Bats Take Over Olivenhain Town Hall

Just around dusk, Bob McAndrews says, you can see them fly from the old Town Hall into a darkening sky--their furry bodies diving about herky-jerky, like distressed planes with a blind pilot at the controls.

“They come out at night in search of food and water,” said McAndrews, the Olivenhain Town Council president. “As soon as they can fly, their mothers refuse to feed them.

“So they strike out on their own. It’s been said each one can eat more than 500 bugs an hour flying about the night. Well, I believe it. Just look at all the droppings on the floor of the Town Hall and see for yourself.”

For the past few months, officials in this Encinitas community, have been confounded by a creepy conundrum--what to do about the hundreds of bats that have taken up residence in the rafters of their rustic, 95-year-old Town Hall.

‘You Can Hear Them Twerping’

“If you stand in the right spot, you can hear them twerping all day as they sleep,” McAndrews said, calling attention to a cooing noise. “And the smell! How would you like to smell this stuff all the time?”

Old-timers say the bats have been a presence for years inside the redwood hall, which was built in 1895 by German settlers.

In recent months, however, hall users began noticing more and more bat droppings--known as guano--covering sections of the wooden floor like a sticky sawdust.

Officials even installed a lowered ceiling to stop the droppings from bombarding people who used the A-frame hall for gatherings such as 4-H Club get-togethers, weddings, and Halloween and Christmas parties.

Several Bats Were Rabid

Then, in early summer, Town Council members found several dead and injured bats on the floor of the hall.

Tests later showed that several of the bats were rabid, according to Dr. Hubert Johnstone, a San Diego County veterinarian. Though only a dozen of 97 bats tested last year were rabid, those sickly ones can pose a health hazard, he said.

That’s when McAndrews and other town officials knew they had a problem. They didn’t even know how many bats they had, rabid or not. And the county health department told them that state law prohibits the spraying of chemicals to kill the creatures.

So, who were they going to call?

“We called in bat experts from the city, county, you name it,” McAndrews said. “We had some powerful people here, including Dr. Denny Constantine, a bat expert from Berkeley.

“He crawled around inside the hall attic and gave us at least one answer. He said we had evidence of hundreds of bats living here.”

Home for Baby Bats

Experts told Olivenhain officials their Town Hall was home to a nursing colony of baby bats, mainly of two varieties--the Mexican free-tailed and the big brown bat.

“They crawled inside little holes all over this place,” said McAndrews, a real estate appraiser who himself has become a sort of armchair bat expert, consulting studies and charts.

“These little creatures can even squeeze through a quarter-inch crack. There was no way to stop them.”

But the coming of fall may provide a solution. The Mexican free-tailed bats soon will begin migrating south for the winter. And officials have a little surprise for the others who stick around.

One upcoming evening, when the bats leave at twilight, officials plan to hastily erect a wire mesh screen over the holes.

“That way, they can fly off, but they can’t get back in,” McAndrews said. “Then, they’ll have to go somewhere else, maybe the church nearby or the belfry in the old hotel across the way there.”

Non-Fatal Bat Removal

Some bat enthusiasts hope there’s a positive ending to Olivenhain’s bat drama--including Martin Schuler, a member of Bat Conservation International and one of the experts called for consultation. Schuler says his group often offers advice on how to rid residences of bats without killing them.

“Bats are beneficial,” said the General Dynamics lab technician, who for 17 years has made bats his hobby. “They eat insects, and they pollinate plants like the agave,” a family of plants, varieties of which are used to produce tequila and mezcal.

“But, for some reason, bats have gotten a bad rap,” Schuler said. “Maybe it’s because they’re secretive. They’re always seen at night. People think they’re associated with the devil. And the Dracula movies haven’t helped. . . . “

Most modern fears, he said, revolve around rabies.

“Rabies cases are extremely low, however, maybe 50 bats out of 10,000.”

Bats Can Be Disconcerting

Few hall users have shrieked in terror, McAndrews said, but the bats have disconcerted some of them.

“Some kids will freak out when they see a June bug. But sometimes during a 4-H meeting, someone might open a door and be startled by a bat flying in or out.”

In recent months, most clubs--even the town council--have moved elsewhere, to nearby homes or pizza parlors. And attendance has dropped as a result. People, McAndrews said, want their Town Hall back.

“A lot of people feel pretty possessive of this place,” he said. “They call me at home just to tell me somebody is parked outside. They want to move back in.”

When the bat problem is solved, officials say they can start using a $136,000 state Department of Parks and Recreation grant to begin renovations on the venerable building, which McAndrews said has been declared a California landmark.

Peace of Mind

But there’s another reason to get rid of the bats. And that’s peace of mind.

“We’ve all heard the horror stories when we were kids,” McAndrews said. “You know, stuff about walking around at night with a fire to light your way. If you weren’t careful, they said, bats attracted by the light could come swarming in and cover your hair.

“That kind of stuff always stayed with you.”

County veterinarian Johnstone said that even rabid bats pose little problem unless uncautiously handled.

“The most common way people get injured is by picking up a bat they think is dead and not knowing the little guy has enough life left in him to bite,” he said.

“Sometimes, animals will carry them into the house like mice. One time a bat carried into the house crawled into bed with the owner that night. He was just seeking a little warmth, that’s all.”