Bats in chimneybreast

[One-eyed-Jim]

We have had small bats around the outside of the house for a long time and that's been fine, but after a couple of hard winters they seemed to have disappeared.  Then about a fortnight ago one started flying round the living room.  It was quite large when flying - wingspan about 8-10 inches, but tiny when folded up.  I assumed it had come in through the windows so I captured it (with great difficulty) and put it outdoors.  The second time one flew around the room I couldn't catch it and it went in through the tiny space in the grille in the chimneybreast of our insert, i.e. the part where the hot air rises and exits through the grilles to the room.  When I peered in later, there were at least two of them hanging peacefully in there. [8-)]

So what should we do?  Will it be safe to light the insert when the colder weather starts to bite?  I don't want to harm them, but neither do I want them in the living room!  When it warms up, will they just come out?  And in that case where will they go?  Is it the wrong time of year to try to entice them into a bat box outdoors (although that seems a tricky thing to accomplish anyway.)

All advice welcome.

 

 

[Bugsy]

Build a bat-box or two, hang them somewhere warm and introduce them to it.

Works really well and very little effort.

http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factsheets/batbox/index.php

.

[Gardian]

[quote user="One-eyed-Jim"]

I assumed it had come in through the windows

[/quote]

They've probably come in through the chimney stack.

As to removing them, I can't help much (ours came out when we lit up the fire & were 'helped' out), but you'd then need to put some kind of mesh around the stack to prevent entry.   

[One-eyed-Jim]

If they came down the chimney, wouldn't they have ended up inside the insert itself, rather than in what I thought was a sealed space around the outside of the chimney?  (Not putting this very well.)  I wonder if there is access through from the loft  -  chimney obviously passes through loft on its way to roof.........  In which case they might go back that way when it gets hot in the chimneybreast.  I also assume that where I can see two, there may be loads more!

Guess we'll be trying to build a batbox, and then lighting the fire to see if they will come out into our welcoming arms for safe transfer......

Jim