Bats often get a bad rap but according to those who are protecting our wildlife, they are a huge part of our local eco-system.
Lisa Schaller is a volunteer at Natures Nursery, a local wildlife rehabilitation center. With her carpentry skills, she builds houses for bats.
"We have to keep the environment and keep it secure make sure it's there for years in the rehab center is great for this and we need to build the bat population back up and get rid of the mosquitoes without using pesticides," added Schaller.
Here in northwest Ohio, bats are important to the environment as they eat insects that invade crops. According to experts with Natures Nursery, the houses will help increase the bat population, which is currently down by 80% .
"Having them around your house and eating all those bugs and mosquitoes is great for out for your yard and being able to enjoy your your habitat give him a bat house and they got somewhere to live and they can call their own and they're not invading your habitat," said Allison Schroeder the executive director of Nature's Nursery.
Lisa is donating her time to build three different types of bat houses to help increase the number of bats.
"This is your small bat house air holes are in the front a little air in the back it has six baffles in it and this can hold about 50 bats they don't take up much room the big that house over there can hold 250 bats and the medium will hold about 125 bats," added Schaller.
The bat houses are limited but if you're interested in getting your hands on one, a raffle ticket costs $10. All the proceeds will go back to Natures Nursery to protect our local wildlife.
To enter the raffle you can click here.