{"id":230,"date":"2017-05-19T19:45:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T19:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statuswebsolutions.com\/bats\/?page_id=230"},"modified":"2017-05-19T19:45:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T19:45:21","slug":"bats-in-the-belfry-no-joke-for-town","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/bats-in-the-belfry-no-joke-for-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Bats in the belfry no joke for town"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on\">Toronto Star<\/span>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/header>\n<p>Infested church stank to high heaven<br \/>\nNumber astounds bat-control specialist<\/p>\n<p>Morgan Campbell<br \/>\nStaff Writer<br \/>\nPEFFERLAW, ONT \u2013 Benjamin \u201cBatman\u201d Vaughan has never performed a smellier, sloppier inspection.<\/p>\n<p>Vaughan, a bat-control specialist, knew bats were in the attic of the old Cooke\u2019s United Church in Pefferlaw, a hamlet northeast of Newmarket. Officials from the Town of Georgina had called him to get rid of them so they could turn the church, which hasn\u2019t hosted a service in about a year, into a community centre.<\/p>\n<p>He just didn\u2019t know how bad it was.<\/p>\n<p>Last Monday, Vaughan donned his \u201cspace suit\u201d and scaled a ladder. He laid his hands on the hatch to the attic and pushed once. When it went up, the dung came down, showering Vaughan and leaving him stinking and shocked.<\/p>\n<p>It turn out that until this week, Pefferlaw, a town of 3,400 had more than 2,000 bats, most of which were living, mating, and yes, defecating in the church attic. Vaughan said yesterday it will take three days to clear the bats out and clean up. The crew had to step around knee-high piles of dung and tread lightly on floorboards soaked with bat urine. The stench was so strong it could be smelled on the street.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you get three-foot piles of dung in the attic, you\u2019re not dealing with a couple (of bats),\u201d Vaughan said. \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with a couple thousand, and they\u2019ve been there for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vaughan\u2019s company, Bat Control Specialists, has cleared bats from building from Toronto to Kentucky over the past 14 years, but this one \u201cis the most disgusting job I\u2019ve had so far,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Outside, the grass has been cut, and flowers bloom. The church held regular Sunday services until a year ago, which Vaughan finds incredible: \u201cI don\u2019t know how they could stand the smell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The basement stayed open as a recreation centre, where local teens would play pool or watch TV despite the dead bats that periodically plopped from the attic. But complaints closed the centre two months ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother five years and I wouldn\u2019t have even bothered fixing it,\u201d said crew member Kenny Charboneau. \u201cI would just take a bulldozer to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vaughan says ridding a building of bats has nothing to do with eradicating them. The attic\u2019s entry points are fitted with vents so when the bats leave at night, they can\u2019t get back inside.<\/p>\n<p>And then? Vaughan shrugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey leave, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most will take off in search of caves, but a few ended up in a tree outside July Kydd\u2019s house a few kilometres away. \u201cThey were just flying everywhere, all over the place,\u201d she said. \u201cI guess they were just looking for a house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Article featured in The Toronto Star on September 18, 2004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toronto Star Infested church stank to high heaven Number astounds bat-control specialist Morgan Campbell Staff Writer PEFFERLAW, ONT \u2013 Benjamin \u201cBatman\u201d Vaughan has never performed a<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/batcontrolspecialists.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}