SSH& warns for bats in Sterrenbosch
Do you find a mosquito in your room annoying? Inhabitants of the SSH& Sterrenbosch complex are warned about creatures of quite a different calibre: one student had no fewer than five bats in her room.
Inhabitants of the SSH& Sterrenbosch complex would do well to close their windows at night. Those who don’t run the risk of waking up to find an uninvited guest in their room. Complex manager Gerie Verhoeven warns the inhabitants for bats. Students are advised to close their windows at night or put up an insect screen.
Panic
According to Verhoeven, it’s not unusual for a bat to fly into one of the rooms. But the latest complaint from a student really takes the cake. ‘She found no fewer than five bats in her room. She was quite panicky about it.’ The manager on call had to help her remove the flying night creatures from her room.
‘Well, they’re just looking for a place to sleep’, says Verhoeven. Removing them is tricky, though, because bats are a protected species. ‘You’re not allowed to hurt them in any way. And I’ve heard they can bite.’
Refuge
Incidentally, Sterrenbosch is not the only complex to be graced by bat visits. Verhoeven has heard that at the Mariënbosch complex, they placed special boxes for the bats to sleep in. To prevent them from seeking refuge in a student room.
herman limpens wrote on 20 september 2018 at 13:19
The bats in these student homes are not at all like the flying fox on the picture. There are over 1100 species in the world! Fruit eaters that pick rotten fruits from the trees and help save the crops, pollinators, and seed dispersers. Some tropical crops are exclusively pollinated by bats, others only germinate after a fruit bat has eaten them and dispersed them.
All our European/Dutch bats are insect eaters and no fruit eaters, like the bats on the picture.
Most probably the species that visit the student building in Nijmegen are Common pipistrelles, where every individual eats thousands of mosquitos per night. So if mosquitos bother you…
Herman Limpens
Senior bat scientist
Dutch Mammal Society / Toernooiveld 1 / 6525 ED Nijmegen
Hongling wrote on 20 september 2018 at 15:08
Wow~ woke up at night to find five bats in the room, hooooorrible!
Compared to this, my experience seems less scary.
I live in Muzenplaats SSH& and had a wasp nest right below my window for more than one month(now it is gone, with the help from the caretaker). Could not dare to open my window for they would fly in, many of them~, especially in the evening when they fly to the lights……
Hope such issue could be solved with the coming the winter.
Drs. Angela Grooten UvA.NL UD wrote on 1 oktober 2018 at 19:09
Dear Ladies & Sirs,
Centre Nijmegen here, my parental house since 1900. We have had bats. Ever since. And I was always told as a child: (I am from 1954, not from 1900) “Be proud of them. Care for them” They are important!” “Keep them!” Which is what I ever since do.
“They fly at night, sleep in winter, catch insects, never sleep in summer. Maybe one day they will save you from bugs-plagues”
“Respect the bats!”
“You must fight Killing Human with his insecticides!”
“Man is the trouble. Danger.”
“Why try to destroy this noble race? !”
Please, forbid the use of killing chemicals. Neo-nicotinoids. Please forbid the use of chasing , pursuing, killing, disturbing, these wonderful night-animals. Which never do anyone, anywhere, any damage. Except mosquitos and other bugs.
Please, spend all that wrong misused money in explaining expertise, knowledge, scientific data, studies, for enlightenment of the public. And please.
A Big Excuse and Sorry and lot of gained millions over their destruction is demanded.