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We have a small colony of bats that roost in a pillar connected to my house and in no way or form disturb anyone. Meaning, there's no guano smell because of where they've chosen to roost. Normally, I wouldn't write about them as they're my benign insect-eating neighbors but our human neighbors want us to get rid of them. There's no sound reason to get rid of this particular colony as they don't make a nuisance of themselves.

After research I have come to the conclusion that my neighbors are simply ignorant of the nature of bats or religious bigots. Yes, it's true that bats carry rabies but a rabid bat is very easy to spot. Rabid bats are usually too disoriented to fly and can be found on the ground. They have young children but I think we'll all agree that we shouldn't let children play near a street unsupervised to begin with. Furthermore, blood bats don't make a habit of living outside of south america and in case anyone hasn't noticed we can vaccine against rabies effectively within two days of contamination. Their paranoia may be due to a death cause by an infected bat four years ago. His death was caused by his own negligence/ignorance. Rabies is transmitted by saliva not necessarily by a bite and the bat had brushed against his face. So, my point being, we can safely co-exist with our winged bug control if we only bother to educate ourselves, family, friends, and neighbors about the nature of the animals which we encounter in our urban environment.

I'm not saying don't get your bats relocated if they're a nuisance. All I'm saying, is have a good reason for requesting their removal from your neighbors, it costs money to do it safely and legally. I also told my mother to make said neighbors pay for the removal. My reasoning being, if they bother you that much, you'll be willing to pay for it.

P.S. They're frightening and are diving at me is not a good reason. They're not out to get you they're catching their dinner. biggrin
Oh and one more thing, I'd rather bats than bugs who are likelier to transmit disease to humans.