BS: Bats in the belfry

Subject: Bats in the belfry
From: Trevor
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 04:27 AM

OK, so the scaffold for the roofers went up last week and yesterday morning they turned up to put a new roof on the cottage. They took a couple of slates of the top and found a colony of bats - pipistrelles I think - they reckon about 60 including babies.

They 'phoned everybody - including RSPCA, English Nature (who manage the land hereabouts), Batline or whatever its called, and the local 'batman'. They all said the same thing - leave 'em alone. The new roof can't go on, the old roofing bits were broken as they were taken off, the bedroom goes straight up in to the eaves so there's no loft and the ceiling is exposed, it's the wettest summer for years and we're supposed to be going to Greece tomorrow (the work is supposed to be done while we're away).

Answers please, on a postcard..........

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: ozmacca
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 06:16 AM

It's wonderful what they can do with tarpaulins these days........ they tell me. Is it possible to have a temporary roof covering fitted, or a patch sealed adequately? Your roofer should have some ideas about what materials are available and OK for the job. Hope it works out for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 12:09 PM

Of course you could put off your holiday ........ tee hee only joking!

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: GUEST,Hille
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 12:44 PM

How wonderful in a horrible way - presumably the bats weren't coming through the 'new' entrance, so if it's made weatherproof it shouldn't entomb them? Crumbs, I think that's about all you can do ..

How luverly tho', once it all gets sorted. We had Sussex Batlife (or similar) along to our local Beaver Scout pack with a variety of bats for the children to stroke - they purr! The Bats, that is, have a 'pleasure purr' like cats do - if you can get close enough that is!

Let us know how you get on?

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: GUEST,Den
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 01:16 PM

Trevor that's a real predicament. My brother in Belfast had a colony relocated from his place by the RSPCA. They found a new home for them. Have you thought about building a bat house or two (or having them built for you) and attaching them to the eaves of your house the little critters might move house. You can find specs at the Bat conservation site. According to them the bats like tight spaces and they're houses are 3/4" deep, by 24" high and 16" wide. I just built a couple and hung them in the trees in our backyard, we're still waiting for inhabitants. On a positive note those little guys can eat 1000 mosquitos an hour. Apparently bat populations are on the decline world wide that's why pesky insect populations seem to be increasing.

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 02:38 PM

Hmm ... 'round here (Nottingham, New Hampshire USA) the babies (Little Brown Bats) are born in March or April and the "adolescent" bats start going out on their own the first week in July. Their wings are still growing, so they come home on different ones than they left with, and sometimes get confused (and end up inside my house). My nursery colony (still not into the bat house instead of the space between the ceiling and the roof) usually moves out to go to their winter quarters sometime in September (unless August gets too hot and they stomp off in disgust).

Bat houses, BTW, to attract bats should be annointed with what can only be called batshit soup. (Yeah, collect some of the fertilizer you'd rather have on your garden, mix it with water and pour it on the wooden bat house -- do NOT serve for supper!)

Good luck! And I really hope the experts in your neck of the woods come up with a solution so the colony can prosper and you can get a new roof as well!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 05:37 PM

They won't move them until the young have all finished growing... probably another 2-3 weeks, and if you try to get rid of them another way you may find yourself with a very hefty fine.... have patience and get a good strong tarp....

St Swithun's day (15th July) was fairly dry so you might be OK (40 days of fine weather allegedly, if old legends are anything to go by... strangely enough this one is more often right than not - shifting weather patterns settle down towards the middle of July, so we get a fairly constant weather pattern. It usually breaks up 6-7 weeks later, just around August Bank Holiday) with the weather.

But as someone above stated, they are better than any bug spray at catching mosquitoes and other nasty biting things with wings (cue Monty Python's "All things dull and ugly").

Good luck with them, and have a jolly holiday anyway!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Morticia
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 07:04 PM

I had a colony in my roof space when I lived in Edinburgh...the conversation with the Bat Protection League went something like;
(me) So, can I move them?
(TBPL) No.
(me)Can I cause them to move on in some way?
(TBPL) No
(me) Can I at least stop them from wearing boots and tapdancing in the attic
....muffled giggles......and a considered pause,br> (TBPL) You might try training them to wear carpet slippers...lots more muffled giggles

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 07:42 PM

Well, the hobnailed boots usually aren't noticable except when they're coming home from their night's work (usually around daybreak -- 4:30, 5-ish) -- that's when they also like to yell greetings to their friends and loudly share stories about the night's hunting.

I used to love to watch them coming home in the morning -- the bedroom window is just behind my brass headboard and their front door used to be just above the window. We've since closed off that opening, so they get in from the back side of the house and live above the guest room. Uh, I warn my guests. (And it's not the strangest thing about this house.)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 03:00 AM

Morty - knowing you as I do I just KNOW that isn't an exaggeration!!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Trevor
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 04:50 AM

Batupdate!!

Some of them have moved on and the builders seem to be working around the others.

I really like the idea of a bathouse - I think they're lovely little creatures, and the chaos they cause to Helen's equilibrium when one is flitting around the house is entertaining in the extreme (she once woke up in the morning to find one hanging off the bed next to her!)

We have houses facing each other across a courtyard, Helen and I, and my roof is being done next. I suspect that the bats may just have moved house so we may be in for 'Bats - the sequel'.

Thanks for your interest.

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 02:28 PM

I'm not really surprised -- with the roof off, they searched for other shelter. So it looks like you can get the roof done without harming the colony -- great!

During "National Bat Week" (my designation for the first week in July) in the past, I've walked into the bedroom to find a pair of young bats hanging from the post just inside the door. (The house is a post and beam Cape with all the posts and beams exposed, second floor rooms go up to the peak of the roof.) They're quite cleverly color-coordinated with the woodwork. Tom, that particular year, had actually NAMED the 2 that frequently hung out there (they got in from the ceiling around the chimney). I like bats, fer-pete's-sake, but not as house pets! (Don't name them!!!) Anyway, one day I came in to find them and gave them "The Lecture." Told them I basically like bats, but they have a whole field outside to dance in, and they didn't clean up after themselves, etcet etcet. You could just see them nudging each other and muttering, "You got me into this," and "She's really angry now," etc. When I came back upstairs, they were gone . . . and they didn't come back! (That summer at least.)

I've rescued babies too small to be away from mama, dipped adolescents out of my bath (now that's another story!) and had one lost flyer cling to my shirt as I took him outside to catch up with his friends.

And I love to see them flying around the house in the dusk -- good for the garden and hell on the mosquitoes!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 03:17 PM

Have you given these people a ring yet Trev? www.batnet.org/acatalog/info.html Above the chemist in BC. They know what to do. You mustn't do anything just yet as they are probably rearing their young. Young bats come into the house at night thru an open window, when they have misjudged their roost.

Sal

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: annamill
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 04:33 PM

Trev, all those bats and you never knew they were there??

It came as a surprise?? Amazing.

Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Deckman
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 05:02 PM

Well, speaking from America, I'd say that you have a REAL PROBLEM. My daughter also has "bats in her belfrey" ... so to speak! And it's not an easy situation. The two obvious answers are: kill them, or learn to live with them. Niether answer is simple. Perhaps building another "Bat House" will work, I don't know. Over here in this land, We, THE PEOPLE, are getting sick and tired of semi legimate pholks getting rules set into law that tell us what we cannot do with our own proerty. And having said that, realize that I am NOT a bat hater. But of all the houseguests you can attract, these guests are not easy. GOOD LUCK. Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Deckman
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 07:20 AM

Maybe a good start would be for me to learn to spell! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Hrothgar
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 07:24 AM

1. I would love to be a fly on the wall when you ask the carpenter to build a bathouse for you.

2. If you play cricket with a cricket bat, what do you play with a pipistrelle bat?

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 12:20 PM

Hrothgar: Bats eat flies don't they?

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Micca
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:21 PM

Hrothgar, or for that matter. what do you play with a Wombat??
trust you Trev,,, Thanks for the thread..LMAO
Bat Goddess, I LIKED your spare room, but you didnt mention the "tall, pink exotic bird" as one of the strange things in your house!!

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: MMario
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:29 PM

Micca - you found a flamingo in the house to be strange?

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:32 PM

I love bats! Specially now that I am getting to be an old bat myself. I see some every once in awhile in Tennessee, but not often. I wonder if we have a Bat Protection League? Can I build a bathouse too? Where should it go? How big should it be? When do the bats go in it?

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 01:02 AM

Here in America we had a nasty case of bats in our belfry a few years ago. After calling several exterminators who said they "don't do bats", we found one who said he would fix the problem.

Since it's illegal to kill the little buggers, he hung up some bird netting over the openings where they went in and out. He only attached it at the top so it hung down rather loosely over the openings. This allowed the bats to go out at dusk with no trouble but when they returned, their "radar" told them that the bird netting was solid and so they couldn't get back in. After about two weeks, he removed the netting and filled the openings with steel wool and, voile, no more bats.

Is that legal in the UK?

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 07:52 AM

MMario -- the plush, stuffed and wildly pink flamingo is about 7 feet tall. The head is about as big as my torso (and since I AM goddess-shaped, that's saying something). I think there's a Mudcat pic posted of Micca and his pink inamorata.

I'm told the bird netting bit works well -- they can get out, but not back in again and find another roost. Doesn't work when the babies are too little, of course, only after everyone knows how to fly and goes out a-hunting every night.

But with the roof dismantled and their shelter gone, they've probably already found another suitable home.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: GUEST,OPEN MIKE
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 01:50 PM

WE HAD A BAT PROBLEM TOO-STILL DO THE PROBLEM IS WHEN THEY GET RABIES OR FIND THEIR WAY INTO THE HOUSE AND ACT STRANGE--CAUSE FOR ALARM HERE. THE BABIES MAY LEAVE THE NEST IN AUG BUT TIL THEM BEST NOT TO DISTURB THEM CUZ THEY MAY GET TRAPPED IN THE SPACE AND DIE THERE CAUSING MORE PROBLEMS. THE GUANO DOES GET FRAGRANT WHEN THE SUN HITS THE WALL THEY ARE HOLED UP BEHIND. SEVERAL BAT INFO SITES CAN BE FOUND ON THE WEB WWW.CDC.GOV (THE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL) http://www.batcon.org http://www.batsnorthwest.org/ http://www.batsnorthwest.org/batsArticle.asp?ID=91

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: GUEST,OPEN MIKE
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 02:04 PM

BAT HOPUSES READY MADE AVAILABLE HERE: WWW.REALGOODS.COM

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: MMario
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 02:12 PM

Oh I know about Micca and his 'flamingo friend'! I just don't find the flamingo strange...(but not too much fazes me)

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Micca
Date: 19 Jul 02 - 02:17 PM

MMario, me old buddy!! I am curious to know what you would find strange!!!!or what would faze you.

Subject: RE: BS: Bats in the belfry
From: Trevor
Date: 02 Aug 02 - 05:24 AM

Just back from hols - roof fixed on the cottage but yet to start on mine so stand by for more bat-bulletins. HOWEVER, we now have ' Return of the Mole', so anybody camping at Squilverfest next weekend may find a lump in their groundsheet (or are you pleased to see me!)