PRIVACY POLICY
We don't share your information with anyone else. We ask that parents subscribe to the newsletter. We respect our community's children. We believe we are part of "our village" and need to care for one another.

Halloween decorating has become almost as big as Christmas in all the nooks and cranies of American life.

Whether you are planning a youthful or adult Halloween party, you'll find bats are a great theme. Adult Halloween costume parties are becoming as popular as children's parties. And with Trick or Treating so problematic these days, not only for safety -- but also for health and sugar overload reasons, you can take advantage of this new found interest in bats for Halloween parties.

This is the perfect time to tell your friends and neighbors about bat houses. You can demonstrate how the bat house works...and how beneficial bats are to natural insect control. And that can really make a difference in reducing fears and anxieties about bats, creatures of the night... :-)

John Gardner, a birding retailer consultant, suggests including a bat house from your local birding store ...

• As a decoration on the party table
• As a hostess gift when going to a party
• As an outside decoration
• As a Happy Halloween surprise for someone.

If you happen to be part of a classroom, a nature or conservation group, or a retailer, you could set up a display for October featuring various bat houses.

Consider a table featuring a bat house with pumpkins and mums, a bat house wrapped in orange paper with a bat ornament on the bow, a bat house with a flashing light inside to welcome trick or treaters.

These are all ideas to help your friends and neighbors look at bats and bat houses in a new way.

The ecological help a bat house brings to yards and gardens is important. Bats reduce mosquitos more than any other natural predator. They help pollinate plants. Their guano helps fertilize the soil. Their role in the natural balance of native plants and gardens is amazing. And their ecolocation and flight patterns, their anatomy and their cultural history are fascinating to young and old alike.

Halloween is definitely a "teachable moment" for the beauty of bats!