Attic's colony of bats getting their own digs

A father's love for his daughter can be an all-encompassing thing, helping her grow and spread her wings.

For Dennis Carman of North Little Rock, it most recently meant building something for his daughter Jennifer for nocturnal things that spread their own wings. He's building her a bat house -- a double one with entrances on two sides. The plan is to lure the bats away from the house she is restoring in downtown Little Rock.

"It should be able to hold 400 or 500 bats," says the soil and water engineer who recently took on the weekend project. Dennis Carman used the resources section of Bat Conservation International's website batcon.org for guidance and design ideas.

"It has a false front on it, which looks like her house," he says. He plans to install it in her backyard soon.

The bat house, measuring about 2 feet wide by 5 feet fall, will be placed about 15 to 20 feet off the ground and far enough away from trees or other objects to prevent predators from accessing it.

"On one side I did grooves and on the other I did mesh," Carman explains about the inside of the structure he built of plywood, lumber and screws.

His daughter, whose research reveals there were bats in the house as early as the 1940s, has experienced two fly-by bat encounters in the attic and another downstairs.

"My mother and I were standing near this giant pegboard leaning against a wall," she recalls. "She gently lifted it back a little and it was completely covered in bats."

"We got out of there pretty quick," she says laughing. "You expect to encounter them in the attic but when you're downstairs, you expect to be in your space, not theirs."

-- Linda S. Haymes

HomeStyle on 09/17/2016

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