Happy Friday everyone,

Thought this might also be of interest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/29/nyregion/29BATS.html

"In Suburbs, the Batman Meets His Villain"
By JANE GROSS

some excerpts from the longer article on the web site:

"The increased vigilance among homeowners stems from two deaths from rabies
at the Westchester County Medical Center in the 1990's, both children
bitten as they slept.

"The deaths, of an 11-year-old girl from Sullivan County in 1993 and a
13-year-old girl from Greenwich, Conn., in 1995, coincided with a growing
awareness by public health officials that virtually all rabies deaths were
the result of contact with bats, even though there are far more rabid
raccoons, skunks and other terrestrial mammals.

"The reason for the disproportionate danger from bats, according to Charles
Trimarchi, director of the rabies lab at the New York State Department of
Health, is that anyone bitten by a raccoon, for instance, is sure to know
it.

"But a bat's tiny teeth do their work in the dead of night, often without
waking the victim or leaving a telltale wound. While the incidence of
contact between bats and humans is rare, county and state health department
officials say, the potentially deadly results merit vigilance.

"Of 23 rabies deaths in the United States in the last decade, 21 were from
undetected contact with bats; the acute viral infection of the nervous
system is invariably fatal without vaccination before the earliest
symptoms. For those who know they have been exposed, a series of six
inoculations over the course of a month is a sure cure, Mr. Trimarchi said.
Professionals like Mr. Dreisacker get preventive inoculations, yearly blood
tests and boosters when needed."


Jim here: It occurred to me that since there *is* a known risk of
unknowingly coming down with a fatal case of rabies from bat bites, the
precautionary principle would imply that the best course of action is
simply to kill all the bats.  :-)  Or am I just missing something about the
precautionary principle?

Jim T.



>> > In Suburbs, the Batman Meets His Villain
>> >
>> ><http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/29/nyregion/29BATS.html>
>> > September 29, 2000
>> > By JANE GROSS
>> > THORNWOOD, N.Y., Sept. 28 When the furry winged creature, its teeth
>> > as small and sharp as needles, swooped through her bedroom here in
>> > the middle of the night, Gina Grieco shrieked, pulled the sheets
>> > over her head and told her husband to call 911.
>> > First the police came, trapping the big brown bat, one of two
>> > species common in these parts. Then they summoned Jim Dreisacker, a
>> > k a the batman, who rides to the rescue day and night in
>> > Westchester County, combining the skills of a wildlife trapper, a
>> > contractor, a therapist and a mordant comedian.
>> > "It takes a lot to get me worked up, and it's probably good that
>> > people see how calm I am," Mr. Dreisacker said, heading from the
>> > Grieco house, where he did a modest $2,500 bat-proofing job; to a
>> > Mount Kisco home where $9,000 would buy a five-year guarantee; to a
>> > 2,500-acre estate farther north, where he was removing more than
>> > 1,000 bats from the main house and outbuildings for $30,000.
>> > Calm is not the word for it, as Mr. Dreisacker marches into an
>> > infested corn crib, the rafters shoulder to shoulder with
>> > twittering bats and the floor deep in their infectious guano. Or
>> > when he removes a bat from a glue trap, loosening it with a slosh
>> > of vegetable oil and then letting the agitated creature nip at his
>> > gloved hands. Or when he breaks a bat's narrow neck with the slap
>> > of a stick so it can be sent to Albany for testing in the rabies
>> > laboratory there.
>> > Few of Mr. Dreisacker's clients stick around to watch him at
>> > work.
>> > Mr. Dreisacker, who runs Westchester Wildlife Control out of an
>> > office in Brewster, charges high-end prices in a business in which
>> > bids can range from $500 to $5,000 for the same job, leaving
>> > customers scratching their heads.
>> > "For the majority of people here, price isn't an issue," he said.
>> > "They say, `Just get them out; get it done.' "
>> > Westchester accounts for more bats sent to the Albany lab than any
>> > other county in the state, consistent with its population share,
>> > since there is a second lab for New York City's five boroughs.
>> > Experts say the bat population has held steady over the years, as
>> > has the percentage of rabid bats, 1 percent to 4 percent, depending
>> > on whom you ask.
>> > But more and more homeowners are summoning help if they see a bat
>> > in their living space. And under recent state guidelines, all bats
>> > trapped inside a house are checked for rabies, swelling work at the
>> > state lab, which tested 3,495 bats last year, up from 2,337 in
>> > 1997.
>> >> Mr. Dreisacker says that he sometimes relocates bats to state land
>> > in Brewster but that it is a fool's errand.
>> > Bats are loyal to their roosting sites, he said, and find their
>> > way home, taking up residence in a nearby house if the one they had
>> > lived in is successfully bat-proofed.
>> > To test his theory, he tracked seven bats relocated recently from
>> > a home in Bedford Hills.
>> > Six made their way back by the next day to the same neighborhood,
>> > a 10-mile journey.
>> > Many of his customers tell him that their bat problem started
>> > immediately after neighbors had their house sealed.
>> > Regardless of whether he intends to relocate or kill the bats he
>> > traps the most popular methods are breaking their necks, shooting
>> > them with a .22-caliber pistol, and gassing them in a chamber
>> > filled with carbon dioxide Mr. Dreisacker treads gently when
>> > clients inquire.
>> >
>>
>> Lynn Braband
>> Cornell Community IPM Program
>> NYSAES
>> Geneva, NY 14456-0462
>> (315) 787-2408
>> FAX (315) 787-2360
>>
>> If everyone followed the "eye for an eye" principle of justice, eventually
>> the whole world would go blind. (Attributed to Gandhi.)
>


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