LAHARPE — If you’re out and about around sundown, and see what appears to be a small bird fluttering around a streetlight, chances are it’s probably not a bird at all, Floyd Thompson said.
“It’s probably a bat,” Thompson said. “They’re around here.”
Thompson, wife Sharlyn and other LaHarpe PRIDE Committee members are hoping to make the bats feel right at home, as a means of pest control.
Bats, the Thompsons explain, are natural mosquito predators
A single bat can consume up to 1,200 mosquitoes in an hour, “and you’re not spraying a pesticide into the air,” Sharlyn explained.
The Thompsons recently donated a bat house to the city. It was to be erected this week near LaHarpe’s sewage lagoon.
The birdhouse-sized structure is noteworthy for its simple yet crucial design.
The cedar exterior is divided into three, narrow openings, with a pair of boards dividing the chambers. The bats nest in the house, keeping a grip on the side of the board, or comparable netting, Floyd explained.
Then when it’s time to leave, they simply let go, falling through the air.
House placement is essential to attracting bats.
The houses should be placed on the southwest side of poles, but not trees, and within a quarter mile of a body of water — lagoon, pond, drainage ditch, etc. — and 15 to 20 feet off the ground.
Builders can paint the houses black if they wish, but those tend to absorb heat, “and it can get too hot for the bats,” Floyd said. “We prefer thick cedar because of the insulation.”
“If a bat falls, and hits the ground, it probably won’t be able to fly again,” Floyd said.
The one placed this week was crafted by the Thompsons’ son and daughter-in-law, Douglas and Vickie Thompson of Kansas City.
Both work in construction. Vickie, in particular, works extensively with cedar, and had enough leftover scraps to build the first house free of charge.
“They’ll just use whatever leftovers they have,” Sharlyn said. “They want to make several for us.”
