ONE Batty Bat - TWO Batty Bats - THREE Batty Bats!

Yep, you got that all right.
We have bats in our belfry ---- again!

Two months ago, we hired the Ryan, the Bat Man come and seal up any visible openings. He put on these little one-way trap doors so the bats could get out and could not come back in. We thought they were all gone and everything was good to go to have our new insulation blown in the north half of the attic. 

(we already did the south half insulation ourselves, but we need the old icky loose stuff in the north half vacuumed out, and replaced with better new stuff.)

When the insulation contractor was here measuring up for the amount of blown-in insulation, he could see evidence of new bats again. So we called back Ryan, the Bat Man, and he went back up there and looked. Sure enough, there were about 10 or 12 new bats! Some were little babies! That's not good.

So Ryan and his brother Adam put up some more one-way doors and examined everything everywhere and double-checked every single spot that he thought they could have been getting in.

Well, Steve went back up there the other day to check (because we heard some noises up there) and sure enough, there's probably twice as many bats up there again!

We called Ryan and he stopped over before we went camping last week.  We are under warranty for one year so he will keep coming back as many times as it takes at no charge. He asked if it was possible, could we try to sit out right before dusk, one by the front NW corner and then one by back SE corner of the house --- each watching two sides at a time. Then we could possibly observe where any bats might be coming out at dusk. Good idea!

So that is what we were doing Friday evening. We were going to be counting bats! I was a little too old for Sesame Street in the 60's, but I do remember watching it with my little brother, as well as my own children.

It was time to get my "Count" on....

Here I am....

 I have my super bright LED Flashlight, 

my water bottle, 

my 2 trusty companions, 

and doused myself good with some bug spray. 

I was all set.

Steve assigned me to this back south east corner of the house. I set my chair up on the diagonal corner of the house so I could watch the roof in both directions, as well as keeping an eye on the chimney, the she shed, and the areas of the house that the bats might be hanging out.

Incidentally, you can see where we removed the old entrance to the basement and installed the red bulkhead in the dogs fenced in potty yard. Next spring we will probably tear off the siding on that side of the house and replace it all with the nice Smart Siding like we did on the north side this past summer. Thanks to Steve's brother Mark and his wife Anne, they brought us over a whole load of Smart Siding that they didn't use on their last home. So I think we have enough to do this whole side of the house.

We sat outside at dusk for about 15 or 20 minutes, chatted with the neighbors for a little bit, and then started our Bat Watch in earnest.

Sure enough, I saw ONE bat! Then I saw TWO bats! They were coming out of these roof vents on the south and east sides!  Ryan and Adam had checked these roof vents and thought they were securely sealed with screen!!!!

More were coming out 

from the roof vent on the East side. 

I started counting:

 THREE 

FOUR 

FIVE 

SIX

I shined my light as each one

came out from the attic,

under the lip edge of the vent

It was getting darker and there were more bats coming out. Every few minutes, one would slide out, flutter it's wings and dash away into the twilight sky.

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

They all seem to come flying out of the roof vents, but not from anywhere else, that we could see.

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN 

FOURTEEN

This was just amazing to watch them, bailing out and taking off into the night sky. I had no idea there were that many bats up there!

FIFTEEN 

SIXTEEN 

SEVENTEEN 

EIGHTEEN

Well, by now we knew that we had a whole cluster of them that were working their way out of the attic. I finally counted number NINETEEN.

There may have been more I don't know.  We waited a while and then Steve gathered up all the gear in the darkness. The next step was to go climb up on the front porch and access the attic through the front window. It's a much easier way to get into our attic than crawling up through the scuttle hole in our bedroom. Besides, I don't want the bats coming down inside the house!!!

He gathered all of the materials needed and went up on the roof and inside. From the inside roof surface, he stapled up all new mesh screen. He could see where the bats were pushing aside the original screen that was attached inside of the roof vents when they were manufactured. The vents are only a couple years old, but the bats have found a way to wedge themselves between the screen and the roof vent. Steve stapled new stronger screen securely all of the way around, using about 50 staples on each section. Then he went around each border edge with a triple extra thick layer of caulk. He smeared it in really good.

I was able to hand him tools and things that he needed. He ran out of staples, he needed a wet rag after using the caulking gun, and I had to bring him a broom. LOL.  I was the "Gopher" so he didn't have to keep going up and down the ladder.  He swept away any recent evidence of bat doo doo on the floor up there. Now he can tell if there's any new bat doodoo, called guano, showing that there's any bats remaining behind from this point forward.

By now, I had moved my lawn chair around to the front of the house and I was watching him as he was working inside. These pics were taken from down below through the dark window opening.  We have a set of bright halogen lights up there in preparation for the insulation guys, so Steve was able to look around while he was stapling.

He made triple sure that everything was secure around the three screens of the roof vents.

But by now, he had made so much noise and had the bright lights going, that any remaining bats were hidden deep in the lower north portion of the attic.  No way were they coming out now.  He looked around with the flashlight and peered into the lower darker attic area of the other portion of the house to the North. He thought he could see / hear one more bat, or maybe two, scrambling and scuttling way up into the peak of that section. We are just going to have to wait it out on those two and see if they come out the next night. There are still two of the one-way doors installed that hopefully they can find their way out of and never come back?

Then Steve started tossing the tools down to me one at a time, then folding up the ladders and turning off the lights up there. It's a good thing we have electrical outlets in the attic and he can plug in work lights to do something like this.

I wonder what our neighbors were thinking about us? 

While I was waiting for him to finish up and come down, I was playing with the night mode on my phone. It looks kind of cool to take these pictures. In the dark of the night. I like the eerie glow from around the little solar garden lights on the green plants.

During the night on Friday, we could hear those last final few bats up there, maybe one maybe two, scuttling around trying to find their way out. They were crawling down an interior wall that runs behind our shower stall. We could hear them going up and down inside the interior walls trying to find a way out.

It was driving the dogs nuts to hear that scuttling and scraping sound up and down--- the dogs kept barking. Throughout the night every now and then we could hear them again trying to find their way out. Obviously they are trapped up there now. At least they're not getting out through the roof vents, right? So that means we did a good job sealing the vents up with the screen and caulk. Now the bats either have to find their way out of the one way trap doors or they're just going to die up there in a couple days without having anything to eat?

Yesterday evening was very pleasant. Steve had cut the lawn earlier, and the fresh scent of mown lawn was strong when we took out walk out in the Big Backyard.  We are feeling "Fall" in the air.  Looking forward to some wonderful relief from the heat and humidity.

Some silliness with shadows....

We sat out on the front porch for awhile, enjoying the weather and the cool evening air.  At least, we could relax until it was time for Bat Counting again!

The dogs enjoy

"Front Porch Settin" 

as much as we do! 

As it reached nightfall, we also set up our chairs and flashlights and watched. We didn't see any bats coming out at all.  Then Steve shone his light up into the attic window, and saw a few of them buggers flapping around inside, battering themselves against the window!!!

So up he went on the ladder, and opened up the window.  We settled back in our chairs and watched. THREE more came out!  We sat for about an hour, and then when no more came out, we decided to close it up and see how it goes.  So far, we don't think there are any more up there, but we will check again tonight?

We were scheduled to have the new insulation blown in next week. We had called the insulation company and said it might take a little bit longer to get rid of the bats. They were all too happy to reschedule it into October. Their workers don't appreciate working around bats. LOL  It's awfully hot up there in the attic this time of year yet. So by stretching it out until October, it makes it easier on their schedule. Plus we can be sure that these nasty little critters are fully and completely gone!

We also have a contractor coming to remove the upper portion of the crumbling chimney. We were worried the bats were accessing the attic through the chimney alongside of the inner flue lining.  But now it appears they were just using the roof vents.  Once the chimney comes and takes off the loose bricks down to a secure level, then he will cap it off permanently. We do not use that fireplace beneath it, so we will keep it for appearance, but not for function.

We sent a quick text message to Ryan the Bat Man that we think we found the source of entry and exit, and hopefully we alleviated the problem. I'm sure he will stop back sometime this next week and check it out again.

Do you think 

that we have gone

BATTY?