Welcome, Bard Bats!

New bat house on Chicken Coop barn near Abigail Lundquist Nursery School.

Despite the bad reputation that bats have received over the past year due to COVID-19, bats are essential to a healthy ecosystem. Insectivores feed at night on insects, including mosquitoes, thus reducing pesticide costs. They are also pollinators of fruits, and their droppings (guano) are a very effective fertilizer.

This winter, the Horticulture staff hung a bat house—donated by Simon Horan ’24—on the south side of the Chicken Coop, an old storage barn on the Bard campus. Bat houses need six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day and should be located 20 feet or so above the ground. Mounting the bat house beneath the barn’s eaves has proved effective at protecting the bats from rain and predators.