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  1. #1
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    Apr 2006
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    Bats....Shitty Little Bastards...

    Anyone here have any experience with bats around there house? We have fake shutters off the sides of our windows. They're wood, through-bolted to the wall framing through the siding. There is about a 3/4" gap between the shutters and the wall. Bats have taken up habitat there for the past three years or so and are proliferating. It's messy as they shit a ton for being such little guys.

    I want to get rid of them but am not sure the best method. I've been advised to wait until they migrate in Oct/Nov then seal the edges of the shutters so they can't return to them. I plan to do that but, in the meantime, I'd like to chase them out. I found an ultrasonic sound machine that supposedly they don't like to hear that will force them to locate to a new home. Anyone have any experience with this?

    I don't mind having the little buggers around as I haven't seen a mosquito around our house in two years. I think they may or may not be responsible for keeping the yellowjacket population in check the last couple of years, too. So, I might want to set up a separate bat house somewhere where they won't be such a nuisance to the house but still be happy hunters. Any suggestions?

  2. #2
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    写道
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    Laser-mounted computer-operated drones.
    Daniel Ortega eats here.

  3. #3
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    Dec 2012
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    harvest the guano and make gunpowder.
    "timberridge is terminally vapid" -- a fortune cookie in Yueyang

  4. #4
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    Nov 2002
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    I think the main concern right now is to make sure the babies can fly on their own if you're going to chase them out - that is if that sort of thing concerns you. There are professional companies that will take care of the humanely.

    Check this out - my first thought was all the guano in this guy's attic <shudder>

    Seattle couple hosts attic full of bats
    July 11, 2014




    Six weeks ago, overnight, about 270 bats decided to take up residence at the Columbia City home of Brenda Matter and Bruce Crowley.

    Yes, it was a disconcerting sight.

    Every evening, 270 bats come streaming out of the attic of the two-story, century-old Victorian home so they can forage.

    It’s a warm, cozy, protected attic with just the right size gaps as entrances. A perfect bat home.

    Something like this had never happened in the 28 years the couple has lived there.

    “It was,” says Crowley, “hard to believe.”

    Luckily for these little creatures, Matter and Crowley didn’t immediately call a pest-removal service.

    They could have. Bats are protected, but not when found in dwellings.

    “I wasn’t really scared, more curious,” says Crowley. “Growing up on Capitol Hill, you used to see garter snakes everywhere in gardens. We don’t have poisonous snakes here, so I’m not afraid of them, either.”

    Bats for centuries have suffered from lousy public relations. A few examples:

    In the drawings for Dante’s “Inferno,” a gruesome Satan is shown with giant bat wings. You act unstable, and get called “batty.” Even a superhero like Batman is portrayed as a moody Dark Knight. For some people, bats are filthy, bloodsucking, ugly flying vampires that carry rabies. “Flying rats” are what some call them.

    But bats are real protectors of the environment, say advocates such as Bats Northwest.

    The ones in the Northwest eat insects, and if not for them we’d be overrun by moths, flies and mosquitoes. Plus, bat guano makes great fertilizer.

    Matter and Crowley are truly your prototypical nice-type Seattleites. After some research, they decided to do the right thing by the bats and made them a neighborhood attraction, putting out lawn “bat-watching chairs” on the sidewalk in front of their home in the 3900 block of South Ferdinand Street.

    On a recent night, 16 kids and adults gathered at dusk to watch the nightly bat excursion.

    It wasn’t IMAX-type excitement. The attic is what, 25 feet above ground, and the bats are small, each weighing a third of an ounce.

    The bats also don’t fly out all at once, so no Alfred Hitchcock “The Birds”-type visuals. Just a handful at a time.

    Still, nature!

    As Romi Silverman, 9, who lives next door, says, “It’s just, like, cool.”

    It’s the kids who sit nightly and have counted 270 bats, which takes considerably more patience than some of the adults have after standing around for 15 minutes watching the flitting creatures.

    Doing all this for the bats will cost Matter and Crowley at least $610, probably more, and a bunch of their time.

    They don’t mind.

    “With the nightly gatherings, and meeting all the neighborhood, the whole thing will have the sort of memory load that comes with an exotic vacation. But the costs should be only a fraction of what a vacation like that would cost,” says the couple in an email.

    The couple have spent $260 for rabies shots. Without their health coverage, they say, the price would have been $1,500.

    They decided to get the series of shots when one night, a bat made a wrong turn and, instead of going outside, began flying all over the upstairs. Crowley finally caught it with a canning jar.

    You never know when there might be a next encounter, with maybe a scratch or bite from a scared bat, and a tiny percentage of them do carry rabies.

    The state’s Department of Health says that fewer than 1 percent of bats have rabies, and only 5 to 10 percent of sick, injured or dead bats tested had rabies. Don’t handle bats, says the agency, and the odds of contracting rabies are “extremely small.”

    The state recommends sealing up attics where bats take up residence. A contractor contacted by the couple estimated that would cost at least $350, if “it’s an easy job.”

    The job entails putting screen around the attic, with the screen funneled so that once the bats leave, they can’t come back in.

    Matter and Crowley will wait until September for that work.

    That’s because the bats right now have pups, and the pups are staying in the attic because they can’t yet fly.

    Matter and Crowley also have crawled around the attic to cover their belongings in plastic to protect them from bat excrement. They’ll also themselves be replacing the insulation, where the bats likely are nesting.

    Then, to give the bats a new home, Matter and Crowley are putting up a bat house — which looks like a stretched-out birdhouse — on a 12-foot pole.

    Michelle Noe, president of Bats Northwest, joined the crowd outside the home on that recent night.

    She’s 32 and became a bat enthusiast while getting her degree at the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources and itemizing the species on the Olympic Peninsula.

    It turns out the Northwest has some 15 kinds of bats, with the most common aptly named the “little brown bat.”

    Noe guessed that’s the kind that took up residence at the home of Matter and Crowley.

    “Bats have been inhabiting the night’s skies for over 50 million years, while the rest of us mammals have mostly stuck to the ground or trees,” she says.

    She preaches about bat myths, such as bats being vampires.

    Vampire bats do exist, but only in the tropics, and they make up only three of the more than 1,200 species of bats.

    Plus, they don’t suck blood, but just make a cut with their teeth in large mammals like cattle and lap up the blood.

    Meanwhile, the nightly viewings continue at the home of Matter and Crowley.

    “I was thinking today about why we are happy about the bats,” says Matter. “The bats need to go somewhere, and they think our house is a natural feature in the landscape. That feels pretty cool to us.”

  5. #5
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    Yeah, I spoke with a local guy who does bat removal. The pups should be taking flight either last month or this month so that's not really a concern. He's the one who suggested waiting until they migrate then seal the access and let them find a new home in the spring. I don't mind having them around, I just don't like the mess they're making on my front porch nor the damage (a little, not a lot) that they've done to some of the siding on the side of the house. Ultimately, I would like them to move into a bat house I can put in a more desirable place. But for now, I'd like to move them out humanely. That's why I was interested in whether anyone had any experience with these:

    http://www.crowdcontrolstore.com/tra...jaihoCUaTw_wcB

    Anything? ..........Buehler??

  6. #6
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    Oct 2003
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    Build a bat house and install now then seal up where you don't want them in Nov.
    Mrs. Dougw- "I can see how one of your relatives could have been killed by an angry mob."

    Quote Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy View Post
    dougW, you motherfucking dirty son of a bitch.

  7. #7
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    Sep 2001
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    I had bats in the garage for a couple summers, tried several ultrasonic things and they don't really work at all if there's too much volume of space, so I can't see them working outside at all. Really the right thing to do is what the bat guy said, just deal with it for a little longer and then prevent them from coming back. Last fall I put some window screen and hardware cloth over the ridge vent they were using and no worries this year.

    Now's a good time to build a few of bat houses (totally simple and cheap to build them, I'm sure you can find ideas/plans easily online)and put them up so they weather over the winter and the human smell has a chance to go away before they come back in the spring. They're kinda picky, build several and put them up and see which they use. Leave that one or more where they are and relocate the others, maybe they'll get used too.

    They do eat a fuckton of bugs so having them around is good.

    edit: doug said the same thing in a lot less words.

  8. #8
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    Yeah, thanks guys. I was thinking the same thing but thought of waiting to build the bat houses until this winter, placed in the spring when they return from their southern vacation. May be better to place them now to see if they make a move sooner; or just to let them weather as noted. Little fuckers are making a mess of my porch in the meantime. But yeah, I'm liking not having the bugs around and don't want to completely chase the bats away. Just want them evicted from current quarters and relocated.

  9. #9
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    If the pups are good to fly (I have no idea), then could could you do something with mothballs? Maybe put them in socks and hang them down over the shutters. Just guessing because it is effective with skunks and would be a low cost measure with no real structural damage.

    I put up a bat house when I moved in to my current house 13 years ago and no bats. Big problems here on the East Coast with a fungal disease. The amount of insects bats eat is phenomenal.

  10. #10
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    EWA
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoldMember View Post
    Yeah, thanks guys. I was thinking the same thing but thought of waiting to build the bat houses until this winter, placed in the spring when they return from their southern vacation. May be better to place them now to see if they make a move sooner; or just to let them weather as noted. Little fuckers are making a mess of my porch in the meantime. But yeah, I'm liking not having the bugs around and don't want to completely chase the bats away. Just want them evicted from current quarters and relocated.
    Are they messing in the same general spot? Maybe you put a pan down with cat litter to catch it which is what I did for a barn swallow nest. Another beneficial animal re: eating bugs but messy.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    Bats rock.

    Echoing the bat house idea. A fair number of pre-built commercially available options last I looked.

    Check out these links:

    http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-...bat-house.html
    http://www.batcon.org

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Viva View Post
    Laser-mounted computer-operated drones.
    Yup, this is the only way.
    People should learn endurance; they should learn to endure the discomforts of heat and cold, hunger and thirst; they should learn to be patient when receiving abuse and scorn; for it is the practice of endurance that quenches the fire of worldly passions which is burning up their bodies.
    --Buddha

    *))
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    www.skiclinics.com

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by iceman View Post

    edit: doug said the same thing in a lot less words.
    I used caveman Engineer speak which uses fewer words but more grunts in real life.
    Mrs. Dougw- "I can see how one of your relatives could have been killed by an angry mob."

    Quote Originally Posted by ill-advised strategy View Post
    dougW, you motherfucking dirty son of a bitch.

  14. #14
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    Sep 2010
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    Bats are great to have around!!! They are fantastic at taking care of mosquitoes and such, and their poop is apparently totally awesome for your garden. VERY pricey stuff to buy, so harvest away if you can. Sure, you don't necessarily want them in your shutters, so I'd let them hang out for a couple more months until they migrate on their own, clean up the mess, and maybe stick a bunch of steel wool in between the slats to prevent them nesting there again. Then, I'd totally put up some bat houses, because they obviously like your hood, and if you're like me, you WANT them hanging around your house. Give them an attractive alternative for next year. Just like the swallows that return to my house every summer. Sure, they've wrecked the woodwork and have crapped all over my roof, but the wood can be refinished, and I just pressure wash all the poop off once they leave. In the meanwhile, I'm really enjoying the overall lack of bugs. For me, it's completely worth the little bit of added home maintenance they cause.

  15. #15
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    Just remount the shudders somewhere more convenient for the time being (at night when the bats are out foraging.) Shutters are near perfect bat houses.

    I agree it is a constitutional right for Americans to be assholes...its just too bad that so many take the opportunity...
    iscariot

  16. #16
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    Sep 2007
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    Bats are fucking cool….leave alone..

  17. #17
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    Dec 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by philth View Post
    Bats are fucking cool….leave alone..
    Yep, bad ass animals that have Taken a serious hit in the northeast thanks to white nose fungus. We use to have tons flying over the lake at dusk. now, nothing....

    I'd Leave them for now.

    Sent from my SM-G900V using TGR Forums
    Quote Originally Posted by Hohes View Post
    I couldn't give a fuck, but today I am procrastinating so TGR is my filler.
    Quote Originally Posted by skifishbum View Post
    faceshots are a powerful currency
    get paid

  18. #18
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    Mar 2006
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    General Sherman's Favorite City
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    This place has slipped.

    Nuke from orbit. Behead the remains, if any.
    I still call it The Jake.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by KQ View Post
    Are they messing in the same general spot? Maybe you put a pan down with cat litter to catch it which is what I did for a barn swallow nest. Another beneficial animal re: eating bugs but messy.

    Yup, I'm barn swallow friendly house. Except I'm a lazy guy, and let them poop at will!
    Last edited by capulin overdrive; 08-02-2014 at 11:03 AM.

  20. #20
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    Oct 2003
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    WI
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    Boil some hot peppers and put the water in a spray bottle. Homemade pepper spray. This worked for my parents several years ago.

    In WI all four species in the state are now listed Threatened due to finding White Nose Bat Syndrome.

  21. #21
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    I've heard the little brown bats of the east are making a comeback in places, nothing specific. Can anybody verify?

    I hooked one fly fishing once. Let it bite my hat while I removed the hook. I fucking love bats, it was cool seeing one up close like that.

  22. #22
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    Hurry. Get garlic. Bats are the shiz. Definitely keep them around..
    Did the last unsatisfied fat soccer mom you took to your mom's basement call you a fascist? -irul&ublo
    Don't Taze me bro.

  23. #23
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    They had to close a floor of my hospital some years ago because of bats--they weren't allowed to get exterminate them. Can't recall how they got them to leave but it took months. (California).

  24. #24
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    I had a bat house up for many years but they never took to it. I read where you can wipe/smear the guano on the entrance/bottom of the bat house and they will be attracted to it and use the house.

    Bats are kewl x 10000.
    watch out for snakes

  25. #25
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    Hire Ozzy Osbourne. I hear he's tough on 'em.

    As long as the little bastards aren't IN the house, I don't mind having them around at all.
    Gravity. It's the law.

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