Bat Exclusion - Night One

Last night was wild. Just before dusk Charles predicted that we would have "a boatload of angry bats by morning." He was wrong. We had a boatload of angry bats within about an hour.

Any other night, our bats came out two or three at a time and flew basically straight down to the creek. Last night the bats the bats came out right on time, and most had no problem finding their way out the one-way door, but they seemed to know almost immediately that something was different. Almost as soon as the bats came out they circled back and began trying repeatedly to reenter the attic. By nine o'clock last night we had at least 30-40 bats circling in the air just above us. "It's like a swarm of giant gnats," Charles commented at one point.

We took a lot of pictures and video, but our camera is nothing special so the quality of what is below is pretty pathetic. Some still pictures are first:






And some video next. I really wish these were better quality, but they at least give some idea. This first video was taken as the first bats began to find their way out. You'll see (and hear) the first bat to try to reenter the attic:





This second video is short (the flashlight was needed to locate Neil's lost quarter), but I still thought the video worth including:




And finally, the poorest quality video yet, but it's longer at least. And it gives some idea of the number of bats swarming the house last night:



I took the kids to The Farm shortly after the last video was taken. Charles stayed at The Einsel House. He stayed up until 2am and said the bats were still circling the house and attempting to reenter the attic when he finally went to bed. So far we haven't had any bats find their way into the house.

The bats were gone by this morning. We have no idea if they eventually found a way back into the attic, or if they gave up and spent today in some other roost. We're going back outside tonight to see if any bats return, and if so to try to determine where they come from.