Bats 







This page contains photos of bats which I took in and around my apartment in Valdosta, Georgia (USA).







Website designed by Tom Spinker

See home page for email address


This page released 15 Sept 2005

Copyright © 2005 All Rights Reserved















Home    
Snakes    
Lizards
























This bat flew into my apartment and "landed" on the ceiling.

Photo taken 11 August 2005 at 9:20pm with 100mm macro lens, Sensia film.
















I have checked several websites in an attempt to identify the species.
Two useful websites are

http://www.batcon.org/discover/species/usstates.html

and

http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/gawildlife/mammals/chiroptera/chiroptera.html


My best guess is that the bat is an Evening Bat Nycticeius humeralis

(Because it resembles the photo at the www.bacon website and because this website says that
the species migrates, which the bats in the attic seem to do.)

Also resembles the Southeastern Myotis
or the Little Brown Myotis



The following twelve species are found in Valdosta

     Evening Bat -               
 Nycticeius humeralis

     Myotis lucifugus -                 Little Brown Myotis

     Eptesicus fuscus -              Big Brown Bat

    Tadarida brasiliensis -       Mexican Free-tailed Bat

    Lasiurus borealis -             Eastern Red Bat

    Lasiurus cinereus -               Hoary Bat

     Lasiurus intermedius -         Northern Yellow Bat

   Lasiurus seminolus -             Seminole Bat

    Myotis austroriparius -      Southeastern Myotis

      Myotis grisescens -               Gray Myotis

    Pipistrellus subflavus -     Eastern Pipistrelle

   Corynorhinus rafinesquii -  Rafinesque’s Big-eared
















This bat found its way into my apartment in on the evening of 23 July 2005.
After flying in circles for awhile, the bat landed on the bathroom floor.


I photographed it.  Then I pushed a cardboard tube from a roll of kitchen towels straight at its nose.
It readily crawled into the tube.  I carried the tube outside, slid the bat out, and the bat
flew away.


I've had five bats in my apartment during the summer of 2005 and one in 2004.
Two of them eventually flew out the door.  
I removed three using cardboard tubes.  And one landed on my hip and clung to
my jeans and I was able to quickly walk out the open door.  The bat then flew off.


There is a colony of bats in the attic above my apartment.  They might be getting into
my apartment where the water pipes enter under the kitchen sink.








Evening Bat (?)
Nycticeius humeralis(?)





The bat is on the bathroom floor.  The thing on the right is the side of
the cabinet on the bathroom sink.


Photo was taken 23 July 2005 at 9:34pm with 100mm macro lens, flash.



















This is another photo of the same bat.  Looking down along the sink cabinet.


The two photos of the bat on the bathroom floor were taken with Agfa RSX film.




















I checked the internet to determine if a bat colony is a matter for concern.
From the website

http://www.247wildlife.com/bats.htm 

I learned that there is a fungus which grows in bat droppings.
The spores of this fungus can cause a lung disease in humans (called histoplasmosis).


But I have read other websites which says that this problem is greatly exaggerated.


I hesitate to inform the landlord out of fear that he might over-react and call in
an exterminator to kill them all.


The bats were also here in summer of 2004.  I think they only stayed for a few
months.  So I am going to wait until the bats leave and then show the landlord
where they are entering the building.  I hope he can cover the opening so the
bats cannot enter next summer.


I personally think that an occasional bat in the apartment is a novelty, but I
don't expect to stay here many more years and the next tennant might have a 
different reaction. 



















The bats enter and leave the attic from an opening below the wood roof frame
(seen at the right in the photo just above the bat's wing).


This photo was taken as the bat was leaving at about 8:20pm on 26 August 2005.
With 135mm lens and flash, Sensia film.

























Home    
Snakes    
Lizards








Notes:

There is a bat forum at     http://www.batmanagement.com/index.html

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2105a.html
   says that bats attract "bat bugs" which are much like bedbugs.

more bat info:
   http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/wildlife/mammals/brazilian-free-tailed-bat.html

   http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/wildlife/bats.htm

Brasilian free-tailed bats are also called Mexican free-tailed bats.