All Episodes

April 10, 2024 6 mins
Bat maternity season begins Tuesday (April 16th), which means some restrictions in the way you can deal with bats that get into your house or business property. We speak with Jayne Johnston, a senior wildlife biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, about how to deal with bats during bat baby time. 
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Gordon Bird Beyond the News Tuesday,April sixteenth is the beginning of Florida's bat
maternity season, which runs until midAugust, and that means some changes in
the way that we I'm going tostart that to introduction again in three two
one. Gordon Bird here with Beyondthe News. Tuesday, April sixteenth is

(00:20):
the beginning of Florida's bat maternity season, which runs until mid August. That
means some changes in the way wedeal with any bats that make it into
our living spaces. Jane Johnston isa Senior Wildlife Assistance Biologist with the Florida
Fision Wildlife Conservation Commission, and shejoins us on Beyond the News. Jane,
welcome. Thank you so much forhaving me, Gordon, I appreciate

(00:42):
it. All right, let's talkabout how the rules are a bit different
during bat maternity season and why itis that they're different during that spring and
summer period. Sure, so,during the batmattorney season, which under Board
Administrative Code, is from April sixteenthto August fourteenth, every year, thats

(01:03):
are finding roosts to maternity roofs,and that may include inside of structures.
The only way to legally exclude themor to get them to root from the
structure is you exclude their entry theirre entry after they exit when they go
to forage at night. The reasonyou can't do that during the attorney season
is because the females who are themothers nursing pups who are flightless for the

(01:27):
first four to six weeks of theirlives, are unable to leave the roost.
So if they're able to leave andcan't return to nurse their pups,
then you're trapping the pups inside,and the females become very insistent on trying
to get back inside of the roost, and if they don't succeed, presumably
those pups would be lost. Andthat's totally all around a bad outcome exactly

(01:53):
because the bats that the pups whoare flightless will crawl around inside that living
space trying to get out or insidethe I should say the roosting space,
not necessarily living space. That's notwhere we want them to be. But
they could also die a dehydrate,and then it becomes more of a mess
most home owners probably don't want todeal with. Now, what should homeowners
and property owners know when they're dealingwith a bat situation in their home or

(02:17):
their living space or their property atthis time of year. So for the
attorney season, what's really important toknow that most people don't understand is that
if one does end up in theliving space, so if it's your kitchen
or bedroom, bathroom, if it'sa singular bat, you that may not

(02:38):
be caused for concern, But youare allowed to seal up the interior spaces
during the attorney season. You donot require kermit to do that. What
the attorney season prohibits you from doingis preventing their entry and exit from the
exterior of the building. But duringthe attorney season, you can seal up
any potential entry spots into that livingspace where you enjoy your home, and

(03:00):
you can typically easily remove one ortwo bats to the outdoors. And we
do have some recommendations for that onour website. So you can, for
example, let's say, seal upwith the caulk or whatever substance, a
hole in the wall in your kitchenthrough which bats might access, But you

(03:22):
can't seal up an external entrance exactly. Yes, if people have a bat
issue during maternity season, then whatshould they be doing? Should they be
calling, should they be reaching outto a trapper or someone else. If
they're not sure they can deal withit, Yeah, certainly, they can
talk to one of our wildlife assistantsbiologists at the FWC by contacting the regional

(03:47):
office. We're available to take callsmoney through Friday eight to five, so
they can get guidance there. We'vegot a lot of information we can share
over the phone, by email andthrough a website at myfdvs dot com.
If they want to pursue excluding thebats, you know we do. That
might be a little bit trickier becausethese are not the kind of permits like

(04:08):
if you need to relocate a protectedspecies. It's a little bit different from
that, so those permits are nothanded out as frequently. And then that
case, the biologists will give themsome guidance. They may need to apply
for a permit, although they maynot get it. They can call and
talk to a nuisance twilight control operator. They can get areas that bats aren't

(04:29):
currently using set up, and theycan get at the planning and a quote
to do the exclusion when the maternityseason is over. Now being proactive,
what are some other strategies if youdon't mind having bats nearby. They obviously
serve important natural purposes, including mosquitocontrol. But if you're okay with them
being nearby but not necessarily in yourhouse, yeah, so certainly we like

(04:54):
people to be comfortable at least havingbats in their community. You know,
sometimes their communities are also back habitat. We do recommend if you don't want
them in your structures and utilizing yourstructure as a roost, then in advance
of the mattorney season, ideally afew weeks ahead of time now would probably
be okay, as long as youcan give exclusion up in case you have
some. Look for any holes thatare the size of the tip of your

(05:17):
thumb, and as long as batsaren't using that, you can start sealing
those up now on the exterior ofthe building. They only need this much
space to get one in there,and then many more may follow. So
doing those exterior kind of inspections inthe springtime to get prepared and to prevent
them from becoming maternity roots. Theydo provide an important service. So,

(05:38):
like you said, mosquitos, theydo that control. They also eat a
lot of moths, and moths larvaeends up eating a lot of the food
that we like to eat, sothey do protect a lot of our crops
as well providing free pesticide services.People can't consider putting up a bathouse although
bats don't always move in right away, but keeping snags, you know,
dead trees up, you know,not train palm fronds during this time,

(06:00):
because there are some bats that usethat as well. Those are other ways
they can support bats if they don'twant them in their structure. All right,
and let's get that web address outfor anyone who'd like to find out
more of the information that you haveon dealing with bats. Sure, so
the website they can visit is myFWC dot com forward slash bats and you

(06:25):
will find all the information you needthere. Jane Johnston, a Senior Wildlife
Assistance Biologist with the Florida Fish andWildlife Conservation Commission, Thank you very much
for joining us on Beyond the News. Thank you so much for having me
Gordon. Everybody, have a lovelyday.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

1. Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

1. Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

3. Dateline NBC

3. Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.