Batemans Bay made the news

[BillB]

Seems like the flying foxes are causing a bit of a ruckus down there. @HansO is it as bad as the news made it out to be? It sounded like a crappie situation

 

[HansO]

Seems like the flying foxes are causing a bit of a ruckus down there. @HansO is it as bad as the news made it out to be? It sounded like a crappie situation

Hell yeah there is a part of Batemans which is part of an natural waterway (a creek) which was made into a beautiful water garden picnic area, now no one want to there because of the smell, we have alway had some Flying Fox's (a large bat) come every summer but over the last few year they been multipling a lot to the point that the council had to issue clothes line covers and car covers because they are spreading out from the water gardens over residential areas luckily I live on the other side of town and only get a few feeding in the gum trees at night (they are also known as a Fruit Bat due to their love of necture from the gum tree blossoms and they will decimate any fruit trees if you don't cover them with netting

 

[BillB]

Hell yeah there is a part of Batemans which is part of an natural waterway (a creek) which was made into a beautiful water garden picnic area, now no one want to there because of the smell, we have alway had some Flying Fox's (a large bat) come every summer but over the last few year they been multipling a lot to the point that the council had to issue clothes line covers and car covers because they are spreading out from the water gardens over residential areas luckily I live on the other side of town and only get a few feeding in the gum trees at night (they are also known as a Fruit Bat due to their love of necture from the gum tree blossoms and they will decimate any fruit trees if you don't cover them with netting

Reckon a handful of lads with RWS air rifles and about 10 kilos of pellets could thin the herd out pretty well. Or would the environmental whacko's get a case of the vapors over that?

I remember seeing them when we were there in the late sixties. Right homely things aren't they?

 

[HansO]

Reckon a handful of lads with RWS air rifles and about 10 kilos of pellets could thin the herd out pretty well. Or would the environmental whacko's get a case of the vapors over that?

I remember seeing them when we were there in the late sixties. Right homely things aren't they?

It has been said before more than once, some folks have even suggested a few dozen shooters with shotgun would do the trick but instead they are trying to get them to leave by sending out a handful of people with bright lights a making a lot of noise !!! apparently that worked somewhere else but I don,t see that to be the answer I'm all for the shotgun approach

 

[sleeves]

Curious do the have any natural predators, other than a few dozen shooters with shotguns?

I know up in Papua New Guinea they eat them as I saw them for sale in the markets regularly, when I asked they told me they trapped them with nets then clubbed them. Didn't look like a gourmet meal but if your really hungry it would do.

Hanso you could have a good sideline business frying them up on a roadside stall if you follow the above plan, works in PNG

 

[Sphinx]

Where else would flying foxes go but Bat-e-mans Bay? (I crack me up LOL!!!!!!)

 

[HansO]

Where else would flying foxes go but Bat-e-mans Bay? (I crack me up LOL!!!!!!)

Don't laugh I 'll send them up your way, actually they are spreading, there are a few areas that are now having a Flying Fox problem they'll soon be up your way

 

[mr hunt]

I saw one hanging upside down giving itself a blow job once...

 

[BillB]

It has been said before more than once, some folks have even suggested a few dozen shooters with shotgun would do the trick but instead they are trying to get them to leave by sending out a handful of people with bright lights a making a lot of noise !!! apparently that worked somewhere else but I don,t see that to be the answer I'm all for the shotgun approach

Over here we are dealing with a similar issue with Canada geese. The nasty things are everywhere, pooping on everything. They actually cause traffic jams wandering around in the roads and people just stop the cars and sit there until they finally wander off. I have a mob of them on my way to work. Pick a open between birds and pipe strafe them with the Reband singing at 4500 rpms or so actually seems to be training them a little bit. They actually hustle for the fields when they hear it coming.

 

[Ishrub]

Philistines!

They are actually the only thing that keeps whole ecology of remnant stands of rain forest and all the species that are dependent on them in existence via their seed dispersal. They do have an unfortunate tendency to clump a highly deplenished population in a few breeding colonies that can denude the roosting trees and stink up the area badly, but they are not reproducing in huge numbers. After a few years they move on.

In the NT they roam all over the city of Darwin crapping on everyone's washing if left overnight with bright yellow diarrhea from all the mangoes they eat. Some places the liquid feces is brown or black but everywhere it is pretty acidic and eats through vehicle duco especially if left in the sun for day.

They often roost in bamboo forests on rivers in the NT and crocodiles hang around underneath to gobble the juveniles or sick that fall off their perches.

ARSEHOLES use them for shotgun target practice as they fly overhead from the swamps into their feeding areas at evening.

And yes I have known a few arseholes and had my vehicles, clothes and even a cast on my arm shat on but destroying them and the ecology they support is not a viable option.