Superior School students build bat houses

Opportunities can develop in some of the strangest places and times and this recently happened at the Superior Elementary School.

It seems that every spring a little brown bat shows up and roosts outside the front door.

Logan Labbe, Superior Elementary School Principal, felt the little creature needed a nicer home so he suggested a bat house and that’s when he approached Angie Hopwood.

Hopwood had her sixth B Class students delve into bats and their environment learning as much as they could for stage one of the mission.

Montana has 15 species of bats but this one wasn’t identified before it migrated south. Some bats live in groups while others are solitary, which appears to be the case with this lone mammal.

Building the bat house required research to what might be the best choice. The two most successful types of bat houses are the traditional bat house, which can be single or multi-chambered, and the rocket box, which is usually four-sided.

“We had a model to work from for the design of the traditional house, but the kids studied up on how the inside sections work and size of house that will best attract bats.”

Once this was decided upon, the project transferred to Jeff Schultz’s eighth-grade wood shop class.

“The tricky part was installing the panels, or baffles, inside as they were at an angle and we were using brad nails which are difficult to use to begin with,” he said. So not one, but seven were built out of OSB and pine. It

was a good class project where more houses were needed so that all of the students could participate.

“We’re going to start with one and see if it’s successful. They are supposed to be south facing and 20-feet high. It will go up soon in a place Mr. Labbe feels is best from him observing it over the past couple of years,” said Hopwood.

Bats are passive, shy creatures that prefer to avoid contact with humans. All species of bats found in Montana feed exclusively on insects and are extremely valuable in controlling insect pests that transmit diseases such as West Nile Virus.

A single little brown bat can consume 1,200 mosquitoes in one hour. To ease any concern to parents, you cannot get rabies from bats flying around in

your yard or school playground. Less than 1% of all bats are found to have rabies. Human exposure to rabies is usually due to accidental or careless handling of bats and there isn’t a curriculum at the school that has any student, teacher or maintenance personal handling bats. For the color of the box, there’s some science involved. “You find out what your average temperature for July is. We went onto a web site and then there is a color guide and we are to go with a dark color like brown or black, even though they are all blue, purple or green right now,” Hopwood said.

"Will this little fella use his new digs next spring? Is it a solitary bat or will he invite others for a sleep over?

Here is a prime example of an opportunity that came from observing, sharing and implementation.

The ‘return on investment’ is to be known this coming spring.