I was hit by a bat yet I may have broken the law.

[GentleOtter]

Last night a bat hit me on the head - the flying type, a pipistrelle.
Every year during the summer months our house is HOACHING with bats and despite putting mesh up at the windows they are always flying about crapping everywhere.
Is it against the law to catch them with a butterfly net and jam jar then evict them outside?
Yes, I know they are protected and we had informed the bat folk but there are hundreds of them - I cannot get the really leaky roof fixed because of the bats. We are not ALLOWED to mend the roof so have buckets and burst ceilings ...not great for a baby.
I have had to put a mosquito net over the baby's cot but when the light is on they CRAWL on the floor and have been known to hide in our clothes or on towels in the bathroom.
Any advice welcome.

GentleOtter
Chateau Freaky
Batsville

I know this was already linked to, but info at Bat Conservation Trust

Scottish Natural Heritage

Natural England (Used to be English Nature)

havent we all got these at home?

Bats are typical creatures of habit unfortunately see here they can't help themselves apparently!

lol, vvvqv

I just want to announce here that I'm not clicking on any of the links on this thread because I just know what I'm going to see. So ner.

My dad once caught one with a fishing pole. He put something on the end of it and it flew and got caught.

Or you could find where they sleep and wake them up in the daytime. We had bats in our barn and one time my sister through a rock at one it woke up, flew outside, hit a tree and died.

Or as we got older we just resorted to pellet guns though.

You can kill them, just don't tell anyone about it.

Or old school flypaper. They may get stuck on them.

knew there was one more reason for not living in the UK...you have all gone batty.

Please don't kill them. You can exclude them properly without killing them.

Isn't there a market for guano? You could living under a fortune up there.

There was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald a few days ago about a woman who was having prophylactic injections for some bat-bourne disease.

The bat fell out of a tree when drunk and crawled up her leg, thinking she was a tree. She got minor scratches in the course of frantically shaking it off and trying to prove to a drunk bat that she was not a tree.

Yuck yuck yuck yuck.

I would have to move. I could not physically be in the house. Finding bats in my clothes would render me hysterical.

It is the stuff of my worst nightmares.

wow what an insane thread! Respect to batmen and women the world over. Think I'm with Buda but realise impracticality and prohibitive cost makes this luxury option.
dunno otherwise, seems pretty weird them seeking you out, maybe you're a secret bat charmer or your child is superhero whose power comes from the bats.
sorry unfair in the extreme to pisstake but this is so rad man!

but they really are cute little things, the way their little noses twitch, i think they are lovely - send them down to me, i'll put them in DPs shed, maybe he might work faster

OH, you have all brightened up my day!

Firstly, we would not kill them even though it does give you an awful fright when they appear and they do seem quite big now that I think about it. We are becoming dab hands with the butterfly net and jam jar.
The most awful one had crept under a cabinet in the living room and come dusk I watched it crawl to the window - there was something unearthly about the way it climbed up the furniture.

They are getting in through the roof as it is so bad that you can see daylight in places but the laird says we are not getting a new roof.

Piffle- From a shamanistic view, bats are seen as being the messengers between the living and dead - they tell of change. We are in the process of moving to the farm next door, had a baby etc so lots of change.
My DD has posters of bats, bat head dresses, sparkly bat wings and she sings little songs to them. I am encouraging a dolphin obsession as you know where you stand with a dolphin and we are landlocked.

I'm off to phone SNH. There are loads of nice barns outside ( with better roofs than the house ) so maybe they can do something constructive with this massive colony.

Oh GentleOtter, you have made me laugh

"I am encouraging a dolphin obsession as you know where you stand with a dolphin and we are landlocked."

Maybe you could produce a leaflet for the bats with details of many other much nicer barn roofs to live in. They may be looking for a bigger place....preferably with en-suite and all mod cons.

at dolphins and at bat real estate leaflets.

What a fabulous problem to have. I know it is a huge nuisance: it's bad enough for us having half a dozen stupid housemartins regularly flying into our bedroom. But, still ... wow.

Hope the batpeople help you to sort it.

Am loving this thread, batpeople... Also at "you know where you stand witha dolphin"

I am encouraging a dolphin obsession as you know where you stand with a dolphin and we are landlocked.

Has to be quote of the week

well I am in process of trying to prevent shitmachines swallows/housemartins from nesting above my sons window this year...

I look a site hanging out of the window with a bamboo twig muttering find antoher house birdy while preventing it from landing.

It is illegal to remove a nest from your home fair enough but apparently preventing them is fine
Tis bloody time consuming though

I suspect the Laird has a responsibility to keep the roof in reasonable condition. Even if it is a tied house.

Ladies, I love you all, you have cheered me up no end

Can I send my daughter up to live with yours Gentle Otter? She also has a bit of a love for the bats They could be the batpack

I like having housemartins, despite the poo-pebbledashing and the mad expeditions into our bedroom.