1994. Buyer Beware . The Bat House Researcher. Vol 2, No 2:4

TITLE---[ Buyer Beware ]
AUTHOR---[ ]
SUBTITLE---[ ]
VOLUME---[ 2 ]
NUMBER---[ 2 ]
ISSUE---[ FALL ]
YEAR---[ 1994 ]
START PAGE--[ 4 ]
END PAGE---[ 4 ]


Buyer Beware Perhaps you’ve noticed too—many retailers are selling bat houses with inadequate instructions, poor design, and poor construction. Retailers are often unaware that the houses they sell are unlikely to be used or that such sales damage the credibility of legitimate efforts to help bats. You can help by advising retailers to look for three minimal requirements: Construction should be tight, roosting partitions should be rough, and roosting crevices should be three-quarters to one inch wide. In addi-tion, all houses should come with instructions (appropriate to the region) on painting houses and locating them to receive adequate solar heating. Failure to consider these points accounts for more than 80 percent of bat house rejection. Retailers should not accept houses that don’t meet the minimum construction requirements or come with up-to-date instructions. Finally, contrary to some promotional claims, no retail outlet is selling “official” Bat Conservation International designs or contributing proceeds to our conservation efforts, with the single exception of the Plow and Hearth catalogue, a vendor that updates its designs and instructions annually, per our advice. © Bat Conservation International, Inc., 2002. Absolutely no rights of distribution by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease or lending, preparation of derivitive works, or reproduction, in whole or in part, is granted. No text, graphics or photos may be downloaded and used on another Internet site, without express permission of BCI. BCI reserves the rights to actively protect against infringement.

Buyer Beware

Perhaps you’ve noticed too—many retailers are selling bat houses with inadequate instructions, poor design, and poor construction.

Retailers are often unaware that the houses they sell are unlikely to be used or that such sales damage the credibility of legitimate efforts to help bats. You can help by advising retailers to look for three minimal requirements: Construction should be tight, roosting partitions should be rough, and roosting crevices should be three-quarters to one inch wide. In addi-tion, all houses should come with instructions (appropriate to the region) on painting houses and locating them to receive adequate solar heating. Failure to consider these points accounts for more than 80 percent of bat house rejection. Retailers should not accept houses that don’t meet the minimum construction requirements or come with up-to-date instructions.

Finally, contrary to some promotional claims, no retail outlet is selling “official” Bat Conservation International designs or contributing proceeds to our conservation efforts, with the single exception of the Plow and Hearth catalogue, a vendor that updates its designs and instructions annually, per our advice.

© Bat Conservation International, Inc., 2002. Absolutely no rights of distribution by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease or lending, preparation of derivitive works, or reproduction, in whole or in part, is granted. No text, graphics or photos may be downloaded and used on another Internet site, without express permission of BCI. BCI reserves the rights to actively protect against infringement.