Our History

We lived on a 30 acre horse farm with a small pond. It was surrounded by other farms and bordered by a river on the eastern side. It was the perfect breeding ground for bugs of all kinds; however, we never had a problem with the bugs because we had bats. The bats didn’t bother us until their numbers grew to the point that they decided they liked our attic space. It became important for us to provide them with a place of their own and exclude them from our house. While researching bat houses, we found the selection was poor, the designs were not research driven, the products were not consistent from house to house and the quality did not reflect the price charged. That wasn’t acceptable and we knew we could do a better job.

During our research, we stumbled across an organization called Bat Conservation International (BCI). They had produced a list of standards for research driven bat house plans and information about bats. The more we researched, the more we knew what characteristics we wanted to include in our bat house design: the overall size and shape, no mesh netting, vent holes, etc.

Robert enjoyed creating custom and often detailed woodworking projects for local customers, as well as for himself. He’s a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to woodworking. A trained computer/electrical engineer, he loves the “process” of engineering. As he built the first couple of bat houses, his engineering creativity began to develop a “process” so we could produce results the same every time. By the time he was done, 18 hours had been invested in a single custom routing jig that cuts nothing but the grooves in both the baffles and the interior of the bat house. He continued to invest time in every aspect of building a bat house until he had a custom jig for everything.

One day, we were at a big box home improvement store collecting materials to build our bat houses when a casual question started a conversation about bats. Forty-five minutes later, Robert was still engaged in conversation that had grown to about 20 people, including a sales rep who was sent to investigate why so many people were standing in the aisle. Everyone had questions. Most believed the typical myths about bats. By the end of the impromptu educational event, many asked how they could get a bat house….and Habitat For Bats began.

In 2006, we took our bat houses to Bat Conservation International headquarters in Austin, TX, to be certified. The person we were supposed to meet for certification had to leave unexpectedly; however, Dr. Merlin Tuttle, Founder and former President/Executive Director of BCI, was available to personally inspect and certify our bat houses. He was so impressed with the quality of our bat houses that he asked if we could produce them for BCI’s online store. Uh, yes!

Since that time, we have met so many people that love bats and we have participated in many bat themed events. We are active members of Georgia Bat Working Group. We also donate our time and talents to educate the public about bats and bat houses. Our bat houses can be found throughout the United States, parts of Mexico and Canada, Puerto Rico, and as far away as the Middle East, Kuwait.

Where do we go from here? We will continue host bat house building workshops and make bat houses, while promoting the value of bats and working to become a firm resource for researchers and bat lovers alike.

– Habitat For Bats LLC