WILDLIFE IN THE NEWS ..........

At about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Mexican free-tailed bats crawl under the mesh taped over the bats’ entry site under eaves at Apache Middle School. The bats are able to leave but will not be able to re-enter the school. (Suzanne Cronn•Herald/Review) Article Online

Bats not allowed to nap inside schoolhouse

SIERRA VISTA — Apache Middle School officials are hopeful that the measures taken Sunday by Desert Wildlife Services Inc. to evict a colony of bats will work and there will be no more bats found in classrooms.

Mike Buckler, maintenance “guru” of Sierra Vista Unified School District, and his crew have spent a lot of time sealing up every crevice that can be found on the exterior of the buildings on campus.

At about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Mexican free-tailed bats crawl under the mesh taped over the bats’ entry site under eaves at Apache Middle School. The bats are able to leave but will not be able to re-enter the school. (Suzanne Cronn•Herald/Review) “They can flatten out their bodies like mice,” he said as he inspected the sealing work done Friday. “I’ve been walking these buildings for the past four days looking for signs of them. We have come at night to look for them and see where they are coming from.”

He came upon one of the most visible signs — bat guano — which showed up like little black pebbles atop the gravel alongside one of the buildings. This was the spot where the bat guys from Tucson would install a special barrier that would let the remaining colony out but not back in when they were done with the nightly feeding frenzy around the school’s lights.

Lights attract insects and, in turn, that tends to attract bats, Buckler explained. He pointed at a bat box that they put back up in the hope that the bats would rather spend their daytime sleeping hours there than crammed into a tiny crack.

But bats won’t necessarily take up residence in such boxes, according to Desert’s bat expert Dave Purwin.

“The problem is many people buy bat boxes from back East. They may not suit the bats here. It all depends on the space between the baffles,” Purwin said. “Each type of bat has different preferences.”

Then there’s the matter of temperature. It gets hot in the sun, and the bats prefer to have a cooler temperature when they sleep, he added.

The problem was first noticed last Thursday when a bunch of bats were found in the drama room in one of the AMS buildings. The classroom was closed off and Sierra Vista Animal Control and Arizona Game and Fish came to lend a hand. Around 60 bats were displaced over the next two days. As was reported Saturday in the Herald/Review, all bats tested were found to be rabies-free, and no children were exposed to the bats.

Purwin and his associate Mike Percy set to work Sunday, sealing up the final crack where Buckler found the remaining bats sleeping. Once they became aware of the men at work, little tails of the Mexican free-tailed bats squiggled down and there was much squeaking and moving about. When the men were finished, there was only one 10-foot section left as an escape route. Purwin and Percy took screen wire and taped it above the crack and down the sides of the wall. The bats are supposed to climb down the wall and fly away freely. If they try to return to the crevice, they won’t be able to slip back up under the screen and crawl back into their temporary home at the school.

“They will fly around and try to go back in the way they have been, and they will find they can’t,” Purwin said. “They’ll give up and look for other accommodations. They are not trapped, harmed or poisoned.”

He emphasized, “We don’t use repellent or anything toxic.”

Bats make up a good portion of Desert Wildlife Services’s business from May until the weather turns cold. That’s when the migratory mammals fly to their winter homes in Mexico.

Two bats remained in the drama room, and it appeared both may have died in place, unable to get back out to fresh air, food and water.

Scratching sounds and squeaks come out of a small box lying on a desk. One of the bats that had been caught by maintenance was inside. It would be sacrificed for another rabies check by the health department just to be sure, Purwin said.

“You just have to be very careful when you’re dealing with kids. It’s better to be safe. So, it will be killed and tested for rabies,” Purwin stated.

Once all the bats are out and all the little crevices that might give them a toehold are sealed, maintenance staff will start cleaning up and sanitizing the drama room, from the ceiling tiles on down.

“We found some tiles that have some droppings on them and urine stains, so those will be replaced,” Buckler said.

“We will inspect all the tiles. No students will be using these classrooms until January, so we have plenty of time to get the room ready.”

To contact Dave Purwin at Desert Wildlife Services call (520) 743-1411 or visit www.desertwildlifeservices.com.