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

This may be too late but DO NOT phone the bat people.

We did to find that our loft is a nursery for bats, this weirdy beardy came round checked out our loft and told us that this is wonderfully clean and perfecft for them, and the likelihood would be that the bats would return each year (which they do!)

I asked if we could block the hole that they come thru and the weirdy beardy nearly fainted saying that under no circumstance must we block the bats.

We also cannot have any work done on our house upstairs or in the loft (or roof for that matter) without having the bat nerds out to check that the bats are happy and perhaps BUILDING a suitable place for them to do what bats do whilst the work is carried out!!!

drunk bat?

So what would happen if you blocked off their access once they had departed of an evening???

LOVING your comment about the dolphins!!!

Gentle Otter,

I love bats but I phoned the bat people for advice last year, they are very pro bat and do not understand that actually given that bats can carry rabies are not great for young children. Have you tried sealing all the holes into your rooms with tape and paper?? So that they can live up in the roof but not get into your rooms?? That's what they advised last year, so looks crap but there are no bats in the bath toys.

My 130 strong colony arrives every year, they get progressively louder and louder until I am forced to move to another bedroom (perfectly reasonable that you should move bedrooms to accomodate the bats isn't it????)

Also, apparently I broke the law by keep a dead bat that decided to die on one of the beams, you need a license to keep dead bats you know!!!!! I told the beardy "I didn't make it die on the beam"

You should contact your local council with regard to the fact that your home seems unfit for human habitation. The law may be different in scotland but in england the council can force the landlord to make necessary repairs.

I' reallllllly sorry Gentleotter but i'm LOVING this thread. The bit about the dolphin obsessions is definately quote of the week

Now you see I read the title and thought it was about assault. GentleOtter hit on the head with cricket bat whilst remonstrating with rabid batsman invading her property.

I like bats but I can see you can have too much of a good thing. Lots of advice here sowon't add my total lack of knowledge of the subject

Agree with Volkl don't get the bat people involved. They are completely unreasonable and of the opinion that bats are worth more than human beings, so I say f**k 'em and just block up the holes.

I have decided not to phone SNH as there are LOADS of dead bats in the back bedroom that no one goes in to. They must have been coming down the old chimney and dying during winter.
The room was used as a dump for the ironing but everything is covered with bat-poo and dried dead bats.
Now I am paranoid.

The SNH lot are all knitted from the same recycled hemp-lentil cloth and zealous in their mission. They are terrifying and powerful. I would be BadBratOtter in their eyes and jailed for all the tiny dead bats that have hidden in the laundry.

GO, my boss's wife works for SNH - I can ask him to ask her a hypothetical, if you want - she's not directly involved in conservation work. Won't be till Tues that I ask, mind.

PMSL at dolphins!

I would be VERY freaked out to have bats flying everywhere and crawling in my clothes, I can't even cope with craneflies.

A whole room FULL of dead bats???

They would send you down for life!!!

You're moving right? So you won't be interested in the 'when they go away for winter fill the holes with expansive foam' method of bat protection.

I am very disturbed by the whole room of dead bats. Are you the Addams Family by any chance?

I would recommend that you contact the body that is preventing you from repairing your roof.

Let them know that if they do not allow you to make necessary repairs, they are contravening your rights under the Human Rights Act 1998.

I expect the right would be in Article 1 which provides for the rights to the peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions.

There are probably other ways of approaching this problem, but I would recommend that you take advice from Citizen's Advice Bureau

Bloody, BLOODY hell. The wildlife is taking over. A bloody housemartin just flew in my back door, glided along the hall, and flew out through the front door. I swear to god. Why did it do that?

this is you, this is, threadworm!

LOLOLOL

No, this

LOL

Now I really am getting scared/ It came back in.

Its picking up on your mother earth vibes!

It has just come in for a third time and I have shut all my doors

Watch it Threadworm, you'll turn your back for a second and it'll have taken up residence on the sofa! And it'll pretend it's illiterate if you try to serve it an eviction notice! I do try this with huge hairy spiders but they just ignore me and tootle off under the sofa...and I am sure they are looking at me....

We once had a bird fly in, wnet all around the house and then flew out again. I'm not good with feathers either