Going Batty

Over the past month or so, I've heard sounds coming from the small space above my office. The office is in an addition to the regular house, and the small "attic" space is inaccessible to humans or the rest of the house and the main attic. At first, I thought they were squirrels, but then a friend mentioned that they were probably rats. EEEWWW! Hubby put out a couple of traps by the trash can, which was conveniently located underneath what I thought was their suspected point of entry. Surely, I thought that they would take the bait while foraging for food. Nope, no such luck. I could smell what I thought was a dead rat when I sat in my office and worked, and I saw droppings around the area where I thought they were getting in and out. There was a space just under the roof line where it looked like there was a small access point.

I didn't want to put out poison because I knew that if they went back in the attic and died, the smell would be even worse. At wits end, I called a local exterminator, hoping that they would have some good ideas about how to tackle the problem. The technician seemed as stumped as I was, providing only the methods of bait stations or traps. Exasperated, we agreed and let him put out some snap traps and glue traps, and also spray the house for bugs (which we don't have a problem with, but the service was included). I know that glue traps aren't humane, and I have had experience with them years ago and it wasn't pleasant- but the diagram I saw of one rat producing thousands of other rats in a year's time was more alarming than the thought of a rat dying a painful death on a glue board. I read, "a single pair of rats can multiply more than 15,000 descendants in 1 year; 359 million in 3 years." Um, no thank you. Moreover, because we have children here I was especially concerned about the rats possibly chewing through the walls, destroying wires, starting fires, and maybe getting in our living areas. No, No, No, and No.  

One night passed, and I checked the traps. We caught nothing. We had discussed the possibility of nailing the glue boards to the wall underneath the spot where they were getting in and out, and while the idea seemed pretty gross, it also seemed like the only way to get the (suspected) rats out. We stapled the glue traps all around their point of entry, and the next morning I saw that we had caught something. Three somethings, actually...

Bats.

Bats? Yes, bats. We officially have a bat cave located on to the back of our house. We had a superhero party here yesterday and, as I type, there are Batman decorations hanging up in the art room. What is ironic is that there are REAL bats hanging on the back wall of our house- and my heart is breaking for them. I actually don't have a problem with bats, and think they're cool little creatures. Being able to see them up close, I can marvel at their silky black wings and cute little faces. I never would have subjected them to pain or discomfort, if I had known that they were there. In fact, I would be fine with them setting up camp in an otherwise unused, safe area. The problem is the smell. Ugh- not cool. Apparently, bats produce a large amount of guano (a fancy word for poop) which begins to smell (a lot) in the summer heat. What I've been smelling isn't dead rat, it's bat poop. Yay! Also, bats have been linked to rabies, which is less than encouraging and one of the reasons I'm not trying to free the captive bats with vegetable oil. I have compassion and sympathy, but I don't care to visit the hospital for a series of rabies shots. Not today.

I've done an impressive amount of Google research since finding the bats a few hours ago, and have learned that bats are a protected species in many parts of the country, and that it is illegal to purposefully kill a bat. They are a crucial part of the ecosystem and serve an important role in the control of the insect population. The best way to get rid of bats is by exclusion, which means allowing the bats to get out, but making it impossible for them to get back in. This is often done with creatively draped mesh or mosquito netting, and looks like it will work for us, if there are more bats in the attic. Once there is no more evidence of the bats, the entry point can be sealed up so that they don't return. Given the chance, bats will return to their nesting area year after year. Go on little bats and live free, eat the mosquitoes, and be happy. Just not at our house. 

I wish that our pest control method hadn't caused suffering to the three little bats that were caught by it. It weighs on me. But now that we know what we are dealing with, we can move forward and try to do the right thing. It's like anything in life: when you know better, you do better. Sometimes when we try to do the right thing, we end up doing the wrong thing. There are lessons every day.