Post by jonsdigs on Nov 13, 2006 17:35:26 GMT -5
Bats make rare stop
The Seattle Times
Monday, November 13, 2006
By The Associated Press
MEDFORD, Ore. — Halloween may be over, but Medford can't seem to get rid of its bats.
A colony of bats rare to the Pacific Northwest has taken up a squatters' existence in east Medford, hopscotching among the city's taller buildings while trying to stay one step ahead of pest-control operators.
Already in the past month, more than 1,000 of the bats have been evicted from the rafters of a bank and a medical center, where they used a 1-inch hole in a roof.
The bats' latest residence was at the AmeriTitle building, where they started their work at dusk, about the time employees filed out.
One by one, the bats poked their tiny heads out of a crack in an eave, then free-fell 10 feet before beating their wings and heading into the east Medford sky for a night of bug-slurping as Brazilian free-tail bats are known to do.
"It's actually a pretty amazing sight," AmeriTitle branch general manager Ralph Green said, sidestepping the bat guano on the sidewalk. "But they're mischievous little guys."
But the little guys were blocked from the AmeriTitle rafters by one-way doors and bat-proof flashing.
Don't worry. They've found digs by sunup before.
"Just like that, they showed up, and you can't just tell them to go somewhere," said Karen Bartalini, director of general services at the medical center that once housed the bats. "Lucky us."
After a $2,000 bill to exterminators for evicting the colony there, the bats went to the tall AmeriTitle building across the road.
"We figured they looked across the street and said, 'Nice condo,' " Green said. "And here they came."
A Grants Pass pest-control firm began more eviction proceedings last week by installing one-way doors that were to allow the bats to escape the AmeriTitle rafters on Monday night but curb their re-entry by morning.
The firm, called Bugs Inc., will seal even the tiniest of entry points in the eave, then finish the week by cleaning the millions of sprinkled pieces of guano in the building's attic and walls.
Brazilian free-tail bats are also called Mexican free-tail bats and are known by scientists as Tadarida brasiliensis. Their name stems from the thick, freely protruding tail. Their bodies are barely the size of a thumb.
High, fast fliers with long, narrow wings, free-tail bats will migrate 500 miles or more between the southern United States and the tropic The very northern tip of their known range is the southwestern corner of Oregon.
Article
The Seattle Times
Monday, November 13, 2006
By The Associated Press
MEDFORD, Ore. — Halloween may be over, but Medford can't seem to get rid of its bats.
A colony of bats rare to the Pacific Northwest has taken up a squatters' existence in east Medford, hopscotching among the city's taller buildings while trying to stay one step ahead of pest-control operators.
Already in the past month, more than 1,000 of the bats have been evicted from the rafters of a bank and a medical center, where they used a 1-inch hole in a roof.
The bats' latest residence was at the AmeriTitle building, where they started their work at dusk, about the time employees filed out.
One by one, the bats poked their tiny heads out of a crack in an eave, then free-fell 10 feet before beating their wings and heading into the east Medford sky for a night of bug-slurping as Brazilian free-tail bats are known to do.
"It's actually a pretty amazing sight," AmeriTitle branch general manager Ralph Green said, sidestepping the bat guano on the sidewalk. "But they're mischievous little guys."
But the little guys were blocked from the AmeriTitle rafters by one-way doors and bat-proof flashing.
Don't worry. They've found digs by sunup before.
"Just like that, they showed up, and you can't just tell them to go somewhere," said Karen Bartalini, director of general services at the medical center that once housed the bats. "Lucky us."
After a $2,000 bill to exterminators for evicting the colony there, the bats went to the tall AmeriTitle building across the road.
"We figured they looked across the street and said, 'Nice condo,' " Green said. "And here they came."
A Grants Pass pest-control firm began more eviction proceedings last week by installing one-way doors that were to allow the bats to escape the AmeriTitle rafters on Monday night but curb their re-entry by morning.
The firm, called Bugs Inc., will seal even the tiniest of entry points in the eave, then finish the week by cleaning the millions of sprinkled pieces of guano in the building's attic and walls.
Brazilian free-tail bats are also called Mexican free-tail bats and are known by scientists as Tadarida brasiliensis. Their name stems from the thick, freely protruding tail. Their bodies are barely the size of a thumb.
High, fast fliers with long, narrow wings, free-tail bats will migrate 500 miles or more between the southern United States and the tropic The very northern tip of their known range is the southwestern corner of Oregon.
Article