http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-linden-bat-house-20150808-story.html As we will meeting with the commissioner for DEEP next week, I'll be interested to see if they talked to this guy about doing that. Bet they didn't.

I can only hope they have a follow-up story on how many of the 400 bat apartments are being used. The only bat house that I've ever

seen that got the expected bat occupancy was one placed over the main bat entrance to a large attic. Most of the ones I've seen never

housed a single bat.

I always try to discourage people from wanting a bat house...I have installed a few because they were really wanting em despite my advice..

So....I would love to see the pesticide label posted here.

Me too. That would mean that it actually repels bats.

Must have been garlic....which only works for vampires in movies. But, for whatever reason, some operators sell it. Or should I say, some people buy it.

The bat house really isn't the issue in this story. Bat boxes are to themselves a good thing for bats when they choose to use them and they are properly
maintained.

The unoccupied houses should be moved after whatever time you decide but many say 2 years in the same spot without any success move the box...

We all know many folks believe that bats will leave a perfectly good roost in an attic or other part of the home structure to take resident in something that
is akin to moving from a hotel to an efficiency apartment.

Why move if you are happy, safe and have been coming home to that site for years or even decades?

Doesn't mean the guy was on the wrong track trying to place a bat house, and his reasoning I'm all for, he is just supporting some conservation.

Where he went out of line was using a "rodent" repellant for a non rodent mammal, as well as if he was paid to deploy said product. They don't state he was
paid to do so, would that still hang him up on the legal end with pesticide use/label etc...?

With so many folks selling their electronic, odor based and other online for all manner of wildlife including bats, it doesn't surprise me what he attempted to
do...

Without doing exclusion the likelihood he and his partner sealed the bats inside the walls and entombed them is very high. I have stucco companies do it
all the time out here, to them it is just a hole they need to patch and very few recognize they may have bats or other wildlife (birds) in them that may cause the homeowner
issues let alone the wildlife species in question.

If you watch the news as many of you do and do some searches on bat issues, you'll find that there are many folks taking part in resolving bat issues that have
no clue as we all know.

Let alone how many in our industry as we know that would call themselves educated and experience on the subject if it meant taking home the $$$.

I was just told yesterday about a lady who had called a city counterpart looking for bat info, when he returned the call she had just been told by a certain wildlife/pest
control company that she should just take a hose and spray the bats out of her shutters.......

So it doesn't surprise me what Joe citizen does or thinks is smart to do, go google a bit on repellants for bats and other aspects of bats in houses and see how bad some
of the suggestions are that are out there and products being offered....

This post had me look for a minute to see what he likely bought, it was apparent quickly with a short search that there are dozens of products he could have bought as
joe citizen...

I'd never suggest hanging bat houses around people surely not around homes . Bat houses breed bat bugs I've seen bats so covered in these bed bug looking bugs that they couldn't even fly . Bats migrate south they leave this devil spawn behind which has no problem feeding on humans for years after there hoist has left the building . Very common bat bugs are mistaken for bed bugs . The thought of a bug feeding on bat blood one night then having a nice human for desert not a good feeling I've been there

Our migrate south? Maybe to the south side of the street...

Hanging a bat house on your home isn't for everyone and certainly not everyone asks for that either, however there are serious bat house folks with dozens on their house without any ill effects, so to blanket statement to suggest it is always going to cause problems isn't true, a certain amount likely will, and plenty won't.

Bat bugs are no different than other ectoparasites we see on a variety of wildlife. I remember seeing snowshoe hare in MI covered in ticks, just nasty to look at. Have seen more than my fair share of coyotes covered in ticks, fleas, etc... Feral hogs with a ridiculous amount of lice, ticks, etc....

We have them too in our population, lice, bed bugs, etc... all human based let alone the micro organisms all over your skin right now...

How many clients have any of you had that had not only the siting or report of bed bugs but were also confirmed to have been bitten by bed bugs...? I'm not being snarky, I'm actually asking, how many because I have tons of clients with bat colonies that are well established and the insulation in the attics always has sign of bat bugs and live bat bugs, yet none of them upon asking them ever report bites, rashes, etc...

They just find dead bodies.

The other question, if you are treating for bat bugs and you have a 2 or 3 story structure and the bat bugs are in, under, around insulation, in wall voids, beneath cracks and crevices, how are you ever going to treat them to kill them off, or do you simply create a barrier in the living space with products designed for this species and for bed bugs?

I've only seen people treat the living space, so the bat bugs are still up in the attic doing their thing until they die of in absence of bats after the life span has expired...

Other issue is people not confirming when people have bed bugs but think they have bat bugs or might have both. Which one is doing the biting?

The other aspect related to the post above would be the idea that bat bugs aren't biologically based in terms of life cycle on bats and their life cycle. If bats are hibernating or even migrating short or long distances, the bat bugs have to be able to shut down, hide and wait for them to return in the spring. This relates to the probability of bat bugs becoming a real problem for people versus a perceived threat.


"Our migrate south? Maybe to the south side of the street..." - ditto, plenty of local hibernators in that state and plenty of hibernacula too, well documented...

Can folks who have had verified bat bug bites on their clients speak to this a bit, I ask every client I ever have if they've had issues that would suggest this, none have, they just get the creeps about these things crawling around and dying in their living quarters and thats the extent of it.

I know they can take a blood meal, they are built for it, but how often are they doing so with human host?

Thanks,

Justin

we don't do houses,,,,,we do Condos



(Center was full,,, library and spa facilitates were added to the sides)

Vinke empty your pm box.

Nice condos Vinke! Sharp design! I have several clients getting installations this year at their request. We've had many successfully occupied through the years and about 75% of our clients request them in some form or another.

We do not suggest to any of them that they are an exclusion device, or answer.

Last year I removed 4 nice multi chamber boxes from a cabin where the folks put them up as a friend told them the bats would leave this awesome cabin to live in these nice boxes.

There was 1 big brown bat in each box at the time I removed them.. and performed the exclusion.

The boxes are now post mounted out in a clearing in the pines on the hill near their home.

Are those pics from your WA state endeavors?

What Justin said re: bat boxes. They have their place. We offer them to customers, tell 'em bats are quite beneficial - just not in your house.

Organic repellent would work for bats...... if you put enough in the home to seal all the entry holes!

lol