September 3, 2012 - Buying Materials

This is the first day in which I worked specifically on my bat houses. I spent the afternoon at Lowes buying materials. I never realized how many different types of paint there are to chose from and I had to be very careful to make sure that I got the right kind of black, outdoor, weather resistant, acrylic, non-toxic paint. Needless to say, it took a lot of searching from my dad and I to find the correct can. We also selected our plywood and cedar. My dad had to teach me about the different types of wood and explain exactly what our instructions were looking for before we could choose our boards. After finding screws, a drill, caulk, and various other ingredients needed to create our bat house, we went searching for the correct type of plastic mesh. We had to use polyethylene tiny mesh in order to best accommodate the bats. Metal or thinner mesh would cut their toes when they roosted and any larger mesh would restrict the number of bats that could fit in the house. After almost half an hour of searching, we came to the conclusion that we would have to purchase the specific mesh from the Organization for Bat Conservation, the bat protection group for which I volunteer.