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

They can't cope with lights so it's best to open the windows and turn the lights off and then they can find their way out, which they will do at dusk to feed. Easier than trying to catch the little buggers aswell.

They are all single mums with one baby each so need to hunt for food for their babies so they always leave at nights and don't return til the morning.

Poohbah, you've got me feeling sorry for the bl@@dy bats now. Single mums, hunting for food for their babies, etc... and I am absolutely phobic about the creatures.

Well my day is now complete. Guess what was spotted in the kitchen ? One of these

where do you live? in a bleeding scooby doo film?

Schloss Otter

rent out to a film company!!

WilfSell

If you "move" the bats I wont tell if you dont

I am now hysterical and in need of smelling salts and a chez longue.
We live in the middle of nowhere in a bog and as it was warm today so there are a million midges outside and some in.
The bats are JUST starting to come out to feed but I have put mesh and muslin up at all the windows and firmed the edges with duct tape. I have a horrible feeling that they are coming in underneath the skirting boards.
Can they do that ? Like mice...
My wellies are staying firmly on till bed time in case that horrible mouse takes a jump at me..

Gentleotter, we also have mice. I guess if bats like your house so do mice.

Bats can get through a 20mm space.

I am going to stuff tinfoil in all the gaps in the bedrooms.

Perhaps this would help on two out of the three pests?

Would the bats eat the mice or vice versa? Or they could breed and create a bice and mats!

It has just dawned on me that one of the roosts is directly above the water tank and there is NO WAY I am going up there to see if it has a lid.
There are lots of them flying about outside now
and fingers crossed the muslin and tinfoil trick works.

OMG!! The wildlife really have taken over! I have just taken the rubbish out and a frog jumped onto my foot!

I screamed and my neighbour came out to see if I was ok, I felt a bit stupid saying it was a frog

Serves me right for going out in bare feet

Oh no, I have just realised I have been chatting to the neighbour in my PJs

This is the funniest thread I have ever read!!

Bice and Mats

There's a sparrow nesting in my bathroom extractor fan. Hope nobody accidentially turns it on!

Is the demidging and bat entering living space prevention programme working Gentle Otter???

PSML at this thread OMG I have tears - you are the Addams family right???
A room full of dead bats

Off to feed my young. You might be interested to know that Bat babies are usually born feet first so the wings don't get entangled. Some batmothers give birth upside down and catch the babies in their wings; others right side up, the mother hanging on with her wing claws and catching her baby with her leg-tail flap.

The enormous batbabe - sometimes up to 40% of the weight of the mother - moves quickly to the nipple under the mother's wings and hangs on tight with its specially adapted hooked milk teeth.

Just in case you weren't concentrating last time I mentioned my travails.

(but very sorry about your infestation GO - what an awful pain.)

Can you retain access for the bats by some other way? Maybe a little slit just under the eaves somewhere? fwiw pipistrelles are not all that rare, so if you did the roof work in the winter, you'd only bother a few sleepy pipistrelles, even you normally have other types in there. can you ask someone from the bat conservancy of whatever it is to advise you on how and when the best time would be, and what measures yo could take to leave access but plug the holes?

Bats usually nest in the roof under the tiles and therefore it's possible to prevent them coming into the house via beams, ceiling etc.. whilst retaining their access to their lair. Pipistrelles use houses in the summer but will leave by september to hibernate in colder buildings so if permission from the bat people is granted then the access to the roof space can be blocked up at some point in the winter before they return in the spring.