How to Build a Bat House

Welcoming biodiversity into your home.

How to build a bat shelter.

In this video, you will learn how to build a classic shelter for small bats such as pipistrelles.

To build the bat shelter you will need:

a board of untreated wood 2 m long, a batten, screws or nails and a thread of copper.

You will also need:

A clamp, a measuring tape, a pencil, a shelf bracket, a saw, an electric drill or a hammer and a ladder.

In this video, we will make a shelter 13 cm long, 28 cm wide and 36 cm high.

Measure, cut and assemble the five pieces according to your desired dimensions. Here we will need:

Two bevelled boards measuring 13 cm by 28 cm and 36 cm. These will form the sides.

One board measuring 28 by 26 cm to form the front of the shelter.

One board measuring 28 by 36 cm that will form the back of the shelter,

And one final board measuring 32 by 21 cm to make the roof.

Note that the shelter is open at the bottom: the bats will enter through there at dawn.

Saw notches into the inside wall or fix wooden slats to the bottom of the house. This allows the bats to hang upside down more easily, so they can rest.

Leave the wood untreated as bats are sensitive to paint and stained wood.

Put the 5 board together making a partly open shelter. If you wood is thick, pre-drill in it where the screws will be, that will prevent you from spliting it.

Make sure the boards are perfectly joined up so that it is completely dark inside the shelter!

Your bat shelter is now finished!

Place it with a southern exposure in a very sunny area, between 3 - 6 metres off the ground.