How to Build a Bat House

Eric Rochow: Hey, everyone! These guys really want to go outside right now. But we have some work to do, so we're going to stay in room, while they have some playing to do. We're going to be in the workshop today, we're going to show you how to make a really simply bat house. We've got this neat book from Bat Conservation International. And bats really important, they eat a lot of bugs, and I wanted just to some of the notions, people think that they are dangerous or something, they are not. And a bat house is a really simple way for your kids to learn about this. To build this, we take a 2x4 piece of plywood. We cut it a couple of times, and we make one, really simple, even I can do it. So, Reggie and I are going to make this while they play. Female Speaker: Bats are not vampires? Eric Rochow: They're not at all, they're very beneficial. They like very specific structures. Female Speaker: And mosquitoes. Eric Rochow: And they love mosquitoes and they like about anyone that eats mosquitoes? Female Speaker: Do you eat mosquitoes? Eric Rochow: No, not on purpose. Female Speaker: Do you eat mosquitoes? They each other. Eric Rochow: What are you doing? Alright, here we go. Female Speaker: Are you getting dressed for the show? Eric Rochow: No, I'm going to show you a premier item. Female Speaker: A what? Eric Rochow: Now, you all know the Eric outfit is a black hooded sweatshirt. But did you know -- Female Speaker: It's a black hooded sweatshirt. Eric Rochow: But you can get custom Gardenfork and Real World Green shirts and sweaters and all sorts of stuff on our site. There is a link at the top, and you just click on it. We make a little bit of money. Okay, a little bit, not much. But you can customize this, I've got a black with a white writing, I like that and also watch, do you guys watch Real World Green which is our -- Female Speaker: I do. Eric Rochow: She does. It's our other video show, it's practical tips for green living. It's like it's green for the two about crowd. So for your bat house, you're going to want to go a lumber yard and get outdoor plywood. At home improvement stores, you can buy a pre-cut 2x4 foot piece of outdoor plywood. This is called CDX plywood, or you can take a 4x8 sheet and cut it down, if you know how to do that. But the beauty of this thing were these instructions from Bat Conservation International, so we make a couple of cuts in this and we build a bat house really simple. You can actually bring the cutting instructions to the lumber yard and they will cut this for you, like they might charge you a dollar. Female Speaker: That's what I do, a dollar. Eric Rochow: But you know, you want to patronize at your local lumber yard and ask them to cut it for you, if you like. What is this? What is this? Female Speaker: A brand new ball from the ball box. I mean, you got that yourself. Eric Rochow: We have a box of tennis balls we bought on eBay and Miji knows where they are. Always wear eye protection, and some ear protection. Female Speaker: You're not going to get a date like that. Eric Rochow: Now bats like warmth, and so to make the bat house warm, we paint it dark. And the Bat Conservation guys suggest staining the interior of your bat house with a dark outdoor stain. So, that's what I did. We really have this organized, but I already have some pre-cut pieces and I stained the inside, the interior with a dark outdoor stain. These are lines that I scratched into the plywood. The plywood is really smooth and with bats, they need something to grab on to when they're going to climb up into their bat house, so you can either take a sharp knife, an x-acto blade, utility knife and scratch lines into these. What you can also do is use a wire mesh from a window screen. And I think, that works better, so that's what we're going to do here. I scratched these in to show you all, if you don't want to do the window mesh, you can do this. Bats like a waterproof, windproof, draft-proof home. They like the little spaces and they like it to be a waterproof, which is why they like your attic, because they wedge themselves up in the corners of the attic. So we're going to use caulk to waterproof it, and we're gong to use screws to make it all tight. And by the way we learned this already, but use caulk that is paintable because we're going to paint this afterward, and you'll see why later. Get yourself a nice caulk gun, and this was like $9. You use this, you just this to cut the tip or ideally you cut the tip. Well in a way that's -- maybe I need a new caulk gun gun. Female Speaker: Use your teeth. Eric Rochow: I have got to get a new caulk gun. Female Speaker: This is, I am sorry, this is what's going on underneath me. Eric Rochow: We have a top and two sides like this. So, what we're going to do is going to lay in a bead of caulk. Female Speaker: You can use your cake decorating skills to that. Eric Rochow: Yeah. So, this goes on here, we put the top on. Some of the caulk is going to squeeze out of here, but that's okay. You see how it comes out right here, that's okay. So we've got the 1x2 screwed into the back of it. And again, you could scar the whole back of it with a sharp utility knife or something. Well, what I did was I had some mosquito screening lying around and so I cut it, just to fit inside here. By the way, you don't want to wear nice clothes when you do this, because the caulk can get over everything and a wet, just a towel or rag with a little water on it will clean it up off your hands and off your tools or whatever. Now, we're going to put on the two front pieces, we've put a top on and then there is a half-inch gap for some ventilation and then this one goes here. Female Speaker: So, it shouldn't come down to the bottom here? Eric Rochow: Well, I just made a mistake in measuring and cutting. Female Speaker: Well, it should come down to the bottom. Eric Rochow: No, ideally the 1x2s don't jot out, but that's more a craftsmanship, carpentry question. It's not, the bats aren't going to look at that and say, oh! It wasn't made very well and -- Female Speaker: I'm not moving into that. Eric Rochow: I'm not moving into the Eric house. My father-in-law would make it precise, but -- Female Speaker: Eric did not. Eric Rochow: I measured very quickly. So, okay. Oh! I forgot we've got to caulk again. Always caulk and you want to caulk these joints too. Female Speaker: To keep the water out. Eric Rochow: For keeping water out. Alright, so there you go. You've completed the caulking and screwing here. You can see especially on the top, where a lot of caulk has oozed out here and that's okay. You can take a rag and just wipe this. We're making a waterproof house for bats. Bats like it warm and waterproof and they like it high up. If you put this like 6 or 8 feet up on a wall, it's not going to work. Female Speaker: How high? Eric Rochow: I would say, at least 12 or 15 feet up in the air. We need to paint the exterior of this and we're going to paint it black. If you live in the Southern States, you want to paint this a gray or even a white depending on how hot it gets in your area. Here is your completed bat house. It's been painted black on the outside. This is an outdoor rated latex paint that I used. Also, as an option, you can put a little roof on the top and that's what I did to help further keep water out of it. You can notice here, some little weirdness, right here, that's because I didn't use paintable caulk, I just had some bathtub top caulk which didn't work. But again, the whole thing is black. The screen has been trimmed. We have a nice air gap. This can go up, if you built two of these, and put them back to back like this with another 1x2 in here, you've got a three chamber bat house. Alright, so there you go. Come down on our site green-house.tv to learn how to do this and other cool stuff. Watch Real World Green as well, our new show, buy our t-shirts. Female Speaker: Get a sweatshirt. Eric Rochow: Get a sweatshirt. We will. We make a couple of bucks, but we have got to make a couple of bucks somehow. This is good for kids. Learn about bats. Bats are good for us. Female Speaker: We love bats. Eric Rochow: We love bats. You really need to watch it. So, make it a great day. I'll see you later. Dusk is best for bats. I can't talk anymore. Female Speaker: Pressure. Eric Rochow: It's the pressure of making the show.