Post by L Roebuck on Jun 15, 2006 9:07:43 GMT -5
Bats are good neighbors but unwelcome house guests
By Mary Jimenez
maryjimenez@gannett.com
By day Sharon Houston could hear the scratchy noise of something crawling in the walls of the apartment she was renting.
With it came a musty smell.
But it wasn't until a visit from her boyfriend at 3 a.m. one day that they unmasked the mystery guest.
"He said, 'Look at all those birds flying around at night,'" said Houston, who moved into the apartment in Shreveport in December, but moved out at the end of April. "I said those aren't birds, those are bats."
While biologists and bat-wise individuals agree the benefit bats provide by their voracious appetite for nuisance insects (they can eat up to 1,500 mosquitoes in an hour) far outweigh any dangers or hassles they pose, most do agree, a home or building is generally not a location you want them to settle.
Houston's former landlord Cheryl Stringer says the smell alone prevents her from renting the apartment, but the news in May of a teenage boy who died of rabies contracted from a bat, scares her. She wants them gone, but has been frustrated with attempts that have not worked and expensive estimates quoted to her to get the bats out.
"I thought they were gone," said Stringer, who last year had a pest control business come and put out "Bat-a-Way," a chemical repellent that cost her $100 and didn't work. "I had another business tell me it might cost as much as $3,000. Who has that kind of money?"
Costs for bat exclusion may come from labor, but not from difficulty. If you don't want bats in your home, it's a pretty easy process, said Barbara French, bat biologist and science officer with Bat Conservation International, (Batcon) an entity in Austin, Texas, devoted to conservation, education and research.
One important issue for the public to know is bats must be "excluded" from a building and not exterminated. Lethal extermination of bats is not permitted in any state and you wouldn't want to for several reasons, French said.
"First it would violate laws on pest control labels. There is no pest control with bat on the label," French said. "And you wouldn't want to anyway. They would die and end up on the ground where wildlife or people would have more access to them and if they died in the house they would eventually smell."
Bats don't chew so if you don't want them inside its as simple as covering openings to keep them out, said French.
Among a plethora of bat information on Batcon's Web site, there is information for "do-it-yourself" eviction or a list of professional excluders.
Local expert Bill Bretherton, owner of Vexcon, is licensed through the state as a wildlife nuisance control operator.
"It's usually the older buildings we have trouble with," said Bretherton, whose pest control business has been featured on Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs," and considers himself the most experienced with bats in the area.
The first rule to follow when excluding bats, says Bretherton, is the time of year. It's best to wait until after the maternal season has passed, around May, June and July in this region, so that the young are also flying at night.
One method is using netting.
"You basically put a one-way escape for the bats," Bretherton said. "You hang netting over the openings the bats are using and let it drape like a curtain. When the bats fly out in the evening they hit the net, they go down to the bottom and fly off. But when they come back they can't figure out how to fly under it to get back in."
The netting stays up for five to seven days to make sure all bats have exited. Then repairs to fix openings in the home must be made.
French recommends adding a bat house if you want to keep the creatures around for mosquito control. If you don't have a bat house they may find another home with an accessible opening to make a roost.
Danny Beaudry builds bat houses and has two dwellings in his yard that have attracted as many as 50 inhabitants during certain parts of the year.
"They are probably one of the most benign creatures," said Beaudry, who lives in south Shreveport and watches the bats as they emerge at dusk from their houses ready to feast all night. "My neighbors don't complain about mosquitoes."
French understands the fear from stories of bats and rabies and adds that although the fears are grounded in truth, the chance of incidence is way overblown in people's minds.
Researchers estimate between half of 1 percent to 1 percent of bats have rabies, depending on species.
"There's an average of one death a year from bat rabies," said French. "There is a colony of 1½ million here in Austin at the Congress Avenue Bridge that is a tourist attraction and there's never been a case of rabies. Most people here are bat savvy."
Most deaths from bat rabies have occurred because people didn't recognize the proper precaution, French said. In the case in Houston, there was no visible bite mark to tell the teen or parents that he may have been bitten.
"Bats don't always leave a visible bite mark," French said. "It's not like a bat will swoop down and bite you and you wouldn't know it. They have needle sharp teeth and you'd feel it. But if you were asleep, or there's a young child alone in a room with a bat, and you don't know if someone's been bitten, you should always call your public health department and report it."
There is a 100 percent effective vaccine for rabies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seeking medical assistance as soon as possible after exposure. If possible, the suspect bat should be captured and given to officials for testing.
Stringer hasn't called Bretherton, but plans to get a second opinion on her bat issue.
"I just want some help," Stringer said, "and for someone to be able to tell me what's going on."
Full Article, Links an Information:
www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060607/NEWS01/606070340/1002
By Mary Jimenez
maryjimenez@gannett.com
By day Sharon Houston could hear the scratchy noise of something crawling in the walls of the apartment she was renting.
With it came a musty smell.
But it wasn't until a visit from her boyfriend at 3 a.m. one day that they unmasked the mystery guest.
"He said, 'Look at all those birds flying around at night,'" said Houston, who moved into the apartment in Shreveport in December, but moved out at the end of April. "I said those aren't birds, those are bats."
While biologists and bat-wise individuals agree the benefit bats provide by their voracious appetite for nuisance insects (they can eat up to 1,500 mosquitoes in an hour) far outweigh any dangers or hassles they pose, most do agree, a home or building is generally not a location you want them to settle.
Houston's former landlord Cheryl Stringer says the smell alone prevents her from renting the apartment, but the news in May of a teenage boy who died of rabies contracted from a bat, scares her. She wants them gone, but has been frustrated with attempts that have not worked and expensive estimates quoted to her to get the bats out.
"I thought they were gone," said Stringer, who last year had a pest control business come and put out "Bat-a-Way," a chemical repellent that cost her $100 and didn't work. "I had another business tell me it might cost as much as $3,000. Who has that kind of money?"
Costs for bat exclusion may come from labor, but not from difficulty. If you don't want bats in your home, it's a pretty easy process, said Barbara French, bat biologist and science officer with Bat Conservation International, (Batcon) an entity in Austin, Texas, devoted to conservation, education and research.
One important issue for the public to know is bats must be "excluded" from a building and not exterminated. Lethal extermination of bats is not permitted in any state and you wouldn't want to for several reasons, French said.
"First it would violate laws on pest control labels. There is no pest control with bat on the label," French said. "And you wouldn't want to anyway. They would die and end up on the ground where wildlife or people would have more access to them and if they died in the house they would eventually smell."
Bats don't chew so if you don't want them inside its as simple as covering openings to keep them out, said French.
Among a plethora of bat information on Batcon's Web site, there is information for "do-it-yourself" eviction or a list of professional excluders.
Local expert Bill Bretherton, owner of Vexcon, is licensed through the state as a wildlife nuisance control operator.
"It's usually the older buildings we have trouble with," said Bretherton, whose pest control business has been featured on Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs," and considers himself the most experienced with bats in the area.
The first rule to follow when excluding bats, says Bretherton, is the time of year. It's best to wait until after the maternal season has passed, around May, June and July in this region, so that the young are also flying at night.
One method is using netting.
"You basically put a one-way escape for the bats," Bretherton said. "You hang netting over the openings the bats are using and let it drape like a curtain. When the bats fly out in the evening they hit the net, they go down to the bottom and fly off. But when they come back they can't figure out how to fly under it to get back in."
The netting stays up for five to seven days to make sure all bats have exited. Then repairs to fix openings in the home must be made.
French recommends adding a bat house if you want to keep the creatures around for mosquito control. If you don't have a bat house they may find another home with an accessible opening to make a roost.
Danny Beaudry builds bat houses and has two dwellings in his yard that have attracted as many as 50 inhabitants during certain parts of the year.
"They are probably one of the most benign creatures," said Beaudry, who lives in south Shreveport and watches the bats as they emerge at dusk from their houses ready to feast all night. "My neighbors don't complain about mosquitoes."
French understands the fear from stories of bats and rabies and adds that although the fears are grounded in truth, the chance of incidence is way overblown in people's minds.
Researchers estimate between half of 1 percent to 1 percent of bats have rabies, depending on species.
"There's an average of one death a year from bat rabies," said French. "There is a colony of 1½ million here in Austin at the Congress Avenue Bridge that is a tourist attraction and there's never been a case of rabies. Most people here are bat savvy."
Most deaths from bat rabies have occurred because people didn't recognize the proper precaution, French said. In the case in Houston, there was no visible bite mark to tell the teen or parents that he may have been bitten.
"Bats don't always leave a visible bite mark," French said. "It's not like a bat will swoop down and bite you and you wouldn't know it. They have needle sharp teeth and you'd feel it. But if you were asleep, or there's a young child alone in a room with a bat, and you don't know if someone's been bitten, you should always call your public health department and report it."
There is a 100 percent effective vaccine for rabies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seeking medical assistance as soon as possible after exposure. If possible, the suspect bat should be captured and given to officials for testing.
Stringer hasn't called Bretherton, but plans to get a second opinion on her bat issue.
"I just want some help," Stringer said, "and for someone to be able to tell me what's going on."
Full Article, Links an Information:
www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060607/NEWS01/606070340/1002