SAN ANTONIO — Last month, residents at a southeast side apartment complex, the Hillside Manor Apartments, made complaints to KENS 5 about a bat infestation in one of their buildings.
Residents say the apartment complex took action by sealing the exit routes with foam, essentially trapping some bats.
"A humane bat exclusion, involves doing more than simply waiting for bats to leave a roost and then closing up the exits, because all bats don't leave every roost every night. So there will always be bats trapped inside. So that's the incorrect way to solve a problem," said Executive Director of the Austin Bat Refuge, Dianne Odegard.
Now the Austin Bat Refuge is stepping in to help, humanely remove the bats.
"We actually received a phone call from a tenant at the complex, that alerted us that that bats had been sealed," said Lee Mackenzie, refuge manager.
The refuge says when they got the phone call that the foam had been used, they immediately knew the foam had to be removed.
"We never recommend expanding foam. It's horrible for bats. It's a really bad way to try to address that issue," said Mackenzie.
Odegard says using the foam would create more problems.
"Bats couldn't escape to the outdoors like they normally do. They would be, trying to get out of their roost any other place they could, which would bring them into people's apartments. The bats that are remaining in there will slowly starve to death, so it's inhumane of course for the bats and not a good situation for a building where animals die in spaces in the walls or attic," said Odegard.
Mackenzie says he went to the property and started removing the foam, but was confronted by the maintenance staff, who told him to stop. After speaking with management, he was allowed to remove the foam, and will be back on Monday.
"What we'll do is install one way valves, that allow them to leave the roost, but not get back in," said Mackenzie
The bat removal process will take about two weeks to complete. Odegard wants people to know bats are safe to be around, as long as you leave them alone.
"The vast majority of bats never get rabies. I think that's a misconception that many, many people have," said Odegard.
Austin Bat Refuge says bat exclusion is normally not part of their mission, but are happy to give advice if you have a bat problem.
"We are always very happy to talk to people about about their situation, and to recommend people who might be able to help, or to even tell people under some circumstances how they might do a humane exclusion on their own," said Odegard.
KENS 5 did reach out and left messages for the apartment complex, but did not hear back from them.