It begins frustratingly enough as I search for Main Street in St. Albans to meet with the first homeowner of the day with bat (what else?) problems. After wandering around a bit I knew I was in trouble when I saw that I was at the corner of 5th avenue and 5th street. I immediately gave up and called in for better directions.

Pulling into the lot, the obvious source of the problem could be seen-- "dirty" trusses where an upstairs room punches out of the roof signaled a bat superhighway. Around the side of the home, dilapidated soffit work also provides easy entrances along the entire gable end. An overheated bat could be seen roosting in broad daylight, preferred over the sweltering interior of the midday attic.

Left: Besides the warped and loose soffit, the screen behind this attic vent has a fair sized hole. A big brown bat is out as if to greet us!

The attic space is reached by slithering up through a trapdoor in an upstairs ceiling. Several bats were active and flying as I gingerly made my was past piles of guano and narrow floorboards. Big browns could be seen in the ceiling and walls, concentrated around vents and windows. Both juveniles and of course lactating females were pulled down, it appears that all the juveniles are flying. Little browns tend not to mix with big browns in maternity colonies, nothing else "unusual" was found, so I bugged out and stood in front of an air conditioner for ten minutes before the river of sweat had crested.

Left: Ahhhh...pan o' guano. Seasoned just right with a touch of exoskeleton and a hint of moth. Perfect as an entree or a garnish. Not only mighty tasty, but nutritious with 10,000% RDA of nitrogen. Need more protein? Get your with parasites. Kids will love it!!

Below left: Preferred roosting areas are signified by guano piles. These coincide with vents and windows in this particular attic, suggesting rather strongly that this is not quite an ideal roost.

Below: A few big browns awaiting dusk. The screening is a vain attempt to seal crevices near the vent.

The owner reports the bats do not leave when winter arrives. Being big browns which can take temperatures below freezing, I can go along with this report. In this case, an aggressive bat exclusion approach is needed, now that the juveniles are active and flying. He plans to custom fit a one-way screening flap over the outside of the attic vent and hopefully seal any other entrances by fall. Armed with good information and an understanding on how bats use and enter his structure, this exclusion should be systematic, successful, and safe.

Oh, what about numbers? The owner reports he loses count around thirty during the evening exit, and it's notoriously difficult to judge by droppings alone. I'll venture 100+.

Right: House #2 looking towards a porch overhang which vents into the attic. A loose facing board seen here with daylight streaming in will be a sealing problem along the entire porch roof lines.

All too soon evening rolled around and the radio and TV people were getting excited about some thunderstorms. Dave and I trekked out in search of a new site downstream of Buffalo, directly into the oncoming onslaught of a storm front.

Above left: Six meter net downstream of a bridge over 6 and 20 Mile Creek. This would be the last view of this net in working condition.

Left: 9 meter net under the bridge.

Below: Our rather well behaved female red bat at Frasier's Bottom.

At the Frasier's Bottom site along 6 and 20 Mile Creek, all was well with the water just about an inch higher than the previous night. Darkness fell and I was joined by Debbie and husband from the Corps. We chatted about this and that, trying to avoid becoming roadkill on the bridge when suddenly I heard a distinctive "clink" which sounded like a mist net pole falling over. Peering over the bridge, we could see the water was up at least 1.5 feet, and the bottom shelf of both mistnets were now huge strainers in a flooding river. Leaves, tree parts, and plastic bottles at 15 m.ph. were all fair game for equipment designed to catch things.

Climbing out of the river, over the bridge, and plunging in again, I found the other poles already collapsed from the change in tension direction. I reeled in the net, and detached the "log", all while coming up with "the plan" for the net under the bridge.

Making my way upstream towards the bridge, water was nearly chest deep with flood debris in trees over my head. It became realistic that in another hour the water would be again placing more debris at this level. Another tree part had already ripped apart the bottom mainline, but for the most part this net could be salvaged.

The solution was simple and graceful as I carefully handed each mist net pole set up to the waiting rescuers on the bridge deck. We watched the river consume what was left of the shoreline and riverside trees.

A very light rain shown ensued, and we remembered there was double high set up over a powerline flyway. A red bat was caught nearly 20' up, giving us three species at Frasier's bottom, not counting the vile disgusting airborne pincher attack beetles which frequent the lower half of the Kanawah.

Above: Repair work the next afternoon. After a day of mist net repair there is nothing like a hearty meal of Pan o' Guano (see above).

Left: Can anyone I.D. this insect? Please email to: nastybug@batmanagement.com (It's starting to take too long to type "evil disgusting creepy flying pincher death beetle" at each referral.