Bat houses catching on as mosquito-fighting tool west of Montreal

If you’ve noticed that there have been a lot of mosquitoes buzzing around this summer, you are far from alone.

One entrepreneur from west of Montreal is proposing a solution you may not have heard of.

He may not wear a cape and cowl, but Stephen Morel is quickly becoming known as the batman of Saint Lazare.

“The kids call me the real batman,” he told Global News. “They’re like ‘batman’s here! batman’s here.'”

He’s not fighting crime, but using wood, screws, a drill and black paint, he is channeling the power of bats to fight one of humanity’s most fearsome foes: mosquitoes.

“Usually I work in construction, I’m contractor here and there doing renovations, but lately I’m full time bat house maker,” he said.

When Morel had a client ask him to make her a bat house this year, initially he had no idea what she was talking about.

After doing some research, he learned they are often used to attract bats to one’s yard, and the bats in turn devour bugs by the thousand. One house could attract hundreds of bats during the day, before they head out to hunt at night.

Morel started building, using specific specifications to make the houses  as welcoming as possible to the nocturnal creatures.

His partner posted the first finished product on Facebook, and within hours he had dozens of orders from mosquito-ravaged customers.

“Once I got my rhythm going, got my equipment and got the beat to it, it just became a production line. I actually had to expand into my basement and turn that into my paint shop,” he explained.

Suddenly a full-time bat house builder, this summer he’s installed over 200 of the eco-friendly instruments of mosquito destruction

“It’s a very good solution especially this summer, the mosquitoes have been horrible,” Hala Scandar, a Saint-Lazare customer who expressed interest in getting one after her neighbour had a bat house installed.

“I had no idea it was going to boom so big,” said Morel.

Elizabeth Landry, the education coordinator of the Ecomuseum Zoo, said she has long had a bat house in her yard, and is happy the idea is catching on. She said bats are not dangerous to have around.

“A lot of them are quite fuzzy if you looked at them nice and close up, they’re always super harmless and very, very important to our local wildlife and local biology,” Landry told Global News.

For many of Morel’s customers, it’s not just about killing mosquitoes, but helping out the local bats.

“You know sharks or spiders or bats, these things that are most vicious or hideous things are actually the things that we need the most, to do the dirty work, right?” said Morel.

He said for some customers he has installed planters beneath the bat houses, so their droppings don’t end up on the lawn, and act as fertilizers.

“It’s a win, win, win,” he said.