Cheer of the Day!

[Gothichome]

I managed the eviction the next evening with a lot less fuss. Got the bat out of the house, it dusted itself off and flew away, no harm done. A couple days after my wife bought me a butterfly net, (pink no less).
We get a bat or two in the house every couple of years, mostly in the spring. We have small population, maybe half a dozen or so of small brown bats in our attic.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_brown_bat

When we first bought the home it was a much larger population, but over the years I have been sealing up their means of ingress as I find them, but they do manage to find another.

 

[ElectronicFur]

A bat sounds better than a pigeon.

We had one smash through a window pane earlier in the year. Missus thought I'd broken something, and I thought she had. Ended up wandering round the house looking to see what had broken, to be greeted by a pigeon flapping around in one room.

Not only did I have to catch it, the shock of smashing through the window had caused it to empty it's bowels all over the floor. Floor's been cleaned up, but window pane still boarded up and on the to do list.

These modern day pigeons have no respect for wavey glass panes...

 

[steveb]

I found a weird saucer thing in the garden one year, looked a bit like a charred hub cap. I wondered if it was some kind of disposable barbeque that had been blown by the storm.

Couple of nights later sitting in the lounge and we hear a faint "tap tap tap". Long pause. "tap tap tap".

Took a while for us to start the search, eventually opened the door of the wood stove to be greeted by a face full of blackbird as it swiftly escaped from it's temporary confinement and it started to enjoy its new environment. We had the presence of mind to close the door quickly to at least confine the bird to one room, but a blackbird is nowhere near as graceful as a bat and basically bounced off of every surface covering the walls, furniture and ceiling in soot.

Opening the window didn't help because it was dark so no light source for it to aim at but eventually managed to snag it in a curtain and kind of bundle it out.

The following day after an inspection from ground level, the weird saucer thing proved to be the top of the cap from the chimney , so the poor bird was probably balancing or sleeping on the wire cage that was left and toppled in.

The curtain to this day contains a kind of "turin shroud" style print of the bird on the lining at the rear

 

[a twig]

Turns out when you have to do emergency replacement of a few floor tiles less than 12 hours before a coven of in-laws descend, and you don't have enough tile adhesive, a 50:50 mix of hydraulic lime mortar and tile adhesive works wonders and goes off enough to be walkable in 6 hours

 

[malcolm]

Got (verbal) building regs sign off for the change of use. Should be a cheer for everyone to have me stop going on about all that.

 

[Feltwell]

Always nice to get past a hurdle of officialdom!

 

[Flyfisher]

Santa came early for you this year - congratulations!

 

[MatthewC]

When we first bought the home it was a much larger population, but over the years I have been sealing up their means of ingress as I find them, but they do manage to find another.

[My bold] above. Just noticed this post from last month. Is the bit in bold legal? :?

 

[LadyArowana]

When we first bought the home it was a much larger population, but over the years I have been sealing up their means of ingress as I find them, but they do manage to find another.

[My bold] above. Just noticed this post from last month. Is the bit in bold legal? :?

Maybe it is in Canada

 

[Gothichome]

Yes, you can do any thing and everything to discourage bats in your home. You can not harm them in any way though. So no poison smoke bombs going off in the attic to kill them off. I believe killing them off is legal in pats of the states though.
The scenario is this, bats tend to use the same exit and entrance hole, as you find the holes, you fill it. They then find another way in. The idea is to limit their access. At that time you seal those in the middle of the night while they are out doing their thing or in the winter when they have migrated. In the morning or spring when they arrive they have no way in and soon find another spot to roost and that becomes their new home.

 

[Abi Cott]

Yes, you can do any thing and everything to discourage bats in your home. You can not harm them in any way though. So no poison smoke bombs going off in the attic to kill them off. I believe killing them off is legal in pats of the states though.
The scenario is this, bats tend to use the same exit and entrance hole, as you find the holes, you fill it. They then find another way in. The idea is to limit their access. At that time you seal those in the middle of the night while they are out doing their thing or in the winter when they have migrated. In the morning or spring when they arrive they have no way in and soon find another spot to roost and that becomes their new home.

That would be against the law in the UK without a licence, and getting a licence to do so is extremely difficult.

 

[Flyfisher]

I imagine that would be a difficult law to enforce. Surely it is perfectly reasonable for a property owner to fill any holes they discovered in their roof or walls, regardless of whether they’ve ever seen a bat before?

 

[Abi Cott]

I imagine that would be a difficult law to enforce. Surely it is perfectly reasonable for a property owner to fill any holes they discovered in their roof or walls, regardless of whether they’ve ever seen a bat before?

The phrasing is "Intentionally or recklessly obstruct access to a bat roost." So I'd guess it's not dissimilar to
"work that affects the special architectural or historic interest", somewhat woolly and decided by someone other than the homeowner. :wink:

 

[ElectronicFur]

Merry Brexmas!

 

[Gothichome]

I imagine that would be a difficult law to enforce. Surely it is perfectly reasonable for a property owner to fill any holes they discovered in their roof or walls, regardless of whether they’ve ever seen a bat before?

The phrasing is "Intentionally or recklessly obstruct access to a bat roost." So I'd guess it's not dissimilar to
"work that affects the special architectural or historic interest", somewhat woolly and decided by someone other than the homeowner. :wink:

This begs the question, is bat poop in your attic considered period correct and part of the historic properties covenant? And would removing it be subject to your listed property CO’s consent. :|

 

[Abi Cott]

I guess that would depend on the whim of your CO, whether or not the guano was structural and obviously owning a belfry would be of significance :lol:

 

[MatthewC]

This begs the question, is bat poop in your attic considered period correct and part of the historic properties covenant? And would removing it be subject to your listed property CO’s consent. :|

If that's a serious question, I doubt any CO would go that far! On a Grade II* listed church some 10 years ago, we had loads of pigeon guano removed by a specialist contractor without needing any permission, but we did need formal permission to put up pigeon netting to stop the little blighters doing it again as it was blocking roof drains and causing rain to go where it shouldn't.

 

[Gothichome]

Matthews, it was not posted a serious question, just a bit of an effort to get a smile or two out of the fine folks here.

 

[Abi Cott]

This begs the question, is bat poop in your attic considered period correct and part of the historic properties covenant? And would removing it be subject to your listed property CO’s consent. :|

If that's a serious question, I doubt any CO would go that far! On a Grade II* listed church some 10 years ago, we had loads of pigeon guano removed by a specialist contractor without needing any permission, but we did need formal permission to put up pigeon netting to stop the little blighters doing it again as it was blocking roof drains and causing rain to go where it shouldn't.

Did it have a belfry? :lol:

 

[TheRoost]

Merry Christmas All!