It’s hard to beat birds and bats for insect control. For example, purple martins and their relatives are excellent pest controllers, and they’re so used to living in human-supplied birdhouses that they often prefer them to natural nests.
Don’t hesitate to erect one or two purple martin houses if you’d like to keep your backyard free of pests, but don’t make the mistake of offering them feeders, or they won’t keep the insects down.
For round-the-clock pest control, provide bats with comfortable bat-houses to shelter in, and they’ll handle the bugs at night that the martins don’t get during the day. It won’t hurt to give the local toads a few damp places to hang out, too, so they can help with ground-level nocturnal insect control.
To establish a bat colony In a large barn there are a few Questions:
o What type of webbing should be affixed to the ceiling for the bats to hang onto?
o Is total darkness necessary for them to rest during the day.
o What temperature is ideal?
o How often should the guano be swept from the floor for use as a fertilizer?
o How big should the entrances and exits be and on what side of the barn Should they be located?