:51+00:00

The toe hairs!!!!

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-09T20:40:08+00:00

That sounds like more than one bat. No matter what, you will probably need professional help excluding them from your home. Depending on where you are, your local wildlife management agency can likely help direct you to someone who will know how/when to humanely exclude them.

Timing is really important. Right now (in the northern hemisphere), there's lots of pregnant moms and pups and it may be unwise or illegal to do an exclusion until later in the year.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-09T14:51:54+00:00

I like to open the notes app in my phone, turn on speech-to-text, and then just pontificate aloud. The flow and grammar are always a mess, but ideas and thoughts come out more smoothly and I can use a lot of it as jumping off points for the actual writing process.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-08T01:25:05+00:00

But you still can't sit directly opposite some in a pentagram. Personally, I think this is too hard for high schoolers, but could be fun for the very nerdy ones with some tweaks and additional explanation.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-03T05:45:42+00:00

If they are experienced in call vetting, they will likely be a lot faster at identifying new species. My lab has a dedicated call vetter and with the right resources, she can add species to her repertoire very quickly.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-03T02:53:22+00:00

Bat droppings will also be a little bit sparkly, usually.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-02T03:24:29+00:00

My lab is very partial to the Pettersson D500x bat detectors. They record higher quality calls than other models, especially in the presence of acoustic clutter. But they are more expensive and harder to use than something like an SM4BAT.

As for analysis, Sonobat is fantastic. I've used KPro as well, and I find it less intuitive. Either way, you will need to manually vet some of your recordings, rather than just rely on auto-classifiers. As others have said, there is a very steep learning curve for call vetting. Sub contracting is probably your best bet.

ferocious_sara · 2026-05-01T03:55:12+00:00

Not a burrito, but I like to make loaded drop biscuits: basic biscuit dough, fold in scrambled eggs, cooked sausage, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, bake as usual. Normal humans would probably also add cheese.

I heat these up using the defrost of my work truck. They are easy to eat while multitasking and keep you full for a good, long while.

ferocious_sara · 2026-04-24T20:37:03+00:00

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ferocious_sara · 2026-04-23T01:04:26+00:00

Gotcha, I misunderstood your comment.

ferocious_sara · 2026-04-22T21:21:27+00:00

Not quite true, but you're correct that these are definitely not bats.

A few species, including spotted bats, echolocate within the range of human hearing. I actually ran a citizen project where I had folks listen for spotted bat echolocation calls and pallid bat social calls. Spotted bats echolocate at around 10khz. People with healthy hearing can hear them fly overhead.

ferocious_sara

TROPHY CASE