How often do you have to deal with bats in San Antonio? (Spring: houses, neighborhood)

[unintentionallyfunny]

San Antonio is home to the largest bat colony in the world. With that said, hardly ever. Atleast I don't., You may see them but they hardly ever interact with humans. They're too busy eating insects.

[huckster]

Millions of bats reside here along with millions of humans. Without interaction.
The closest you will come to a bat will a Louisville Slugger at a Little League Game.

Originally Posted by unintentionallyfunny

San Antonio is home to the largest bat colony in the world. With that said, hardly ever. Atleast I don't., You may see them but they hardly ever interact with humans. They're too busy eating insects.

[rattle axis]

It's common to see them at dusk. Look up towards the street lights, they'll be swooping around for the insects in the light. Maybe 2 or 3 of them is all. They don't/won't bother you though.

NOW, if you have a terra cotta roof.... that's a different story. We used to have that at our business, every evening, thousands of bats pour out of the tiles for their nightly run, and yeah, you'd get nearly swarmed as they poured out.
They'd get inside the building and we'd try to usher them out, but they never caused any harm.

It's illegal to harm certain species, so we never attempted any sort of pest control and just let them be. Eventually, the building facade was updated and with that, went the tiles. The bat colony moved to roost elsewhere.

BTW, you'll want to stay out of the large number of caves in the area and state parks. Flush with both spiders and bats.

[huckster]

Never knew this about terra cotta roofs. Have seen them around street lamps.
I had one swoop near me one time at Big Bend park as I was lying on a picnic bench there.
Perhaps after an insect I did not see. Perhaps saved me from a mosquito bite.

Originally Posted by rattle axis

It's common to see them at dusk. Look up towards the street lights, they'll be swooping around for the insects in the light. Maybe 2 or 3 of them is all. They don't/won't bother you though.

NOW, if you have a terra cotta roof.... that's a different story. We used to have that at our business, every evening, thousands of bats pour out of the tiles for their nightly run, and yeah, you'd get nearly swarmed as they poured out.
They'd get inside the building and we'd try to usher them out, but they never caused any harm.

It's illegal to harm certain species, so we never attempted any sort of pest control and just let them be. Eventually, the building facade was updated and with that, went the tiles. The bat colony moved to roost elsewhere.

BTW, you'll want to stay out of the large number of caves in the area and state parks. Flush with both spiders and bats.

[ashbeeigh]

If you see them they look like pudgy birds. Like others said dusk is the best/worst time to see them. They are out around Spring-early Fall so winter you will not see them. You may catch a few flying around the neighborhood every once in a while. Of the 20 something years I have lived here I remember seeing one or two bats flying around in the summer when I was younger.

As someone else mentioned, you will see them in caves, so avoid those. There are some spots in downtown SA where they hang out and come out at dusk. There are even bat watching parties in the summer, it is pretty cool to see them fly out.

There is a very distinctive bat smell that once you smell once you will never forget. Again, of living in SA for twenty something years there are just a few places where I have smelled that smell, and that's in the downtown are or near the zoo as well as a few bridges near the Leon Creek Greenway.

You'll be fine .They just want to eat bugs and go to bed.

[rattle axis]

Wingspan, maybe 5"

They'll occasionally swoop down to face level chasing bugs. Very musky smell.. damp/dirty-ish, and you'll smell slight ammonia too in close enough proximity to a colony. Always hate when I accidentally enter a cave I didn't expect to be there ... no, that won't be a problem.

You've really got very little to worry about. Stay away from bat colonies, they'll stay away from you.

[cbeltran428]

Originally Posted by rattle axis

It's common to see them at dusk. Look up towards the street lights, they'll be swooping around for the insects in the light. Maybe 2 or 3 of them is all. They don't/won't bother you though.

I've seen them flying around in the early evening around street lamp height in my neighborhood. You can tell if it's a bat by their flight pattern. They tend to flutter around while birds have a more purposeful flight pattern.

[Chaka]

We have loads of bats, but then a number of neighbors have bat houses. They eat mosquitoes. Love them!

We're relatively close to the river, which may be a factor.

[JMEEN]

I've been seeing a few a night flying around my backyard here in the south west side. They're harmless and pretty cool actually.

[NMCamper]

I can't believe someone is scared of bats! There are millions of them that fly out at dusk every night for most of the year except for Winter when they go back to Mexico. I live in the city and can see hundreds if not thousands flying around feeding every night.
There are a lot more things to worry about than bats here, they are harmless and beneficial.