A typical bat exclusion job


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Batting Out The Bats - Bats are not particularly anyone’s favorite animals, and I can understand why. They are not the prettiest to look at and can be annoying to some people, especially when they fly out in clusters. Flying out in clusters is more of a survival tactic for bats than a hidden mission to annoy people. In fact, I once saw a group of 5-6 bats almost dodge a hawk, although by the end the sharp hawk did catch one and made a meal out of it. For a good part of the chase, however, the cluster theory worked for the bats as they kept distracting the hawk.

The bats you are looking at in this picture belong to a class of bats called the Brazilian free-tailed bats. Although they are not particularly dangerous, they can multiply and increase in numbers if they are left to survive in a place. And this is exactly what happened in the apartment complex which I was asked to clear out the bats from. As I found out, the entry point for the bats were the holes made in the building’s gable. Since they were in large numbers, I used exclusion nets to cover the holes on each gable.

The main idea was to clear the building off bats and that is exactly what I did, although the time that I spent in installing the net on the gables, I did attract a lot of looks from onlookers. I am sure they must have been wondering what I was up to doing so high up on a building with a net in my hand. Some of them even asked me if everything was okay up there and I explained them what I was doing. It made more sense to them when they saw clusters of bats exiting the building.