Cool find today! I was pressurwashing a rental house today, getting it ready for paint and I found several bats nesting in the slats of the gable end. The screen behind it was still keeping them from entering the attic so I just let them be. I wont dare let the tenants know. They would probably insist on killing them somehow. I knew we had some in the region I have seen them in the early evenings on rare accasions but never ran accross a nest till today. I was glad to see them! Anyone have a good stratagy for atracting bats in the south-east? I had a bat box up befor but it never atracted anything but wasps and such.

That's awesome! I would love to have bats around here...

Make sure there's a good strong barrier between them and your attic, so you don't end up with guano in your attic (very stinky and hard to get rid of, but GREAT fertilizer! LOL). As long as they are physically excluded from the attic, they shouldn't cause any problems.

I haven't tried actively attracting bats yet, but I do know that they have very specific heat and humidity requirements, and so a bat house needs to be at just the right height and in just the right relation to sunlight and other atmospheric influences in order to attract them.

Check out www.batcon.org. Great organization, and they have lots of information on attracting bats. You can probably also use their site to identify the type of bats you have.

Definitely don't advertise to your tenants that you have bats there. If they find out or notice, it might not hurt to have some pamphlets or other information from Bat Conservation International (that's the batcon link) to start an education campaign. They probably have far fewer mosquitoes in the area thanks to those bats, for instance, and if they knew all the other benefits of keeping them around, they would, if they were smart, be happy to have them living so close.

In any event, I don't think they can force you to have them removed, as it's unlikely to fall under the "habitability" clause of any tenant's rights law. They might try removing them themselves, though, and that could get ugly.

Anyway, good luck and congratulations! I am a huge fan of bats and am jealous at your good fortune.

Heather

P.S. Just wanted to add that if I had to choose between rent-paying human tenants and mosquito-eating bat tenants, the human tenants would get the boot any day.

Omigosh, creekrat, this means there are two of us (organic gardeners) in Columbia, SC! Actually, I live in unincorporated Lexington County, where bats are a regular item. Sounds like you have a nice little colony there!

Actually, if it were your house it would be up to you about the bats. But since a rental, by law, has to be a safe and inhabitable place, it's very important not to expose tenants to anything you know about.

Histoplasmosis can be inhaled, it is in bird droppings and bat droppings. It's microscopic, you can't see it, and it's really not safe to have it near their attic, vents, ducts, etc.

http://wasg.iinet.net.au/histo.html

You could build a bat house on a pole and relocate them. Probably the local wildlife agency can help you with that.

I agree with sweetpea, and it's good advice. I love and appreciate bats, it's nothing to do with that. But these are tenants; you don't mention whether there are children . . .

I've been a tenant, I AM a tenant right now, and I'd want to know if there were bats in my rented belfry, outside the screen or not. Have knowledgeable people help you relocate them.

Yuck I hate bats we had one or two in our basement one time I am absolutely terrified of them.

I spoke to a local wild-life agent today. He told me that they are year-round residents here and if the property owner chose to have them relocated they would more likly return because bats have excellent homeing instincts. The only way to keep them out is to put up a screen on the outside. It is against the law to kill them, thank goodness. I checked out some info at Batcon.org and the idea of moveing them to a bat box is highly unlikly to be succesfull. they need to pick ther own nesting site. I have informed the landlord it is up to him and the owner as to waht to do with them. I personaly wont have anything to do with removeing them. Thanks to everyone for all your helpful info.

Hi junequilt! great to see a local OG here. the bats are at a house I am working on in gaston. I live in the dutch square area. After seeing those bats I have been inspired to build a new bat house this summer at some point. you mentioned you see them a lot out in your area, do you have any bat houses or know any neighbors who are doing this? I had a bat box when I lived in Murrells Inlet but it only housed wasps and such. after checking batcon.org I realized the box I had was not a good design so I plan to build this new one instead of buying one.

Good point about histoplasmosis--I hadn't thought about it getting in their air ducts. A bat in a bathouse, even attached to a house, presents nearly no danger (certainly no more than a bird in a birdhouse attached to a house), but it could be problematic if guano or bacteria from guano is getting sucked into the air ducts.

I also humbly concede that it probably *is* the best thing to tell the tenants. I've been on the other end, too--only for me, it was the landlord spraying chemicals without notifying me, but I can see how it's the same principle to let them know about their co-tenants.

*If* the bats are posing no health danger (for instance, there is no communication between their home and the rental home), and *if* the tenants are amenable (which they might be if they understand the many benefits of resident bats), then perhaps the bats can be left in peace.

If not, there is a lot of great information on how to humanely exclude them from their roost, on the batcon site. And who knows--if you provide them a nearby suitable site for nesting, maybe they *will* take advantage of it. Won't hurt to try.

Good luck!

Heather

Since bats fly at night, it's best to go to where they are a couple of hours after dark when they are out of the nest, make sure it's empty, then screen it off.

When they show up to roost, they'll figure it out. They are good at finding other good places. The first place I ever ran into bats was under a train trestle over a creek, and if they didn't mind a mile-long freight train going overhead a few inches away, I guess they can adapt!

Here's another thing to make bats unhappy, when making sure they've left at night, put a bright light illuminating the entrance and shining into their nesting place. They hate that!

I actually live in Gaston, although not in that bustling metropolis itself -- we just kinda borrow the mailing address. Who knows, though: maybe I'm seeing some of your bats!

As far as I know, no one in my neighborhood (dirt road, mostly mobile homes with a few houses, pickup trucks, etc.) but me wants anything to do with bats, but when I walk my dogs in the woods at sunset I see lots of 'em. They're probably living in old barns and other outbuildings in the area.

I don't have a bat house because with a fair-sized population in the vicinity I've never felt the need. What we do need is toads, and I'm pleased to say that the several small water gardens I've installed have brought them our way. We now have two toads who live just outside the house under one of our worm bins. They emerge at dusk and hang out by our breakfast/family room door, which is glass-paned. They feast all evening long on the flying insects attracted by the light that shines through the door!

Maybe I should put a night light out in the garden and then they would eat the bloody leafhoppers?

Tell me, is there an OG community in Columbia?

Yes you very well could be seeing the bats I am talking about. The house is in glenn village. I work in that area a good bit. Costly on gas thou going that far on a daily basis. Hopefuly a descent heavyduty truck useing an alternative energy resource will be available when I am ready for a new truck.

Most of my neighbors think I am nuts for not using any fertilizers or weed killers. I do run into others like me while shopping for yard goods every now and then. I found a lot more organic gardeners around when I lived on the coast. my guess is most of them in this area live out in the more rural areas like yourself. living in the city, every one is more intrested in "keeping up with the jones'" not much wildlife around except birds and squirls for the most part. I have been here for three years now and never saw a snake till this spring. I did however see a racoon my first year! It was raiding my kitchen trash can. These modern style screen doors are not designed to keep out critters, but I like to sleep with the house open to fresh air. I need to build my own screen door to get the style I want including a secure lock, not those el-cheapo locks. I spend a lot of my free time remodeling this place so it will be a couple more years befor I get more involved with the local organic community that I am sure is out there somewhere.

Hi ya'll,

I'm just north of the border in NC. Not a lot of organic gardeners around here, either (certainly not my neighbors), but I know a couple.

Wildlife is pretty decent, though, for a subdivision--besides birds and squirrels, I regularly find rabbit scat in the yard (occasionally even see the little tikes, but they don't seem to bother my garden--probably all the clover in my lawn! LOL), and we have a resident snake. No toads, but that may be because of the snake.

Maybe we should have a Carolina OG'ers convention?

I'd love to meet ya'll. We could make it a plant swap too.

Whaddayathink?

Heather