I have a bat house that took 7 years before I saw a bat move in and now it's packed to the gills with bats. I can tell you they do eat mosquitoes! My rural neighbor doesn't have a bat house and you get chewed alive when you go over there after sunset.

I made the mistake of mounting my bat house on the eave of a garage type building over the double door. The bat poop falls straight down and makes a mess. My solution: I bought a mesh tray that's made for organizing silverware and mounted two snall 90 degree brackets about 18" beneath the bat house on the eave. The mesh tray sits on the brackets and collects the poop, it's held in place from the wind with 2 nails placed through the mesh bottom into a hole on the bracket. The mesh allows rain to pass through and keeps the guano dry. Bat babies often fall out of the house and the tray catches them and allows them to crawl back into their house. The mesh tray can be emptied on your flower beds and the guano is some of the best fertilizer you can get!

If you ever find a bat on the ground (it happens), grab a stick and put it by the bat's feet so he can grab hold of it, raise the bat up, the bat will hang upside down. Now transfer the bat in the same manner (feet to branch) to a small tree branch that's higher up. Bats can't take off from the ground, they need to fall down from a higher place.

The bats are fun to watch at sunset, they fall out of their house and get busy. We show visitors the bats during the day by shining a flashlight into their house. They make noises during the day sometimes too (squabbling in their house). They aren't for everybody and they have their downfalls but overall I think it's worth it to have less mosquitoes.

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