I thought I'd keep a record of what's happening with the bats in our church on one thread.

I recieved lots of material from the public health office which eased my mind. A pest control person also said that they may not be the problem I first anticipated. Now, if we can only keep 'em from flying in the sanctuary during our services!

I'm resigned to the fact that we can't do anything about a bat colony in the Chatham church until April.

We're preparing by stopping up as many "escape holes" as possible that lead into the sanctary.

This morning I found a bat on the floor near the church office. Later that day when my wife and I went to run off the bulletin, the bat had crawled up the side of a stair and was hanging there, upside down.

I went near a window, picked out a half-dead fly and fed it to the little brown creature. Well, I didn't exactly put it into the bat's mouth--I let the fly walk into danger's way.

This Sabbath I'm holding a contest to keep the children's attention. During my graphics presentation, I'm inserting a little picture of a bat. The children who spot it will get an activity book as a prize. I contemplated giving adults who spotted it 10 whole minutes of my undivided attention (re:"Where are all the shepherds?" on another forum).

By the way, someone will be there 9:00am every Sabbath morning to make sure we're "bat free" for our services.

More later as the situation continues!

By the way, April should be interesting, as the whole colony is supposed to come out of hibernation.

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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Don't let yesterday's mistakes trouble you, nor tomorrow's fears spoil your day.

Pastor Andrew

It sounds like you are coming up with some good, workable solutions to the problem. Now, if you can only convince your church members that they have nothing to fear from the presence of the bats, you should be able to co-exist peacefully with the little creatures until they are ready to find a new home in the spring.

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

Today I spotted a bat crawling towards the church's back door.

My daughter said she saw one flying into the Youth room, beside the children's Sabbath School room.

I went to investigate. When I thought I didn't see anything, a bat almost flew into my face. It was resting on the metal ledge under a blackboard and then flew to the middle of the room.

I didn't have gloves on and the bats were too fast/creepy to catch. Tomorrow morning we'll try to "clear them out" before the folks arrive to church.

Pray for us!

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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Don't let yesterday's mistakes trouble you, nor tomorrow's fears spoil your day.

Pastor Andrew

I couldn't wait until the next morning. At 8:00pm Friday night, I went with the church cleaning man and searched the place.

We threw one bat, kicking and screaming, out of the door. We placed it in some bushes, hopefully protecting it from the elements. We couldn't find the other one though...

There were bits of wood in the baptismal tank and on the pews--places under areas that the bats claws had been used for the creature to hang.

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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Don't let yesterday's mistakes trouble you, nor tomorrow's fears spoil your day.

Pastor Andrew

I hope you realize that bats can crawl through some very small holes. Once, years ago, my daughter and I were sitting at the kitchen table when we heard a scratching sound coming from the ceiling fan just above us. I assumed there was a mouse in there, until a bat flew out into the room. We went to the door and opened it, and before too long, the bat found its way outside.

More recently, at the house where we now live, we knew a bat was in the house, and the last we knew it had flown to the basement. We didn't really mind it being there, but the next morning I found the poor thing in the kitchen, drowned in the sinkful of water I had not emptied, even though the basement door was securely shut. I have no idea how it could have returned to the main floor.

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

Cathy, I'm between a rock and a hard place. I threw the bat out into the cold air where there is no food. It was placed near bushes that would protect it from some of the winter "elements" but it probably has starved to death by now.

I did solve the mystery of the second bat, though. This is not for the squeemish, but they do these things in Canada, sometimes...

Here goes: A male nurse cut the head off my other bat friend so it wouldn't suffer from the cold and hunger. Oh these ethical problems!

Now, about those "small spaces." That's quite a problem. A bat expert said that to seal a place good enough for bats means almost sealing it as tightly as you would for spiders. He, in fact, did seal a building for an arachnophobe--it was quite expensive.

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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Don't let yesterday's mistakes trouble you, nor tomorrow's fears spoil your day.

Pastor Andrew

You should do an article about this for the Adventist Review and/or the Canadian Adventist Messenger.

You can call it, "A Church Gone Batty."

__________________________
In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

Daryl, I'm actually recording the whole incident for a future publication.

The local health office and top bat experts say that churches (because of the way they're constructed) are the first choice for bat infestations.

It could cost thousands for a church to get rid of the creatures, so a little advice in an article could prove invaluable.

The next time I visit the church, I'm taking a camera.

By the way, the editor of Messenger Magazine is my parents' neighbor in Oshawa.

She's looking for a little more variety...

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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Don't let yesterday's mistakes trouble you, nor tomorrow's fears spoil your day.

Pastor Andrew

Are you going to share your photos with us here?

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

Yes. I'll try to get a good one with the "Welcome Guests" sign in the background.

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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Don't let yesterday's mistakes trouble you, nor tomorrow's fears spoil your day.

Pastor Andrew

In the past couple of weeks there has been no news on the bat front. The weather has been exceptionally cold, so maybe they're all hibernating nicely.

Another theory is that all of the smart ones are still sleeping--they weren't conned in by some false, soul-destroying message about the nearness of spring.

The theory that I hope is true is that we just had a few confused bats in the church for the winter rather than a colony and we're done with them now.

Stay posted, because in a little over a month hibernation time will be ended and things could get interesting...

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

The bats are back.

One was found on Sabbath (before the service) and two were taken out on Sunday. A sharp-eyed person removed one from an aisle of the Sanctuary before anyone walked down it (fortunately other took the centre aisle). Another was found in the kitchen, just behind the garbage can.

Last night I read that disturbing a bat during its hibernation so that it moves from one part of a cave to another uses up 1 month of food reserves.

Pray that Spring (and its food for bats) comes soon!

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

Thank you for your updates on the bat situation.

Where I work there are a lot of warehouses. In this one warehouse they had a bat infestation. When I first started to work there 4 yrs. ago this one part of a warehouse was the worse post to have. I was a rover on the graveyard shift so I had to patrol the building every hour. I was not afraid of the bats....It was the awful smell that was yucky. They never cleaned up the droppings....just let them pile up in this one end of the warehouse.....smelled bad.
Hope your church does not get that smell....this was over a few years in the warehouse....finally another company came in and cleaned it all up...new lights...it was dark and dismal before, very few lights.....amazing what happens when you bring in the lights.

In The Blessed Hope

Avalee

Actually, the smell of bat droppings is the least of their problems.

According to our local health unit, when airborne, the dust from guano (bat dung) carries a disease that causes ulcers to form in lungs that could prove fatal.

Cleaning bat droppings requires advanced chemical protection. (Gasmasks, etc. for larger "piles."

Bats also bring with them batbugs and bedbugs that can infest a building and look for human hosts if the bats leave.

Bats are actually wonderful to have around--as long as they're nearby, not living in the same space as humans.

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

That is interesting about the health reasons. We all knew that business could get in some trouble about letting that stuff just pile up....makes me wonder about some of the people who got sick on graveyard shift there..all doors closed all the time..no air getting in.

Avalee

Not to mention those with allergies and specific sensitivities...

One bat control expert says that people don't understand what a problem bats are until they have to get rid of them.

Our church has a "window" of April and early May. That is the time before bat babies are born and need permanent place so their mothers can feed them.

This next board meeting we will discuss the need to transfer the bats somewhere else in our conference.

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

I am glad you said in your conference and not in another conference.

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"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Romans 8:28

Daryl

I don't think there are too many conferences with enough funds to support these bats and their brood.

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

On April 16 we're going to get the pest control people work on our church. So far it's going to cost 200 dollars plus GST.

THe thousands of dollars some churches pay are for a total cleaning and plugging up of wholes. The pest control man said that there's only one possible hole in our church that the bats came in. Hopefully it will be an easy job.

Irony: The male nurse who chopped of a bat's head (to keep it from starving to death) has a bat problem in his own house. I recommended the pest control company our church is using.

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

Any more bat updates?

__________________________
In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

Pest control came but they didn't have a ladder long enough to reach the place they thought our bats were coming in.

We haven't had any more spottings in the church. Our 2 theories are: 1.They're smarter or 2.there were only 12 or so in the church at most and now they're all dead.

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Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. Rom. 12:12 NLT

Winter is approaching once again as the air is getting colder around us, therefore, I am wondering how things are with your bat situation?

__________________________
In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

There are no bats or traces of bats so far this year. Of course we haven't had a need for them to hibernate yet because Winter seems to have taken a break from this area. We haven't had any snow--and it's already the 18th of December. Its been only rain and more rain...

I don't think there will be a bat problem even though we didn't do anything this Fall to stop them.

The 15 or so bats that inhabited the church last year probably all died and the one or two that may have made it until Spring probably spread the word about inhospitable our church is for their kind.

Wonderful news Andrew, you will all be relieved.

I guess your church notice board says - All Welcome - except bats!

No bat problem this time?

BTW what is the name of this very pretty flower, used as a graphic @ the top left of the thread ?

I would love to grow them

Just click on this topic link and read all about it:

http://www.maritime-sda-online.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=64&t=000044&p=

We had a bat-free winter this time. I kind of miss the creatures. Now is the time of year that they are coming out of their hibernation and young ones are being born.

Did you know that little brown bat females mate with males in the fall, everything stops in winter and in spring the reproductive cylcle starts moving and they produce offspring?

Another wonder of creating regarding hibernation is that bears come out of their caves with almost no muscle loss. If we humans would stay still for a couple of weeks, we'd atrophy terribly--but God made the bears with an ability in their nature that scientist just can't figure out!

The nature of a bear testifies of the Creator.

Any more bat news for us?

Now that we are able to get the discovery series on Sky TV, I see some very interesting animal programs and recently one was on bats.They are very interesting creatures, though I think I would prefer that they stayed in their caves!