Bats out of hell drive Aberdeen woman from her dream home

FOR Alison Murray, buying her first home was a dream come true. But yesterday she told how she was forced to flee the building in terror after more than 1,000 bats turned her flat into a nightmare.

The bats - 500 female pipi-strelles and their estimated 500 "pups" - have transformed the roof space above Ms Murray's top-floor flat in the Peterculter area of Aberdeen into a roost.

And because they are protected under European conservation laws, there is nothing she can do until the bats decide to leave.

Ms Murray, 25, said she had no choice but to leave the flat. She revealed that she had finally left her home after one of the bats found its way into a towel she was using to dry herself after a shower.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," she said. "These bats seem to have more rights than I do."

Ms Murray, a contracts administrator with oil company Subsea 7 in Westhill, bought the flat in Johnston Gardens in January. But four months later, she became aware she had some unwanted guests.

"I found the first pipistrelle in my kitchen and I thought at first it was a one-off," she said. "But after I found bat number four I realised there was a problem.

"I found them sleeping in the plug hole in the kitchen sink and flying about the living room. And I could hardly sleep at night because they are in the roof space right above my bed, and they were making a constant high-pitched noise.

"But I had to move out when I found one crawling over me after I'd had a shower. I had put the towel around me when I walked through to my bedroom. I felt something move under the towel and looked in the mirror to see a bat crawling out.

"I just screamed and decided right then I couldn't live here any more. I moved back to live with Mum and Dad in Inverurie - much to their delight."

After being forced to flee her home, Ms Murray contacted the Bat Conservation Trust, which sent members to offer advice.

"They went outside and counted the bats," she said. "They just kept flying out and out and out. They counted 500 bats and told me there would be another 500 babies in the roof space.

"It's a complete nightmare. I have had to go back to the flat to get mail or clothes and I just run in and run out.

"After having one crawling over me, I have developed a fear of bats. They are horrible. I hate them."

She has applied for a licence from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to enable her to arrange for the holes in the roof the bats use to be closed up once they have stopped using the roost, but that could take months.

Ms Murray said: "I'm just annoyed that you can't do anything to stop them. It might be the end of September or the start of October before the bats leave. But I don't think I'll ever feel fully comfortable in this flat again."

David Bale, SNH operations manager for Aberdeen, said he had "every sympathy" with Ms Murray.He added: "Some people are quite happy to have them around, some people don't like them. But she does have a real fear of them and that's something that is just not tolerable in your own home.

"So our role is to advise her on how to deal with the bats in a way which is in compliance with the law."

All British bats are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and they are also listed as European protected species. It is an offence to deliberately capture, injure or kill a bat or to disturb one while it is rearing for its young. It is also an offence to obstruct, damage or destroy a breeding site or resting place.

What are they good for? One tiny pipistrelle can eat 3,000 midges a night

THERE are a total of 17 species of bat in the UK, of which nine can be found in Scotland.

The most numerous – and the smallest – is the pipistrelle. It has a body length of between 3.5cm and 4.5cm and a wingspan of 19-25cm and weighs 3g to 8g.

In summer, pipistrelles tend to roost in buildings, bat boxes and trees, before hibernating from November to April. They feed on moths, gnats and other small insects and can often be seen flitting about near open woodland. A single pipistrelle can eat 3,000 midges in one night.

Females form their own nursery colonies in early summer, often in a roof space behind tiles. The males roost in separate small colonies, only joining the females during the autumn and winter months.

It belongs to the Vespertilionidae family of bats, known as ordinary or earlet bats, and appears earlier in the evening than most other bats. Its jerky flight gave rise to the ancient name for bats – flittermouse.

They are found in the British Isles and continental Europe (except the far north), south-west Asia, Korea and Japan, and also in Kashmir and in Morocco, north Africa.