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Watcher seeks return of the bats

A Seminole woman backs a bat colony shooed from a Pinellas Trail bridge.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published September 8, 2007

Tony Wyatt, 14, and Marcos Wyatt, 16, with their dog, Lil' Bit, and their mother, Maria Wyatt, under the Pinellas Trail Bridge with the sign Maria used to collect petition signatures on Labor Day to present to the County Commissioners.
	[Cherie Diez | Times]

SEMINOLE - Holy overpass! What would Batman think?

More than 1,000 bats have been evicted from their home under a Pinellas Trail overpass to make way for painting and repairs. But the flying mammals can rest easy - a Seminole woman has, well, gone to bat for them.

"It was kind of sad to see them go," said Maria Wyatt. "Most people who live around it had no idea they were there."

Wyatt and her younger son, Tony, discovered the bats one evening while walking the family's mini dachshund, Lil' Bit, on the Pinellas Trail. Tony, 14, saw the bats emerging from the trail overpass that crosses Park Boulevard just west of 113th Street N.

Soon, bat watching became a family affair for Wyatt, her sons, her parents and other relatives. The practice ended when Pinellas County decided the bridge needed upgrades. The county hired Dan Bozone, owner of Friends of Bats in Palm City, a company that specializes in bat control, to handle the problem.

Bozone waited until after Aug. 15, when bat maternity season ends, so that no baby bats, called pups, would be hurt or separated from their moms. Then he hung special nets around the overpass to allow the bats to exit but not return.

Nets were the way to go, he said, because "you're not going to get your hands on them and get them out of there."

Bozone estimated there were 1,000 to 1,200 bats living in the crevices on the underside of the overpass.

"That's a relatively small colony," Bozone said.

Most of the colony were Mexican freetails; the rest, evening bats.

"The evening bats are kind of antisocial," though they do tend to live near freetails, which are much more social, Bozone said.

So social, in fact, that colonies tend to stay together. That makes one wonder, just where do more than 1,000 bats go? They spurned the bat houses the county put up for them on the overpass. And, there are no belfries nearby.

Bozone guessed that they've stayed in the neighborhood, perhaps gone to another bridge or nestled in someone's house.

"They love barrel tile roofs," Bozone said.

When the bats disappeared, Wyatt contacted everyone she could think of. She called the city of Seminole. She spoke before the County Commission.

Her immediate goal was to make sure the bats could return when the overpass repairs were complete. Wyatt won that battle. Now, she wants the county to pledge that all new bridges will be "bat-friendly" and she'd like to see all old bridges retrofitted to make a place for bats to bide.

Wyatt hopes that the bats will return to the overpass.

It's possible, Bozone said. Bats tend to be territorial and return to the same area. However, he cautioned against trying to lure them back.

Bats can be contrary, so sometimes the more you try to entice them to a place the less likely they are to go there.

"They're a wild animal, you can't tell them what to do," Bozone said. "They have to decide to come back on their own. Just let nature take its course and they'll come back if that's what they want to do."

[Last modified September 8, 2007, 00:41:44]