Every October I go looking for Halloween projects that cost very little and still catch people’s eye when they walk past the house. This year it was the solar butterfly stakes. You know the ones, the little garden stakes with the wings that flutter in the sun. I pulled off the butterfly’s wings, hot glued craft store bats in their place, and now I have bats that flutter on their own out in the yard or in my vase in my front entryway. Just a simple stake with a fluttering bat. It sits right alongside my other easy Halloween DIY crafts, and it is the least amount of work for the biggest reaction of anything I made this year.
If you have watched the full video tutorial, this post will fill in the gaps and help you know exactly what I used and how I did everything. Keep it open on your phone while you work. I have listed all materials, the order of operations, and the three ways I ended up using them once they were done.
The short version: To make DIY fluttering bats, cut the wings and antennae off the butterfly, then hot glue a small craft store bat onto the body where the butterfly used to be. Snap the stake back together and set it in the sun. The bat flaps exactly the way the butterfly did, because it is light and roughly the same size.
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- Time: about 5 to 10 minutes per bat
- Cost: ~$18 for Butterfly garden stakes , ~$5 for a pack of Mini craft bats
- Skill level: beginner, no power tools
- Materials: solar fluttering butterfly stakes, mini craft bats
- Tools: a hot glue gun and scissors. That is it.
How do solar fluttering stakes actually work?
A fluttering solar stake has a small solar panel at the top, a tiny motor in the body, and a thin flexible wire arm that rotates and moves the butterfly. Light hits the panel, the motor runs, the arm swings, and the wings flap. If you want you can also add a AAA battery and there is a switch to turn it on and off. However, most of them will move without a battery while the panel is in direct light, so they flutter all day and go still after dark.
That last part is worth knowing before you plan your display. If you want movement for trick or treaters, get the AAA batteries for the party or for night of Halloween. The battery lasts pretty long as long as you turn it off when you are done.
The reason this craft works is that you are not modifying the mechanism. You are only swapping what sits on the end of the arm, and a craft store bat weighs about the same as the plastic butterfly wings you are replacing. Simple and quick.
Tools and materials you will need
This is a two ingredient project. If you own a hot glue gun you are already set up for it. Buy the stakes in a multi-pack if you can, because one bat looks lonely and three or more looks right.
Materials
- Fluttering solar butterfly garden stakes (get the kind with wings that actually flap, not the ones that just light up)
- Mini craft bats, the lightweight kind that come in a bag
- Hot glue sticks
- Optional: foam tombstones if you want to mount one the way I did or just stick it in the top.
- Optional: spray foam to attach the stake to the back of the tombstone. or you can just stick the stake in the top of the tombstone
Tools
- Scissors, to cut off the wings and antennae cleanly
- Hot glue gun, to attach the bats you only need a little bit
That is the whole list. If you are still building out a kit for bigger projects, here are my go-to beginner DIY tools.
A quick note on the bats you buy
Weight matters here. The flapping arm is built for a very light load, so a thin plastic or paper bat is perfect and anything too heavy is a problem. If you pick one up and it feels substantial in your hand, it is too heavy and you will get a slow twitch instead of a flutter.
I used Halloween Bats Wall Décor Stickers made of black shiny PVC, there are a ton of options on Amazon. They usually come in a 100 to 140 pc package. Also they are great for a wall decoration, because they come with little dual sided stickers. These are perfect because they are lightweight.
Step 1: Cut the butterfly wings off and the antennae
Most of these are built the same way. The wings are plastic or sit on two thin wire arms coming out of the body, and they either slide off or are held on with a dot of glue. Cut them or wiggle them gently and they usually come free. If yours are stubborn, snip the wing material off close to the arm and leave the arm itself alone.
Mine didn’t have wire arms and I just glued my bat right to the body of the butterfly. If you do have arms don’t cut those wire arms. That is the entire mechanism, and a bent arm will drag against the body forever after.
Pull off or clip the antennae flush with the body and the whole silhouette changes.
Step 2: Hot glue the bats on
If your butterfly has no wire arms, this is the easy version. Run a thin line of hot glue along the body and press the bat straight down onto it. A little bit of glue goes a long way here, so don’t overdo it. A big blob adds weight and drags the flutter down, which is the one way to actually ruin this project.
If yours does have the two wire arms, do it a little differently. Cut the wings off your PVC bat and glue one wing onto each arm, right where the butterfly wing used to sit. Set the second one at the same height so they sit even. Same rule about the glue, a thin bead is critical.
Either way, hold what you have glued for about 20 seconds while the glue grabs, then leave the whole thing alone to cool off for a few minutes before you pick it up.
Step 3: Put the stake back together and test it
Snap the body back onto the stake, take the whole thing outside, and set it in direct sun. It should flap at the same speed it did with the butterfly wings on. If it is sluggish, your bats are too heavy or there is too much glue at the joint.
Give it a minute before you judge it. Some of these need a little light on the panel before the motor kicks in.
Three ways to display your fluttering bats
This is the part I did not expect to like so much. Once they were done I ended up using them in three completely different spots, and honestly the indoor one is my favorite.
Staked in a cemetery scene
The obvious one, and it works. Push them into the ground where they will actually get sun, and group them in odd numbers at different heights so they look like they are circling rather than standing in a row. We didn’t like them too close to the ground, but to each their own.
Attached to the back of a tombstone
We opted to move them up higher and attached them to our tombstones in our cemetery. Run the stake down the back of a foam tombstone and secure it so only the bat clears the top edge. You can either stick it directly in the top of the tombstone or lay it down and spray foam around it on the back side and let it firm up in place. From the sidewalk you cannot see what is holding it up, so you get a bat hovering over a headstone with no visible support and no cord.
I attached mine with spray foam and a plastic pipe strap. Just make sure the solar panel is still facing up and not shaded by the tombstone, or it will never move.
Tucked into a flower bouquet indoors
Push the stake down into a vase of flowers the way you would a floral pick, and you get a bat fluttering over the arrangement. It reads as a real centerpiece rather than a yard decoration, and it is the one everybody asks about.
The catch indoors is light. We just used the AAA battery at this point so we didn’t have to rely on sunlight. This is really the only way it will work indoors. Black or deep red flowers make the bat pop, and dried stems work as well as fresh.
Will it still flutter with the bats glued on?
Yes, as long as the bats weigh the same or less than the butterfly wings you took off. The flapping arm is built for a very specific, very light load. Match that load and nothing changes. Go heavier and you will get a slow twitch instead of a flutter.
The two things that cause a sluggish bat are a heavy craft bat and too much hot glue at the joint. Both are fixable before the glue sets, so test early.
What to watch out for
Honestly this one is hard to mess up. These are the only things that will get you a sad twitching bat instead of a fluttering one.
- Too much glue. A blob at the joint adds weight and kills the flutter. A thin bead is all you need.
- A bat that is too heavy. If it feels substantial in your hand, put it back and grab the thin PVC kind.
- A shaded solar panel. If you mount one on a tombstone, check that the panel still faces up with nothing blocking it, or it will never move.
- If the foam doesn’t work to keep the stake in place on the back of a tombstone add a pipe strap and let it sit for a while, to make sure the foam has hardened.
How much does this cost and how long does it take?
The stakes are the only real expense, and a bag of mini bats is about $5 and you can use the rest of them on your front door or on a wall inside or outside the house. I made three of these in about 20 minutes to a half an hour. This is an easy quick project with a nice pay off.
It is a good project to do at the kitchen table while something else is going on.
Frequently asked questions
Do solar fluttering bats work at night?
Most fluttering solar stakes only move while the panel is in light, so they flap through the day and go still after dark. If you want movement for trick or treaters, get the kind that can take a AAA battery and turn on the switch.
What kind of bats should I glue on?
Lightweight craft store bats, the thin PVC or thick paper kind that come in a bag. Weight is the only thing that matters, because the arm is built for a very light load. Pick a bat close in size to the butterfly wing you removed and skip anything that feels substantial in your hand.
Can I use these indoors?
Yes, and a flower bouquet is the best spot for one. Again the batteries will be needed indoors, don’t rely on the solar power here. Push the stake into the arrangement the same way you would a floral pick.
How do I attach a solar bat to a tombstone?
Run the stake down the back of a foam tombstone and secure it with the spray foam so only the bat clears the top edge. If that doesn’t work put a pipe strap on the back of the tombstone and then use the spray foam. Or just stick it right in the top of the tombstone. From the front the support disappears and you get a bat hovering over the headstone. Keep the solar panel angled up and unshaded or it will not move.
Will the bats survive rain?
Yes. The PVC bats shrug off water, and these stakes are built to live outside in a garden all season, so a normal downpour is not a problem. Leave them out and they will make it through October just fine.
Where do I buy fluttering solar butterfly stakes?
Garden centers, big box garden sections, and online. Buy them in spring or early summer if you can, because they get scarce by fall. Check that the listing says the wings flutter or flap, since plenty of solar butterfly stakes only light up and do not move at all.
More easy Halloween projects
If you want to build out the rest of the yard, these are the ones I come back to every year:
- How to build a DIY pallet coffin from free pallets in about 2 hours
- Easy DIY ghost candles for the porch and the mantel
- Vampire candles and a bubbling witches cauldron
- Spooky painted vases and black roses with eyeballs
- 10 easy Halloween DIY crafts you can make this weekend
That is the whole project. If you make a colony of these, tag me so I can see them, and tell me in the comments what we should turn into a bat next.
Until next time,
Happy DIY-ing and happy Halloween!
🦇
xoxo,
Selene
