Miami Roofers Discover Massive Bat Colony In One Roof

Think about how many houses in South Florida have roofs with barrel tiles. Now imagine that each one contains thousands of squealing bats.

In the video above, Miami roofers discover a particularly dense roosting area for bats. As noted by Buzzfeed, it conjures up visions of Temple of Doom.

Bats are quite common in Florida. Local pest removal companies cite the most common types are the Brazilian, or Mexican Free-Tail Bat, and the Evening Bat.

According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says, as bats' natural habitats disappear, they're more likely to settle in places like roof titles. And when this video was taken in July, bats nestle in crevices to give birth and nurture their young.

As cringe worthy as these flying mammals are, it's illegal to kill bats in Florida because they are a very necessary part of our local ecosystem. The FWC reports that a single bat can eat up to 3,000 insects a night. Come mosquito season in July, you'll be wishing for your very own bat infestation.

See below for a close-up shot of one of the little bats at minute 1:05. (The FWC says that bats are very fragile and remind Floridians to avoid handling them.)

Comments

[Brett Kenneth Snider]

03:44 PM on 03/15/2012

Must be Batman's summer house

[terra jones]

06:51 AM on 01/30/2012

the HARD WORKING mexicans are doing their jobs. they could've been killing the bats but they were trying to let them get away. i BET if they were "americans' they would be smashing the bats to peices and laughing, having a good old time.

[terra jones]

06:43 AM on 01/30/2012

i LOVE bats!!! they're so adorable. really, are people afraid of chickadees or wrens? true some bats bite and carry rabies but that could be true of alot of wildlife. I LOVE BATS!!!! please don't kill them

[jdollinter]

01:32 AM on 01/30/2012

What happens to the baby bats ?

[up2uamerica]

05:36 PM on 01/29/2012

Poor bats now where they gonna go?

[soulatomicmama]

11:25 AM on 01/29/2012

I now know why so many of the homeowners are seniors (myself included) . . . they must be deaf to not hear the noise of the bats. Would love to have seen the sky when this video was taken. Would also have loved to see the facial expressions of the neighbors when all these creatures were hunting new places to reside.

[Tamam]

04:07 PM on 01/27/2012

And this is why we had to tear down our house in Minnesota. It got to the point that we were getting 5 bats a night in the living area of our house. I hired a pest control person and he said we had over 2 feet of guana (poop) in our attic. We did everything we could think of to get rid of them but the guana (poop) was in the walls. They are attracted by and use that to find "home". We are now living in a cabin until we can afford to rebuild, hopefully this year. It is a health hazard and we suffered with respiratory problems and allergies.

[Steven Schwartz2012]

10:04 AM on 01/29/2012

wow. sad to hear that, hope you recover quickly

[Mike Jones1]

08:40 PM on 01/26/2012

This was just nasty. I have nothing against bats, but this HAS to be some kind of health hazard. If I lived there, knowing the fish and game laws and how they help keep down insects, I'd build a little bat nest wayyyyy back in my yard and they could hang out there.

[Colonel Ingus]

06:00 PM on 01/25/2012

Cool.

[FalstaffsMind]

03:53 PM on 01/25/2012

I would rather have the bats than the bugs.

[eagleclaw]

02:14 PM on 01/25/2012

No bats were harmed in the filming of this video.

[wwhatever747]

02:29 AM on 01/25/2012

Very adorable creatures.

[anitafeeney]

03:18 AM on 01/24/2012

bats are so cute

[andreiib]

01:33 AM on 01/24/2012

I noticed a particular large infestation of probably illegal aliens. When are we going to get THEM removed. At least the bats eat the mosquitos and don't steal our jobs and drive wages down.

[sandy06]

02:29 AM on 01/24/2012

EXACTLY !!!!!

[rzr2465]

04:06 AM on 01/24/2012

What kind of human are you that you could use the word infestation and people in the same sentence. Are you even a Christian? If you even bothered to know any other language than southern racist english you would know this dialect is Cuban or Caribbean Spanish which most likely means they are Cuban-Americans who have probably been citizens longer than you've been born. I wonder if you would have said the same thing if they had been saying, "Oh Michael me boyo, look at them bleedin bats". Probably not. And just to be clear, i'm an American of Mexcan descent whose mother was parents were first and 2nd generation Americans, both of Mexican descent. Welcome to the year 2000 and in the next video, hope to see you on the roof pulling tiles off of bats.

[andreiib]

10:54 AM on 01/24/2012

In the old days-before the hispanics came in and took all the construction jobs--because they were willing to break labor laws (and lots of other safety and environmental laws and ignore the minimum wage--I DID used to work jobs like that and was glad of it. Now I have a much better job but still know that these illegals destroy our economy.
And please, don't give me that BS about them being citizens. I LIVED in Miami and it has as many illegals (coming in across the Florida straits on boats) as Texas. I am not racist, I just want these people who have no respect for the laws of this country to STAY in their own country and have the courage to face their governments and fix the problems THERE instead of coming into our country and undermining everything that great people fought for!

[jon w]

01:15 AM on 01/24/2012

BLA BLA BLA alls im saying is at least they didnt turn into vampires come on am i right huh well oh yeah AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!!!!