Marvin Maberry has spent 20 years accommodating the bats that flit and flutter through his ranch in Daingerfield, according to a story in The News Journal.
He reckons his latest project is one for the record books.
Maberry has converted a 9-1/2-foot-by-10-foot storage tank behind his workshop into a test house that he calls “Big Mo.” If everything goes according to plan, thousands upon thousands of big browns and Mexican free-tails will descend upon the temperature-regulated structure as the weather warms this spring.
“I figure it’s the largest portable bat house in the world,” said Maberry, 71, a retired state trooper who owns Maberry Centre Bat Homes with his wife, Diane.
The more the merrier, he added.
“A big brown can consume 2,000 bugs an hour,” he said. “They eat mosquitoes. That’s really what you want around here. The more bats you have, the more mosquitoes they’re going to eat.”
Maberry has been studying bats and experimenting with their homes since 1989. His homes are in use across the country, including several underneath bridges along Central Texas turnpikes and at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
His bat houses are built from PVC and stucco and start at $100, while a luxury condo with eight suites runs closer to $600. If you install a bat house, the bats will find it, he said.
Photo by The News Journal.