Bats in the Belfry

Before we left Kigoma for furlough several months ago, I noticed a noise in the attic, just above the sitting room. After listening carefully and investigating further, we determined that some bats had made their way into the attic. I didn't care much for the idea of having bats in the attic, but there were only a few of them and I just didn't have time to deal with it. I put it off until it was too late, and then we left for furlough.

Upon returning home to Kigoma, I found that their were no longer a few bats in the attic. There were hundreds! They were everywhere up there. Through a local friend of mine, I was able to find a man who was the closest thing we have here to a fumigator. He brought over a bunch of poison and a motorized backpack blower to blow the poison throughout the attic. This is the hard stuff that kills all bugs and rodents present. The idea is that the bats will flee from the poison and then you simply block whatever hole or holes they were using to get into the attic. He wasn't able to get the backpack contraption into the attic because it's such a short space. So he sent his young apprentice into the attic with a spray bottle full of poison and a gas mask. The poor young guy was up there for over an hour spraying. When they were spraying in the north end of the attic, they said about 100 or 200 bats flew out. Then they moved to the south end of the house, above the sitting room, and another couple of hundred came out. There were three to four hundred bats living up there!

They proceeded to try and block the holes so the bats couldn't return. They blocked the obvious ones, but then realized that the smaller bats could squeeze in between the small gaps where the corrugated metal roofing met the edge beam of the house. They stuffed a bunch of plastic bags and cardboard pieces into the gaps until they ran out of plastic and cardboard.

Later that night, after returning from a Bible study, I could here and see tons of bats squeaking and flying around the front and sides of the house. I stood there and watched for a bit as they flew at the house toward the various holes they had been forced out of and were now unable to get back in through. It was freaky having the bats fly right at me and then suddenly divert when their radar said, "Warning, enormous man dead ahead." But it was so satisfying to watch them try and get back into the attic without success. I then realized that I had my camera handy, so I took the following photo.

On the right is part of the roof line of the house, where the corrugated metal roofing meets the beam in the front of the house. The bat in the foreground had just attempted to return "home" and was flying away in failure. The bat in the background was on his way in for the attempt. Hundreds of them tried for a couple of hours. Most gave up, but unfortunately some of the smaller ones found a way back in. You can't buy caulking, or those small wooden strips that match the ripples of the corrugated metal in order to close the gaps. It's time I started collecting plastic bags and cardboard scraps. The house is going to look really funny, but if that's the only way to keep them out then so be it!

If any of you know of some surefire way to discourage bats from taking up residence in your belfry, please don't hesitate to let me know.