Bats need a safe place to live

Thomas Luehl has a fascination and appreciation for bats, regardless of the public's perception or Hollywood's depiction of the night-time cave dwellers.

Some think they're germ-spreading vermin, but he thinks they have unique talents and are useful for controlling the bug population.

That's why he built five bat houses at the Chinsegut Nature Center. The project earned the 18-year-old his Eagle rank, the highest offered by the Boy Scouts.

"Bats can vary from their squeamishness to their cuteness," Luehl said, describing why someone people are repelled by them and others are drawn to them.

Some of them have flat noses while others have white, puffy noses. Luehl doesn't think bats are repellant at all. To him, they are one of nature's most gifted hunters.

They are nocturnal animals. They operate in the dark and use sound waves to find food. They search for warm, safe places to live away from predators.

That's why bats live inside caves or abandoned buildings. They sleep during the day and would be vulnerable to other animals if they lived in trees.

"Bats are easily displaced creatures," Luehl said.

In all, he spent more than 268 hours planning, building and placing the five houses, which are located roughly 150 yards from the main building.

The houses themselves are about 3 feet in length and are posted on top of a 15-foot stainless steel pole.

The steel was chosen so that squirrels and other animals couldn't climb them, Luehl said.

The original plan was to build an 8-by-8-by-23-foot community bat house that could hold up to 40,000 bats, but those plans fell through after a similar house collapsed in Gainesville.

State and local officials weren't crazy about the idea of building another large-sized structure and have the same result, so Luehl was told he would need to do something smaller scale.

He received help former Brooksville Police Chief Ed Tincher and forest biologist Colleen Werner, of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

Werner was glad the project was done at Chinsegut. It seemed like an ideal place. People could see them with their own eyes and it was spacious and natural enough for the bats to use.

"It can stabilize (them) and give them more habitats," she said. "The more habitat the merrier, especially if there's little habitat to begin with."

The bat houses were made of cypress. The holes for the stainless steel poles were 6 feet deep. Each house can hold several hundred bats, which like to huddle together and sleep in small, dark enclosures, Luehl said.

The houses were strategically placed in between two marsh areas, where the animals can eat and drink.

The project itself took up to five days.

Luehl, who lives in Brooksville and plans to study biochemistry at New College of Florida in the fall, said he is "extremely satisfied" with the end results - both the completion of the bat houses and for attaining Eagle Scout. A ceremony was held Saturday afternoon at Chinsegut.

"I'm extremely satisfied," he said. "It's what I've been looking forward to since I was 7."