Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Two ladies sharing "bat in their houses" stories at the Farmers Market. The young woman said she and her boyfriend have been using a foam seal product on every crevasse they can find inside their house. "You know they can get through dime sized spaces, don't you?" she advised. " You have to apply it at night when they're outside." "Yay, I'm going to go buy some right now!" replied the older fatter lady.
Later that afternoon: When purchasing said product at Wal-Mart a young male checker laughingly told the old fat lady that his friends who live in a fraternity house are all too chicken to catch the bats themselves. They call him to rescue them and he goes over with a broom. He said his method is to put on heavy machinist gloves, then to use the broom to knock the bats down while they're in flight. The old fat lady did not ask what he did with the bats once he has knocked them down and picked them up with gloved hands. However, she did advise him that he could make better money catching bats than he does as a checker at Wal Mart.
Perhaps entrepreneurship has been encouraged and a young lad will begin a glorious career by starting out as a humble bat catcher in Southeast South Dakota.
Bats aren't that common of a problem in Clay county or anywhere in SD. Any time you live in the country you run the risk of animals squatting in your house. Sometimes that means raccoons in your chimney, rats in your garage, wasps i n your ventilation, snakes under your porch... and yes, sometimes it's bats. Bats are animals just like any other and can be dealt with.
I lived in Clay county for several years and while I saw bats at night fairly often I never had problems, nor knew of anyone who had problems with bat infestation so I would say this is fairly rare and a risk you take when you live places where there are animals.
It is interesting. The woman who grew up with her grandparents in the house I own now never remembers encountering bats in this house as a child. But sometime in the past few years she visited her father in the house up the hill, and a bat flew into her face when she opened a door. She chose to get a rabies vaccination.
Since that time her sister moved into that house and has had several bats in the house, including 3 this summer. Her point of view is that there will always be 2 or 3 bats in the house a year, why worry about it? Last month a bat flew into her grandson inside that house. They chose not to get him rabies shots.
So, what is it? Has the environment changed? There is a lot of construction in the area - not very close to my physical location, but close to the church where we had the bat encounter. Is there more water here now? The Midwest has had a couple of wet summers, but I wouldn't have thought that would have a major effect. Are fewer bad pesticides being used? I seriously doubt it. Is it climate change? Or is the bat population moving east because of habitat change west of here?
Here's a nice page of info about South Dakota's bats: untitled
(PS, I've lived rurally for much my life in many different parts of America and am quite accustomed to critters of various kinds. I isn't no urban wimp.)
Bats aren't that common of a problem in Clay county or anywhere in SD. Any time you live in the country you run the risk of animals squatting in your house. Sometimes that means raccoons in your chimney, rats in your garage, wasps i n your ventilation, snakes under your porch... and yes, sometimes it's bats. Bats are animals just like any other and can be dealt with.
I lived in Clay county for several years and while I saw bats at night fairly often I never had problems, nor knew of anyone who had problems with bat infestation so I would say this is fairly rare and a risk you take when you live places where there are animals.
Trust me, this is not a "rural only" problem. I worked a wildlife hotline for 10 years in the state of Indiana. Two of us fielded over 20,000 nuisance wildlife calls a year. 95% were from urban areas. Wildlife are very adaptable. Just because we move into their environment, it doesn't mean they move out. They just find new places to live. The raccoons, opossums, skunks, bats, Canada geese, snakes, rats, moles, gophers, groundhogs, coyotes and all the other myriad species that inhabited the state ensured that I had steady employment by taking up residence in urban areas where food and shelter were plentiful.
As far as the bats being there now when they weren't 20-30-40 years ago probably has more to do with the age and state of repair of the house than it does with whether or not there were bats in the area.
The handyman came by to do some other work for me this afternoon, and told me the following:
Vermillion has been "infested" with bats this summer. The street that is known for the most infested houses is Dartmouth. That's in the older part of town.
My house was built in 1938. It passed inspection with flying colors and seems to be in pretty good shape. The handyman said, and I agree, that my house is probably particularly susceptible because it backs up on woods and has lots of trees surrounding the house.
That doesn't explain the church bats, or bats in the new house by the golf course, though!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
