One Bat Man to the Rescue
One Colorado man who has come to understand the importance of bats is Dave Betts. He is committed to helping bats survive in the Centennial State. He knows that the state’s fluctuating fall temperatures and early snows are hard on bats and send most of the winged bug-eaters looking for shelter. They either migrate to warmer climates or find a place to hibernate before early frosts or a hard freeze ends their food supply. Hibernating can be a risk for Colorado bats as they try to survive in our four-season state. Just finding a place to roost during the summer can also be a challenge. That’s where Betts comes in. It is the mission of this Front Range-based bat man to help bats find a place to call home. He designs and builds top-of-the-line handcrafted houses for bats. No stranger to the trade, Betts was a house builder (for humans) until recently. Now these incredible winged, insect-eating creatures we call bats benefit from his craftsmanship.
Building Bat Houses
So how did this Colorado bat man become so interested in these flying mammals? “I was soaking in the spa tub,” Betts recalls. “My wife opened the outside door in our bedroom and in flew a bat. We had no idea what to do. We watched it fly around while I got dressed and for 45 minutes we tried to shoo it out the door by waving towels. We finally grabbed a couple of fishing nets, scooped it up and released it outside. We realized we didn’t know anything about bats.” Betts did what millions of us do to get information; he Googled it. A hit for Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit organization (batcon.org), piqued his curiosity about bats’ role as good neighbors. On the BCI website, he learned a variety of interesting facts about bats. For instance, big brown bats, year-round residents of Colorado, prefer roosts in towns, cities and buildings. He also learned that nectar-feeding bats are critical pollinators for a wide variety of plants in a variety of ecosystems, from deserts to rain forests. Peaches and agave cactus are just two plants dependent on bats for pollination. And he learned that a small colony of as few as 150 big brown bats can eat 1.3 million pests each year. One little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes an hour. Insectivorous bats are the primary predators of night-flying insects, and many damaging pests (like the corn worm) are on their menu. Could these insect eaters help stem the over-whelming use of pesticides? Betts wondered. He thought about how his daughter’s horses were susceptible to the mosquito-transmitted West Nile
Dave Betts designs and builds bat houses for his company NUWTIQUES and can be reached at betts_construction@yahoo.com.
virus and how his neighbors fought seasonal hoards of miller moths and mosquitoes. Could bats be part of the solution to some of these issues? Betts joined BCI and learned more about bats, including how installing bat houses could help the local bat population. A craftsman and cabinetmaker who worked with wood, Betts thought, “I can do that.” He did more than build one house; he became the only Bat Conservation International certified bat-house builder in Colorado. And he built these “luxurious handcrafted bat houses” from reclaimed and refurbished woods — cedar and redwood. His Black Forest company, NUWTIQUES (betts_construc tion@yahoo.com), fills orders for single-chamber bat houses to serve 25 bats; a two-chamber house to serve 75 bats; and a four-chamber or “quadbox” that holds 150 bats. Bat houses can be mounted on existing structures or on poles in a location away from trees and bright lights. Betts consults with clients about the size and location for the bat house. Early spring when the bats’ food source emerges is the best time to install a bat house. Bats losing previous summer roosts are at their greatest need for new roosts as new offspring are born. Safe and well-located bat houses can help. Ordering before the May-June rush puts a bat house in place to be enjoyed for the full summer season. [continued on page 20] ColoradoCountryLife.coop October 2013 19