Cayman Islands bats are a valuable natural resource. They control our mosquitoes, moths, beetles and other insects that can become crop and garden pests. They pollinate many native plants, and they drop seeds throughout our woodlands that help keep our forests healthy and beautiful. Yet, due to lack of information, many people have killed bats and destroyed their habitats in the belief that these beneficial native animals are "vermin."

Bats are not related to rats and mice. They are not even in the rodent family. Bats will not chew wood or wires or make their own entry holes into buildings. They do not invade human food stores. They do not have litters, but bear only one pup per year in the late spring or summer. Bats here carry no diseases and are not a danger to pets or people.

The Cayman Islands have nine species of bats, some eat mosquitoes, some eat nectar and pollen, and some eat fruit. Each species specializes in a certain type of food. The bats found in roof spaces and bat houses are insect-eating bats only. Fruit bats do not live in large colonies, and are too big to fit in the crevices of bat houses.

Insect-eating bats do live in large colonies. They are easily destroyed by vandals or people who do not understand their value. They are quickly loosing their natural habitat and more and more are being forced to live closely with people. Bats now need our help to survive. Putting up bat houses helps to replace some of the homes they have lost due to deforestation and repeated disturbance of caves. It also provides them with a safe refuge after years of being unwelcome guests in roofs.

Bat houses will not attract bats to your roof. If there are openings in the roof, bats will already be there! If the roof is sealed and there are no openings, bats cannot enter your house. If you wish to remove bats from your roof, the National Trust will provide free instructions for proper exclusions or refer you to professionals who can do the job for you.

An important part of moving bats out of your building is providing them with another place to go. To avoid stressing our bat colonies by constant, repeated exclusions, buy or build a bat house before you exclude your bats. Install your bat house a few weeks before you plan to move the bats. This is far better than having them move into your neighbour's roof or another part of your roof! Be a good neighbour's and provide the bats with a safe, permanent home.

Many people who don't have a bat problem in their roof space simply enjoy building a bat house for their garden. Besides being of ecological benefit to the whole country, bats in your garden bat house provide natural pest control - (mosquitoes AND garden pests like caterpillars)! Gardeners collect a steady supply of fertilizer by placing trays under bat houses. For children or youth groups, bat houses are an interesting and educational project. Studies have shown that children, when given the opportunity, become very enthusiastic about bats, and even prefer them to dinosaurs!

If you are interested in building your own bathouse, you can use the plans illustrated below. Click on image to view larger.

Bat houses are still experimental in the tropics. The Cayman Islands are in the forefront of bat house research with more than twenty inhabited bat houses on Grand Cayman. The more bat houses we put up, the more we can learn about the special needs of tropical bat species.

There are eight bat houses in the Botanic Park. These are part of our on-going research project as to temperature and orientation preferred by Caymans' bats. Information provided by these and other bat houses around the islands will help ensure that these valuable and beneficial animals will not be lost.

We do not want to add the name of our country to the infamous list of places like Israel and Guam. These countries have lost their bats and now must rely heavily upon pesticides or abandon farming altogether due to unforeseen crop pests that multiplied out of control when their bat populations crashed.