Saturday, July 16, 2011

Going Batty

I have bats in the belfry..well they would be there if we had a belfry.  Since we don’t have one, they are in the attic of the museum.

I don’t mind bats, we used to have them at the lake..I loved to watch them leave at sunset and come back just before sunrise.  They lived in the attic and would come and go in a space next to the chimney..which ran right next to the bedroom window.  We all co-existed peacefully.  One spring they lived in between the many layers of plastic that covered an old abandoned back door that had a real big step down (about 6 feet). I could stand at the door and watch them through the glass..it was awesome.  We captured one that year and one of the girls took it to school.  Bats eat thousands of mosquitoes. 

The Board of Directors and the powers that be in the County have decided that the bats should relocate.  A guy called the “Batman” is coming in to bat proof the building..after the young are old enough to leave the building.  He will install some kind of tunnels  and seal up the attic..and then eventually take out the tunnels and we will be bat free.

I have not seen any bats yet..but they have been setting off the motion alarms…which in turn sets off an alarm that ends up being a false alarm.  Either that or Gus the Ghost is having wild parties.  (He turned on a couple of lights during the night this week…I am thinking he doesn’t like the dark.)

The local newspaper declared in their reporting of the minutes of the County Board meeting that we were inundated with bats, well that is news to me..I have not seen one yet or any of its “leavings”.  It seems to me that the word inundated means

1. To cover with water, especially floodwaters.

2. To overwhelm as if with a flood; swamp

I am certainly not inundated with bats..yet:)

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17 comments:

  1. Don't mind the bats either as long as they stay out of the inside of the living quarters:) I have had one before flying around the house and have had fun trying to catch it to get it out of the house.

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  2. Oh what a shame that they want the museum to be bat free. Aren't bats a protected species? And think of all the mosquitoes they eat!

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  3. Maybe it's just to keep the exterminator employed. I have always like to watch bats fly, too. They are the only things I've seen that fly in circles.

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  4. I think it's really sad that language is a lost art. People don't know the meanings of the words they use, and don't care to.

    My youngest (23 in November) is always making up words he thinks mean something and though we never give up correcting him, it's probably a losing battle at his age.

    Ah well. I hope you don't have a problem with mosquitoes after your 'flood' of bats is gone. ;)

    I would think a museum would be perfect for bats, but if they set off alarms, as you say, then it probably is a problem.

    Have a great weekend!

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  5. I don't mind bats either - I think that is why we don't have such a terrible mosquito problem here. Some people are as afraid of bats as some are of snakes!!! he he! We have a lamp that keeps coming on too, so I have to go unplug it! Have a great day!

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  6. Lovely blog, we share the same love for nature. I am enchanted :)

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  7. I would love to see the bats that we hear in the late evening. Where they live in the middle of the city is beyond me..,but then where do the raccoons live?

    So cool that you got to see them in person. I have a plan for upcountry, getting my Dad to build us some bat houses, so we can be slightly more mosquito free that way.

    Inundated? Hmmmmmm love it.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

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  8. Love the mosquito munchers! But wouldn't want to live with them--only because of the bat droppings, not the bats themselves. Will be interesting to see if the Bat Man can do the job. But how will you know if you have never seen them? LOL!

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  9. I don't mind bats. For several years in a row we have had one bat roost during the day at the top of the stairwell leading up from the garage to the 2nd story. Just one. And I never saw any mess on the garage floor from its being there. It did not come this year. I fear the "white nose fungus" disease may have got it.

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  10. How sad the bats in the museum will be locked out of their home. Bats have it hard what with poisons used on insects and it being hard to find homes. I wrote an article for a local magazine on people who rescue bats.

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  11. oh you are bringing back memories! there were bats that lived in the belltower of the church across the street from the house i grew up in duluth. on hot summer nights we'd sit outside on the porch steps and watch the bats come out. we never minded them, knowing that they ate bugs and mosquitoes.

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  12. I admire people who are animal 'removers'. I don't want to mess with anything in the wild - - unpredictable behavior, etc. Guess I'm a chicken.
    Since they are bothering the alarms, guess that is a good reason. Hope you don't end up with mosquitoes after it's done.

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  13. I use to make the calls to the local school for the burglar alarm. One disgruntled, fired janitor let a cat in the building and I would get called to he school every time the cat decided to go looking for food. I had to shut the system down and three days later we, the police and I, chased it out the back kitchen door.

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  14. Since one of the meanings of inundated is 'overwhelmed', it might only take one bat to overwhelm some people:)
    Maybe after getting rid of that overwhelming number of bats, the museum could put up some bat houses in an appropriate spot?

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  15. Ahh hyperbole, those prone to the affliction oft become newspaper writers. Or husbands.

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  16. I don't mind bats either. I love to watch them in the evening flying here and there eating bugs.

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
    http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

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  17. I predict that they will be sorry they relocated them.

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