Not such a batty idea

The Cook County Forest Preserve District is building "bat condos:"

The 4-by-4-foot structures, which look like doghouses without doors or windows, rest atop 12-foot stilts and are big enough for as many as 2,000 bats, or, more specifically, bat mothers.

“These ‘bat condos’ are really bat maternity colonies,” said Margaret Frisbie, the Friends’ executive director. “You get a whole bunch of bats in there and then they help each other survive.”

Bats help control populations of mosquitoes and other insects, pollinate plants and disperse seeds that play an important role in the ecosystem.

Longtime readers may remember that a bat tried to move into my condo a few years ago:

There's a World War 2 pill-box on a loop of the River Cam close to here I work that has been designated a bat roost. The door has been boarded up, but the bats can get in and out through the slits in the walls.