RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Bat Problem Closes School

An Upstate elementary school remained closed on Friday as district officials try to make sure that a bat problem has been solved.

Fountain Inn Elementary dismissed early on Thursday after a bat got into one of the classrooms, one day after a bat removal expert got more than 300 bats out of the building.

On Friday, school district officials met with a bat expert from Clemson University to find out how to treat and control the Mexican free-tailed bats.

Bat removal specialists also did a walk-through of the school on Friday to make sure all entrance points have been secured to keep bats from getting back into the building.

Two bats that were found inside the building both tested negative for rabies.

School officials said all of the bat droppings were found outside of the building. The droppings were removed with a high-strength cleanser that school officials said is nontoxic for children.

South Carolina Department of Environmental Control spokesman Adam Myrick said the bat problem started at Fountain Inn Elementary about three weeks ago.

District officials say they didn't close the school initially because they felt they had the bat problem under control. They said the public hasn't been privy to what was going on behind the scenes.

District officials said they didn't feel the need to dismiss or close school until a bat disrupted a music class Thursday.

Officials will continue to monitor the building this weekend to see if any other bats are still inside.

Director of Communications Oby Lyles said specialists don’t think there are bats still inside the building, but they aren't 100 percent sure.

Lyles said, “We feel like we've done everything we can to address the problem. It's no different than at your own home. It's very difficult to get rid of bats, but we feel like we're making every effort we can to do that.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Rabid Bat Bites Man

A rabid bat bit a Moorpark man and, apparently, his dog. Steve Spence is now taking vaccinations, and his dog and house are under quarantine.

Steve Spence knew he was done for when he took the trash out — barefoot — to the curb of his Moorpark home Sunday night.

He looked down, and on his foot was a furry bat with black wings. It was exactly like the hundreds that migrate to his neighborhood, and especially his house, every spring and leave every August.

He shook the bat off. Then Spence, 54, looked closer, and on his foot was a red bite mark.

"I immediately thought 'I'm screwed,'" said Spence, a case manager for a nonprofit that serves the homeless and mentally ill.

The bat was rabid and had infected Spence. His house is now under quarantine by the Ventura County Department of Public Health. He's taking vaccinations. And it turns out that his dog, Pumba, an American bulldog, was bitten too, though Spence isn't sure when or how.

"I'm the one human in the county who they're reporting was bitten by a rabid bat," he said. "My dog's the only dog in the whole county who's been quarantined."

Ventura and Los Angeles counties have both reported larger than normal numbers of rabid bats this summer.

Twelve have been found so far this year scattered throughout Los Angeles County. In typical years, eight to 10 rabid bats are found, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said.

In Ventura County, the rabid bats have been concentrated in Spence's neighborhood near Moorpark College.

"In a typical year, all Ventura County might have seven or eight [rabid] bats," said John Brand, an analyst in the Moorpark city manager's office. "Now we've collected 10 in a 60-day period in one neighborhood. One house is the most suspect."

That would be Spence's.

Bats began showing up there about seven years ago, he figures.

He estimates more than 200 bats live in the ample spaces under his Spanish tile roof and feed on insects in a creek bed on the south side of the 118 Freeway — about a thousand feet from Spence's house, as the bat flies.

Five have tested as rabid this summer, he said.

Spence believes they're Mexican free-tailed bats, which migrate north from Mexico in the spring, then back at the end of summer.

"Apparently one bat can eat 6,000 insects a night," he said. "They are a protected species. If you talk to the bat people, we would be up to our knees in insects if it wasn't for the bats."

The city will be sending a bat exterminator to Spence's house Friday, or Monday, to capture the furry flying mammals, Brand said.

Not soon enough, apparently, for Spence.

"I can't even go into my yard without searching ahead of time for bats," he said. "I'm afraid to open my windows."

And, he said, "people are calling me Batman."

Source = Associated Press

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA