Grangers–We would like you to know as much information as we can remember about our meeting with Steward Perimeter.
We wasted no time before we were going up the ladder to the attic of the Grange Hall. We all searched for bats, only a few were present. There was a light snow of bat guano over a large area of the floor of the attic. The bat guano we were able to get to was in 2 neat piles. We think about 50 lbs.
Steward began educating us about our bats. They have very special name (which I forgot). These bats are small brown bats. There are a few large brown bats that hang out, too. The little brown bats are mothers coming to incubate babies. In the south where they came from, you would find them in trees more than buildings. The truth is the LBB (little brown bats) warmth and darkness for the LBB to hatch their babies.
Steward’s suggestions:
- Steward’s first suggestion was to put lights in the attic where we do not want the bats to be. The bats want darkness for their nest. They also like our stovepipe for warmth.
- Bob R. and Lon O. shared their idea of putting up a material that is like a wall, very small holes so bats can’t get through to other areas of the attic or using a black plastic use for ponds in place of the material discussed above. This would keep the LBB in the area where they enter the attic. Maybe put something down to catch the guano.
- Steward’s radical idea (he said this) was to close off their entrance and build a very large bat house with a door so it could be cleaned out once a year. They like to have the morning sunshine on their house. Steward thought this might be a problem because of our trees.
- We could close their entrance to the attic of the Grange and he felt the bats would probably find another home or find a new way to enter the attic.
Our March fundraiser for the Grange will be to sell 1 lb bags of Bat Guano. Laurie is looking into bags. Lon sent me information about pricing. Someone said they would like to make a label. Who? I feel after paying for the bags, making labels we should charge $5. Lon thought around $4.50. We can talk more at our pre meeting. But we need to finish our attic for the bats early March.
— Julia Mooney