Bye Bye Bats
The sight of bats circling our master bedroom last week will never fade from my memory. It is as strongly imprinted as the memory of sitting in the mouth of the Beaumont Enterprise early Sept. 24, 2005, and watching Hurricane Rita powerwash the world.
And, like Rita, the bats seem to have come and gone.
I haven't seen or heard a squeak out of them since last week's cold front blasted through. I even got onto the roof Saturday and pounded on the roof overhang's underside to see if they'd make any noise.
They didn't.
It made me happy that I hadn't spent hundreds of dollars days earlier to have a pest-control specialist get rid of the bats, which I identified to be Mexican free-tails, which I had read were migratory.
There are several ways of getting rid of bats, and none is easy. What I learned from Internet research - and calling around Southeast Texas, including the Texas A&M extension agent in Hardin County - is that you pretty much have to do the job yourself. Most bug companies won't touch the job.
The pest specialist I called out wanted to drill holes in the overhang's underbelly and then scoop in a crystal material called Bat Away. You've heard of moth balls. Well, this was pretty much bat balls, emitting a smell that annoys and drives away bats.
But he wanted to do it during the day, which seemed silly because they would be there, all 80-plus of them. Why not wait until nighttime, when there would be, at worse, only a couple of lazy bats who didn't feel like going out for the night?
His company also wanted to charge as much as $500.
However, the best way to get rid of the bats, it seems, is to create a system of one-way nets. Bats check out, but they can't check back in.
With the cold front approaching, I figured it would be best to wait a day to do anything, and I'm glad I did. They apparently have taken off, most likely bound for Mexico, where they'll get fat and happy off the tropical bugs and, I assume, stop back by in the spring en route to wherever they spend their summers.
Judging by the guano that dropped out from between boards while the pest-control man was poking around where the bats were hanging out, I'd say our home has been a bat rest stop for years.
But no more.
When they come back in the spring, they're going to get a little surprise. They'll arrive to find their comfy bat-itat caulked shut. I've even screened up the top of the chimney so none of the wayward fellas can create further morning mayhem in our home.
I've gained some respect and lost some fear for the little buggers. They're kind of cute, and they're important to the environment.
But starting next year, they'll be doing it from someone else's house.
I hope it's the home of one of these neighbors whose dogs run lose and bark at all hours of the night.
That would be sweet.
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/2868/sbelfryyw3.jpg
And, like Rita, the bats seem to have come and gone.
I haven't seen or heard a squeak out of them since last week's cold front blasted through. I even got onto the roof Saturday and pounded on the roof overhang's underside to see if they'd make any noise.
They didn't.
It made me happy that I hadn't spent hundreds of dollars days earlier to have a pest-control specialist get rid of the bats, which I identified to be Mexican free-tails, which I had read were migratory.
There are several ways of getting rid of bats, and none is easy. What I learned from Internet research - and calling around Southeast Texas, including the Texas A&M extension agent in Hardin County - is that you pretty much have to do the job yourself. Most bug companies won't touch the job.
The pest specialist I called out wanted to drill holes in the overhang's underbelly and then scoop in a crystal material called Bat Away. You've heard of moth balls. Well, this was pretty much bat balls, emitting a smell that annoys and drives away bats.
But he wanted to do it during the day, which seemed silly because they would be there, all 80-plus of them. Why not wait until nighttime, when there would be, at worse, only a couple of lazy bats who didn't feel like going out for the night?
His company also wanted to charge as much as $500.
However, the best way to get rid of the bats, it seems, is to create a system of one-way nets. Bats check out, but they can't check back in.
With the cold front approaching, I figured it would be best to wait a day to do anything, and I'm glad I did. They apparently have taken off, most likely bound for Mexico, where they'll get fat and happy off the tropical bugs and, I assume, stop back by in the spring en route to wherever they spend their summers.
Judging by the guano that dropped out from between boards while the pest-control man was poking around where the bats were hanging out, I'd say our home has been a bat rest stop for years.
But no more.
When they come back in the spring, they're going to get a little surprise. They'll arrive to find their comfy bat-itat caulked shut. I've even screened up the top of the chimney so none of the wayward fellas can create further morning mayhem in our home.
I've gained some respect and lost some fear for the little buggers. They're kind of cute, and they're important to the environment.
But starting next year, they'll be doing it from someone else's house.
I hope it's the home of one of these neighbors whose dogs run lose and bark at all hours of the night.
That would be sweet.
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/2868/sbelfryyw3.jpg
posted by Brian Pearson at 2:19 PM
1 Comments:
I cant comprehend bats being cute.. I'm glad their gone.. hopefully they wont find another way in when they head back this way after the winter.
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