(Video Transcript below for your convenience)
Announcer: “Animals are all around us.
Sometimes too close for comfort.
Preserving the balance between man and wildlife are the animal extractors.
In Toronto, the agents of AAA Wildlife are gearing up for another day.
Brad Gates and Pete Nolan are heading to a call from a concerned home owner whose house has been invaded by bats. They have been flying around in a home, and have even been in a child’s bedroom.”
Brad and Pete: “This is a perfect spot for bats to live, boarding bats in style. There are a lot of openings for them to get in. Bats love these type of homes.”
Brad: “Hi, Richard?”
Richard: “Yes.”
Brad: I’m Brad from pest control.” You’re having a problem with bats?”
Richard: “Hi, nice to see you. Yes!”
Announcer: “The residents of the house have been through quite an ordeal.”
Richard: “Last night, Kelly and her daughter were in the middle bedroom, and I closed everything off. And the bats started flying around that middle bedroom. So they’re coming in that middle bedroom, I figure.”
Pete: “Upstairs?”
Richard: “Yeah.”
Announcer: “Pete takes a look outside for signs of where the bats may have entered the home.”
Pete: “Well, that looks like quite the suspect hole. I don’t know if you can see the black spots that are around the yellow board, it’s called “board and batten,” as well as on the side of the chimney. That’s a sure sign there’s a bat problem there.”
Announcer: “Bats are nocturnal creatures, but Brad and Pete know where to look. Following the signs, Brad climbs a ladder and the problem quickly becomes clear.”
Brad: “Well, we have … wow … I can see three bats … eyes open … looking at me. They’re probably near the entry hole here, because it is so hot out, today. At least they can get a bit of a breeze from here. They look like they’re poised to come out as soon as it gets dark.”
Announcer: “Back inside, Brad hunts for the bat inside. It’s believed to be sleeping.”
Brad: “The one thing about bats is they’re only the size of a mouse. If you could imagine the number of hiding spots in this house is immense. So we’ll start with the room that he’s seen them in and hopefully we can find them.”
Pete: “This is the room they were in last night.”
Announcer: “Pete finds the point of entry the bats have been using to get into the house – a hole near the soffit, or corner.”
Pete: “They’re using a space about that much to crawl through … like that little hole, there, that should be no problem for them to get into. But it’s whether it’s in the duct system, or not … “
Richard: “But I don’t want to injure them … I don’t want to harm them at all, I just don’t want them living in my house. It’s very disconcerting when they’re flying around at night. “
Brad: “I’ll pull the armoire out so you can have a better look at it (the bat). You can’t really see it unless you look back … there, can you see it?”
Announcer: “After a thorough search, they find the bat.”
Brad: “And hopefully I can get it on the first grab. If not, it might take flight, but … he can’t leave the room, so … (Pete reaching for the bat) OK, it’s OK, buddy … he’s being pretty quiet, here … oh, he’s hanging on … he’s being really quiet … he’s not clicking at all. This is a Big Brown Bat, you can tell by the opening of the mouth. A Little Brown Bat barely opens its mouth. Much bigger jaw on the Big Brown Bat. And those teeth are primarily to chew on insects, and not to chew on people. You have the odd case where they might get Rabies and they might bite an animal or a person, but that’s very few and far between. They’re just amazing creatures. I’ll show you the leathery wings if I can.”
Announcer: “The nocturnal bat is still drowsy. Brad takes care not to damage the bat’s wings.”
Brad: “That is the wingspan of a Big Brown Bat. You can see the tail between the two legs, how the membrane comes forward. And that’s how they, in flight, would capture an insect. They don’t actually catch it in their mouths, they catch it in the membrane between their two legs, and they use their tail to project forward. And then on the tip of the wing, on the outside to my right, over here, you can see the hook that they use to move about when they’re crawling.”
Announcer: “The agents take the bat outside to release.”
Brad: “I’m just going to hang the bat as it normally would be perched on the tree. I’ll try to cover him up, just for a second, to keep him comfortable … he’s already climbing … oh, there he goes. Yep, here he is, you see, out in the open, there? He’ll probably circle for a minute, fly a couple of laps, get his bearings … “
Announcer: “With the bat removed from five-year-old Abby’s bedroom, Pete and Brad still have the problem of the colony of bats still in the loft. The agents wait until dusk so they can deal with the hole in the side of the chimney. As night falls, the bats become active and prepare to feed.”
Pete: “The sun is getting fairly low in the sky, right now … I would say maybe in the next ten minutes, the bats should become active. It’ll just start slowly, then it’ll be a flood of bats. I can hear quite a bit of scratching and movement. I think they’re moving into position to get ready to come out. We’re probably only moment away from the bats emerging from the attic. (whispering as the bats fly out of the house) There he goes. There are still more bats inside. I can hear them working their way up towards the hole.”
Announcer: “With most of the bats gone, Brad heads to the truck to get a one-way bat door.”
Brad: “OK, we’re just going to get our bat one-way door and a piece of extra screen. The holes in this screen are smaller than what we would use for raccoons and squirrels. I’ll take this with us up to the roof … and install it over the hole.”
Announcer: “The door ensures that the bats cannot get back into the attic.”
Brad: “So we probably saw in the neighborhood of about forty bats exit through this hole. So what I’m planning on doing now is to put a one-way door over the opening. The majority of bats are out … but just in case there are some stragglers in there, we will install a one-way door, an that will be ‘job complete.’”
Announcer: “The bats will move to an alternative nesting site, as Brad and Pete head home after another successful job. The homeowners and five-year-old Abby can sleep in peace.”