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DRATS... BATS
Monday, August 21st, 2006 -- 2:16 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Jerry Hanson’s phone is ringing off the hook – it usually does this time of year.
“Particularly the month of August, we get a lot of calls,” Hanson says.
You see, Hanson runs Prompt Action Pest Control in Augusta. He’s been helping homeowners get rid of problem bats for nearly 35 years.
This is the time of year when young bats get curious.
“The young bats that were born in the spring or early summer are now mature and curious,” Hanson explains.
Hanson has seen some gruesome cases, including a church in northern Wisconsin.
“A church up in Hurdle… I don’t know how many bats were in there, but there were a lot,” Hanson remembers. “Piles of guano that were three-feet deep.”
Bats are amazing creatures. These flying rodents only need a three-sixteenth-inch crack or three-eighths-inch hole to get into your otherwise bat-free home. The pros look for entry points and then construct one-way devices that will allow the bats to leave, but prevent them from getting back in.
Despite their bad rap, bats usually don’t bite unless threatened or stepped on. Their manure, known as guano can become a problem, but less than one-percent are rabid.
Still, even the experts never get completely comfortable with the animals.
“If one flies out at me, of course, I jump just like everybody else.”
“They’re more scared of me than I am of them, all though, sometimes, that’s hard to believe,” Hanson says.
And if you’re wondering, Hanson has been bitten before. He had to endure $3,000 worth of rabies treatments, though the bat would later test negative.
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