Back in the mid 90's when the internet was young, people started experimenting with putting various devices online. There was a coffee pot, remote control toys, a vending machine, etc. All hooked up to the internet. My contribution was a Bat House. At the time, I was having trouble attracting bats so I was monitoring the temperature inside the bat house to see if it was conducive to habatation. And then I thought if someone could put a coffee pot on the internet, why not a bat house? So this page began. The page evolved over the years, and in '99 I finally got bats to at least occasionally use my bat house. But in 2001, I had hardware issues and the live temperature graph went offline and then a few years later my original bat house bit the dust during a home remodel. And that's how things stood until COVID-19 gave me some time at home to work on fun little projects.

So it's back! And it's all "new and improved"!

This is a recording of bats using their sonar to find insects. Bats use ultrasonic "pings" which can't be heard by humans so the sounds have been shifted up into an audible range. For more information on the recording, see here.

May 28 2023 : Oh Magic eight-ball, does Buzbee bave bats?"Yes. See the news below"

July 19 2022 : I implore you Magic eight-ball, confirm the swirling rumors that Buzbee has bats!"Likely. Guano is present underneath Buzbee's Bat Box"

June 4 2021 : Tell me magic eight-ball, When will Buzbee get bats in his bat box?"Undetermined. Just because Buzbee has bats in his backyard doesn't mean they will move into his bat box. It could take years!"

May 19 2021 : Oh magic eight-ball, it's mid-May, does Buzbee have bats in his bat box now? "No. It's been unseasonably cold in Colorado and there are no signs of bats yet"

April 6 2021 : Oh magic eight-ball, does Buzbee have bats in his bat box? "No. It's too early for bats in Colorado. Don't expect to see bats until mid to late May."

06/14/2024: Guano up in the eaves, but nothing under bat house yet
06/14/2023: I'm seeing quite a bit of guano underneath my bat house and none up in the eaves where I usually see it. Hopefully my bat(s) have now decided that my bat house is a good home!
05/28/2023 : He's back! Now if I can only get him to use the bathouse instead of our house! Google tells me this is a Big Brown Bat. Click to enlarge

07/19/2022 : Success! Guano has been seen underneath my bat house. It's likely that it is seeing some use! I'm a bit surprised as with my previous bat house, it took years before I saw any signs of occupation
06/12/2022 : It's the 2020 bat season! And I have at least one bat up in the eaves again. No sign yet of bathouse use, but it's hard to tell if it's occupied so I'll have to keep an eye on it.
08/29/2021 : There's an area up in the eaves on the north side of our house that has an occasional bat visitor and he's back again this year. I can't see that he has used the bat box yet, but I'll keep an eye out for guano underneath. Here's a picture of a bat leaving the eaves from 21 years ago. Is it possible that it is the same bat after all these years? I don't know.
06/14/2021 : For several years, we've had a bat visiting our front porch for short rests during the night. He's back again this year. Still no signs of him using the bat box.
06/05/2021 : I heard bats on my bat detector last night! And then I saw them circling the back yard. No sign that they are using my bat box yet, but I'll watch for guano underneath.
04/10/2021 : The box is up! Here's a photo of it in place. Now we wait until bat season.
04/03/2021 : Still tweaking the bat box in preparation for season placement
04/01/2021 : First live graph in nearly 20 years. On Aprils Fool's Day nonetheless...

These measurements represent the temperature inside the bat house, the outside temperature on the North side of the Buzbee house, and the humidity inside the bat house. This bat house is quite small, so in general I'd expect the temperature readings to be similar execept that the bat house is on the South side of my house while the outside reading is on the North. It's possible that the breath of bats in the house will cause a bump in humidity. I'll monitor for that as the bat season arrives in Colorado. The vertical black band(s) represent the time between sunset and sunrise.

The chart displays absolute atmospheric pressure within the bat house measured in pascals (Pa). Since the house is open to the outside, this should generally match up with the Denver area.

This is a chart of the light level inside the bat house measured in lux. As of 4/10, the box is in its final location so I'll keep on this to see how much light gets in. As a reference, 100 lux is considered to be the light level on a very dark day and 10 is twlight.

Sound Pressure Level averaged over all monitored frequencies measured in decibels. The sensor will not detect ultrasonic bat calls that are used when bats are hunting, but I hope that I can pick up noises when bats arrive and position themselves. A challenge will be to detect these noises within every other sound that is picked up.

This chart displays the measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) from a metal oxide gas sensor. Greater VOC concentrations result in a lower sensor resistance, while cleaner air gives a higher resistance. I'm hoping that this will let me detect when bats are present.

How about a free educational bat game called Find the Bats!
Here's an informative article regarding what to do if you get bats in your house instead of your bat box
What's with bats and COVID-19?
Vist Bat Conservation International to learn how you can help bats
National Geographic has a lot of valuable information on bats
Wikipedia is always a valuable resource
This is the bat box I'm using and it's kind of small. See the book below for options
I use a Raspberry Pi for reading my bat house sensors
Check out The Bat Conservation Trust in the UK
Here's my old Bat Poetry page

Maybe you should Build Your Own Bat House that unlike mine, follows best-practices

Jim Buzbee
Jim.Buzbee@gmail.com

For history's sake, here's the original batbox.org, full of broken and obsolete links