BALI, INDONESIA – We’re big fans of nature and wildlife, especially birds and butterflies. We also enjoy seeing small lizards, non-rodent mammals, the occasional beetle, and other curious-looking insects.
Mosquitos and flies – and now bats – are not on that list.
Back in the Pacific Northwest United States, our 4-acre farm was home to an active population of swallows. They spent much of their day diving and swooping around the yard and gardens, scooping up bugs, especially those mosquitos we hate so much.
At dusk, when the swallows retired to their nests for the night, out came the bats – like factory workers changing shifts. After the day shift went home, the night shift got down to work.
At dusk the bats got to work
The bats were barely visible in the dim evening light, seeming like more of a black void, its movement barely perceptible out of the corner of your eye.
Where the swallows would dive and glide, executing complicated aerial maneuvers, the bat flight was more erratic, almost chaotic – black shadows fluttering randomly overhead.
When we moved to Bali, we were already accustomed to friendly incursions by native geckos into our living space.
We welcomed them in our old apartment in Vietnam. After all, part of their regular diet is the population of flies and mosquitos we despise so much.
Our first Bali villa was mostly open to the outdoors, with easy access for all kinds of critters. The geckos were regular visitors, as were a few frogs and snails.
A curious bat would sometimes fly through
The evening shift of bats flew around the yard when the sun went down, with the occasional brave explorer swooping through our open living space only to quickly swoop back outside.
Our current villa is mostly enclosed. The geckos still find their way in, as do the mosquitos and flies, but the birds and other larger critters are relegated to outdoor living.
Except for our covered second-floor balcony, where it’s open on three sides.
The pyramid-shaped roof has a traditional Balinese woven bamboo mat above wooden struts that radiate out from a single ridge beam.
The ceiling mat provides an easy-to-grip base for a creature to hang onto – whether it be a gecko, bird or bat.
Yes, I said ‘bat.’
When we first viewed the property, there was a sizable pile of bat poop on the upper porch. While the villa sat empty for a few months, unoccupied by humans, the bats had turned that porch into their favorite hangout. And they were not very tidy.
We cleaned up months’ worth of bat droppings
After we moved in – and cleaned up several months’ worth of bat droppings – one persistent bat kept coming back to roost each night. Leaving us with a fresh pile of bat poop each morning.
It seems there is a small tasty fruit growing nearby that the bat loves to munch while hanging upside down from our balcony ceiling. So the fruit pits and rather sloppy batshit fall to the floor below.
We’ve tried a number of deterrents to keep the bat at bay – some more successful (for a while) than others.
Melanie has spent countless hours online looking for tips on how to keep bats away. There’s a lot of free advice out there in internet-land, and I think by now she’s tried almost all of it.
How do you keep the bats at bay?
First, she started leaving the porchlight on all night.
That seemed to work for a day or two, but then the bat came back.
Next, Mel scattered mothballs around the porch, hoping the smell would drive him away. Again, that worked for a while, but the mothballs quickly lost their scent and our bat returned to his favorite spot.
Next up, Melanie bought several strings of patterned metal bangles that move easily in the breeze. Strategically hung around the perimeter of the porch, we hoped they would interrupt the bat’s flight path and make him seek an easier landing spot – far away from our porch.
That was the most successful attempt so far, keeping him away for several days. Alas, our intruder soon figured out how to elude the swinging bangles and regained his former perch.
We try to harass him at every opportunity
At this point, I should mention that our bedroom is also upstairs, adjacent to the outdoor porch.
Whenever Melanie or I wake in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip, if we see the bat hanging from the ceiling outside our room, we open the door and make a loud hand clap or two to scare him away.
One clap used to be enough to urge him into flight. Lately, however, he’s gotten used to us disturbing his sleep. It sometimes takes two or three claps to send him flying.
It’s not that the bat’s presence is threatening; he’s just a small fruit bat. And he only shows up well after dark and is gone by morning. He just hangs there and sleeps once he’s finished with his bedtime snacks.
We wouldn’t mind the bat’s nightly visits if he just didn’t leave such a mess every time. Sweeping, scrubbing and mopping up a pile of bat poop every single day is a major hassle.
We may have found a compromise
So now we’ve come up with yet another idea. Rather than try to keep him away, we’re trying to make it easier to clean up his mess.
To that end, we’ve placed a plastic dishpan beneath his perch, on the spot where most of his droppings land. Sort of a bat litter box. It works with cats, so why not?
The first couple of nights were somewhat successful. The majority of the mess landed inside the tub, with most of the splatters contained as well.
Unfortunately, his aim is not as accurate as we might hope (having the bat poop fall into the tub is our goal, not his), so at least some of his droppings still landed outside the box.
That said, this latest idea seems to hold some promise. We may need to buy a bigger tub and add some sand or sawdust to make it easier to clean, but I think we might finally be onto something.