Goin’ Batty

I must be on a pest binge. I’ve blogged about bees, wasps, and now bats in one week. I came across a news story — it was front page news! I wasn’t digging for it, really!– that asks, Why Are Thousands of Bats Dying in NY?

ROSENDALE, N.Y. (AP) – Bats in New York and Vermont are mysteriously dying off by the thousands, often with a white ring of fungus around their noses, and scientists in hazmat suits are crawling into dank caves to find out why.

“White nose syndrome,” as the killer has been dubbed, is spreading at an alarming rate, with researchers calling it the gravest threat in memory to bats in the U.S.

“This is definitely unprecedented,” said Lori Pruitt, an endangered- species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bloomington, Ind. “The hugest concern at this point is that we do not know what it is.”

My first thought was “wow, great!” See, we have had a bat problem in this house since we moved here. I know, I know! Don’t tell me how great bats are and how they eat all the bugs… I hate them in my house, is all.

The house had been vacant for a while before we bought the place. Vacant of people, I should clarify. It was an absolute haven for every rodent and insect in the county. We didn’t know about the pernicious bat problem. We bought the house in March and the smell of bats wasn’t as… pungent… as it is now. Man, I hate the smell of bats. The house is a one-and-a-half storey house, which means the attic consists of a small area of slanted roof. We don’t go up there very often. I did, once, and discovered century-old bat dung all over the floor area.

A pest guy advised us to throw mothballs into the attic. Didn’t work. The bats came back, later, but now we had the additional blessing of the scent of mothballs.

Anyway, the house is so full of holes and cracks that no amount of sealing will work. What we really have to do is insulate and re-side the house, and get new windows; and that should keep them out. I’ve read quite a bit about “friendly” bat removal– those gable vents that swing out but don’t allow the critters back in. This wouldn’t work for us until we can replace the holey walls and eaves. Oh, we’ve got bats, squirrels, birds, and wasps coming in. Dry rot has rotted the eaves and left them wide open.

I’m surprised to read about the mysterious bat deaths in New York, though. Me thinks they are spending their final hours here, in my attic.