South Gippsland Sentinel Times Tuesday 20/04/2010 Page: Section: Region: Circulation: Type: Size: press clip 42 General News South Gippsland VIC, AU 9430 Regional 119.52 sq.cms. Get bats out of your roof SOUTH Gippsland microbats are in a feeding frenzy as they fatten up on insects to see them through the coming winter. If they have taken up residence in your roof or walls, autumn is a good time for a gentle bat eviction before they bunk down for their winter hibernation. Australia 7s Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife's Backyard Buddies provides tips and advice on how to make your backyard a haven for our insect-controlling microbat mates. "Microbats are much more common than you may think." says Ms Leonie Gale, CEO of the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, which runs the Backyard Buddies program. serve sugar sachet or a single A4 sheet of paper. If these tiny bats cannot find a suitable they can slip into gaps as small as 5mm and snuggle down in your roof hollow, and walls. This is why artificial roost sites are important as they provide an alternative. So what do you do if you find resident microbats sharing your home? Fortu- nately for the little bats, there are humane ways to evict them and now is the time. In Australia, microbat babies are born in late spring and remain with their mothers until the end of January. Gentle autumn eviction attempts after February and before June make certain "Right now, bats are eating as much as that the young are independent. 40 per cent of their own body weight in "South Gippsland microbats are fully a single night or several hundred insects protected which might raise the issue of per hour. offences and penalties if any are in fact "Many of our microbat species are hol- harmed," Ms Gale said. low-dependent which means they live "If done correctly, walls can become bat during the daylight hours inside the hol- free and the little bats provided with an lows of trees or branches. alternative roost site and retained in the "Competition from birds, possums and backyard to go about their insect feedgliders, along with the clearing of many ing work which is of great benefit to all old trees, means that microbats may find of us." the roof or walls of your home the perfect If you have microbats in your walls or roosting place," Ms Gale said. roof, visit Bat Rescue Inc at www.batres- three grams - about the same as a single how to remove them. The smallest microbat weighs only cue.org.au for detailed information on Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licenced copy AUS: 1300 1 SLICE NZ: 0800 1 SLICE [email protected] Ref: 68354530