Bat Houses?? (Austin, West: to rent, purchase, living in)

[Bluebunny]

Hi All,

Newbie here... my name is Pam. I have been lurking for a while and decided to post.

Like so many others before me, my family and I are moving to Austin later in August from the Bay Area of California.

I have lived in on the East Coast most of my life including Conn. and New York and I have been in California for the past 7 1/2 years. My husband has lived in both Europe and Calif. We are very liberal folks (I personally have some conservative views but for the most part, I am very liberal). We are a biracial family with one child and of course would not mind more in the future.

We plan to rent an apt for a few months and then purchase a home. We don't want to pay more than 200K for a 4/2 or 3/2. We really want to live in the city of Austin itself. We have lived in San Francisco for several years and then moved out to the burbs and we really enjoyed city living. If we can find a suburb part of the city, that would be ideal.

I truly never thought about living in Texas and when I tell some family, they are shocked and concerned. I was initially concerned about the culture in Austin, being a black female. I have been lucky to live in such wonderful cities where it wasn't too much of a major issue for me (of course I have experienced racism in Calif. as well as NYC and other areas). Viewing the history on the boards, it seems like it won't be too much of a major issue in Austin, so hoping that is true. I really want to feel like I can walk around with my family anywhere in Austin and the surroundings areas and not be stared at like we are circus freaks.

I've been researching this forum about Austin, and watching as many programs as I can that has to do with Austin to learn more about this wonderful city. In my research, I found a program that featured an Austin home and they installed a Bat House to keep their home cleared of insects.

I wrote all this to ask...are bat houses typical in Austin homes? When we go to purchase our home, are we going to find a lot of homes that have bat houses installed?

Thanks
Pam
(sorry so long)

[Cowboy74]

I have family in Austin, and am now moving to Austin for all the reasons I like the city of Austin, but have never heard of a bat house in Austin in all my years. I would be interested in hearing someone who knows better than I. Have you heard of the bat caves in Austin..a must see, pretty cool stuff?

[mimimomx3]

Sorry, never heard of a 'bat house', but it's a great idea, they do eat mosquitos! I'm happy to hear you want to live in Austin proper...but a $200K house will be tough to find. Try Allandale, Crestview, SouthEast. You will love it here!

[Bluebunny]

I saw the bat house on a show called flip that house.

Here is a link I found online about bat houses

Importance of bat houses (http://www.batconservation.org/content/Bathouseimportance.html - broken link)

Seems like a good idea, but not sure I can get use to having a bat house. My mother told me, she would never visit me!

Pam

[Trainwreck20]

The bat houses are fairly rare, but there are some places that sell them (or the instructions on how to make them). I don't think it is a case of 'if you build it, they will come...', they need to have enough insects to live on (which isn't really much), but they seem to prefer easy access to the river.

Anyway, you will most likely never know that the bats are around...they live many places they do not have the special bat houses, too.

[love roses]

You've never heard of a bat house? hmmm....Well, they look a lot like a bird house, only they are up on very tall poles. They aren't typically put in as a standard feature though. Usually people just put them up themsesves. My dad's had one up for nearly 15 years. If you have a bug problem, they're great to have around, and usually pose little hazard.

[satanoid]

My cousin bought a bat house 5 years ago... no bats ever moved into it.

[love roses]

It's a crap shoot, same as a bird house would be.

[DO2TX]

I live in Northern Califonia (for now) and I have two bat houses - one purchased from a nursery and one homemade using instructions from the Bat Conservatory web site. Unfortunatly neither bat house has bats living in them consistently. Sometimes in the spring we'll have a bachelor bat that will stay in them for a while but (I assume) they eventually move off to a breeding colony. We have both bat houses hanging on the side of the house - mounted on a tall pole would probably be better. We occassionaly have have bats roost in a small crack between our second floor balcony and chimney but again they aren't there all season.

Before the bats return in the spring we have MANY gnats and mosquitos around the swimming pool at night but once the bats are in residence the flying bugs are gone. They are great fun to watch catching bugs and with West Nile virus becoming more prevelent - it's comforting to know that they are out there sucking down the mosquitos. I've heard that Bat Guano is also a great fertilizer - but I haven't ever had enough of it to use.

My kids think I'm weird but I do everything I can to encourage bats to live near my house.