The wildlife control industry through a network of wildlife control operators volunteers has formed a Wildlife Operators White Nose Syndrome (WNS) Task Force to work with the scientific community on the collection of nuisance roost data.
Our nations bat population is very important to our eco system . The wildlife control industry can be counted on to do our part in helping solve the mystery and provide whatever man power and data needed to help the scientific community on their White Nose Syndrome and any other wildlife research projects in the future.
The Task Force consists of the National Coordinator, Craig Coon, a private nuisance wildlife control business owner based in Saratoga Springs, New York. Mr Coon has diligently been communicating with the USFS, NYDEC, other state agencies, universities and conservation groups. He is actively seeking volunteers within the nuisance wildlife control community to volunteer as State Coordinators (many have already been set up), individual volunteers from any state can help in the collection of nuisance roost data and are encouraged to contact Mr. Coon at 518-584-5201.
The task force has can be found online at http://www.wildlifepro.net/group/wnstaskforce and any member of the nuisance wildlife control community is encouraged to join and take part in this worthy effort. As an update, many bat species have already been depleted in the states of New York and Vermont, with similar expectations in New Jersey. White nose syndrome has been identified and observed in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont and Virginia and predicted to affect the Midwest states of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Al Hicks of the NY DEC, has been quoted “WNS coming to a cave near you soon”.
Those interested in getting involved with the Nuisance wildlife control communities efforts can contact Mr Coon directly and send a message and their contact information to:
Oklahoma Wildlife Control, LLC is pleased to promote and be associated with the efforts of Beverly Wallace, caretaker of Bat’s Landing, a nonprofit sanctuary for bats licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife.
The following story is from the Tulsa World, published 12/22/2008.
Wallace, known to her neighbors as the “Bat Whisperer,” spends the majority of her days and nights feeding, nurturing and caring for the nocturnal mammals, hoping to reintroduce them to their natural habitat.
At her rural home between Sapulpa and Glenpool, Wallace runs Bat’s Landing, a nonprofit sanctuary for bats licensed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife.
Wallace became interested in bats about seven years ago when her neighborhood was suffering a mosquito problem.
“The neighbors were complaining about the mosquitoes, and so were we. I had this crazy notion that if I started raising bats, that they would stay here and I could raise a colony,” she said. “As time went on, I found that not to be true. Just because I hand-raised them, that they weren’t going to stay. Bats do what they want to do; they go where they want to go, not where you want them to go.”
Raising the first few bats remained in Wallace’s blood. She decided to learn more about the mammals when she took part in a “bat boot camp” at Bat World, a bat rehabilitation center in Mineral Wells, Texas.
“It’s been a blessing to me to raise them and watch them grow, then able to release them. I’ve had quite good success at releasing a large number of pups, or baby bats,” she said. “I’ve devoted my life to this.”
When Wallace receives calls about an injured or displaced bat, she’ll go get the mammal and bring it back to her little shop to be rehabilitated. She’s also removed bats that have found their way inside homes. She responds to calls from throughout the Tulsa area.
“A lot of times the poor little guys find themselves in positions, or in places, where they shouldn’t be and they might have hunted throughout the night and stopped to rest and then it cools down and there they are,” she said.
Bats aren’t the only animals Wallace has nursed back to health. She’s worked with wildlife since she was a child, including armadillos, birds, squirrels, opossums and raccoons. At one point, she and her husband, Weldon, had 13 raccoons.
Wallace is currently rehabilitating several bat species, including a Hoary bat, the most widespread of bats in the United States. Wallace also has four big brown bats, four little red bats and an evening bat in her workshop.
During the summer months, she can have as many as 50 or 60 pups in her care, feeding them mealworms and insects.
As far as rabies, Wallace said that only one-half of 1 percent of all bats carry the disease, and usually those with rabies will crawl off and die without infecting other animals or people.
“Now should a human pick one up that is rabid, of course they’re going to be bitten because the bat would be afraid, just like any kind of animal. But bats are not to be any more feared than a raccoon or a skunk,” she said. “As long as people just leave the bats where they belong and don’t interfere, they’ll be OK.”
Wallace said she has been bitten, but she makes sure to wear gloves and use her common sense.
She suggests that a person who comes upon a bat that could be displaced or possibly hurt should call either a veterinarian or someone who might be able to rehabilitate the animal.
Bat signal
To contact Bat’s Landing, call Beverly Wallace at 227-1227
Bat Removal & Exclusion:
OK Wildlife Control®, L.L.C. is proud to provide a professional bat removal and exclusion service, which does not harm your bats, nor does it contaminate your dearest possessions with poisons or gases.
OK Wildlife Control®, L.L.C. is very concerned about the health and well being of bats in Oklahoma. We provide custom bat house builds and installations in order to attract these precious creatures to your properties in order to control insect populations such as gnats, flies, mosquitoes, etc. Bats commonly eat over 1000 insects per night, so their purpose in nature is secured by their actions.
No one want bats in their attics, this is just not a good place for them. This is one of the reasons we build and install bat houses. However; OK Wildlife Control®, L.L.C. will not exclude bats from structures between the third week of May until the first week of September. This is the maternity season … and we do not want to remove the adult females during this period, because it will leave the helpless baby bats in the structures to starve to death, deteriorate and rot in the structure which can pose a health risk in itself. During this time period, OK Wildlife Control®, L.L.C. will answer bat calls, give estimates, evaluations and schedule a time and plan of action more suited to the well being of the bats, and the property owners.
These two baby Little Brown Bats did not survive in the maternity colony that another company provided exclusion services for at the wrong time of the year in Tulsa, Oklahoma. OK Wildlife Control®, L.L.C. did schedule a proper plan of action to take place in September, but did not, and will not intrude on the currently established maternity colony within the structure, until that established time. However, the client did get off to a good start with the installation of one of our custom bat houses similar to the one pictured above, set on their property, and baited for attraction.
White nose syndrome is killing millions of bats and is predicted to continue for years to come if a solution and cure are not found. On May 5th, 2009 The Wildlife Pro Network, Wildlife Operators Forum, FWS and NYDEC go together with Craig Coon, Adirondack Dundee in Saratoga Springs New York which was part of the 13th Wildlife Damage Management Conference for a videocast this is the latest update on the white nose bat syndrome. The purpose of the symposium was for the bat researching community to get together with the nuisance wildlife control community and discuss how we can all work together in this very important bat conservation mystery.
White-nose Syndrome in Hailes Cave Albany County, NY - Photo by N. Heaslip
The Wildlife Pro Network is proud to be apart of this conference and now host the entire conference at the link below.
Last Night May 5, 2009, the future of our industry changed forever. The quality will need some work a few more mics and video cameras, maybe a mixer board to produce it all but history was made and we stepped into a new era. The era of video conferences eliminating the need to be present to each and every conference saving time and money and still being there.
Craig Coon, Adirondack Dundee Saratoga Springs, New York
This all came together because of Craig Coon , Adirondack Dundee of Saratoga Springs, New York, Charles Parker of Kenner, Louisiana and I was glad to be a part of it from both the idea stage and see it through. My role was supposed to be a co-host but actually a co-moderator in the chat room was about all it amounted to. Fellow Wildlife Pro Network and NPWMA members also present online Kirk LaPierre, Allison Lavalle , Charles Parker, and Maynard Stanley.
The topic, was the White Nose Bat Symposium and we NWCO’s do have a future role in collecting roost data and play a future part in trying to stop this fatal disease & may end up being part of the eventual solution if we can stop bats from being extinct in North America.
The next step is taking the conference and getting the content which is in the archives out to the rest of our industry. Craig Coon deserves all the credit both for his involvement with WNS and for asking that we try to video conference.
As it stands right now, Craig Coon is my candidate for Professional of The Year and the year still has along way to its end and he will be a hard act to follow but we will see.For those interested in getting involved with WNS data collection Craig will be announcing how all of us can get involved in the future. Craig’s email adirondackdundee@aol.com and his phone 518-584-5201.
The Wildlife Pro Network in cooperation with the Wildlife Operators Forum will
be supporting the White Nose Bat Symposium being held tonight in Saratoga
Springs , NY which is part of the 13th Wildlife Damage Management Conference
tonight at 7 PM LIVE.
Tonight's conference will be hosted Live by Craig Coon , Adirondack Dundee and I
will be co-hosting from my own location here in Florida.The focus of tonight's
video cast is for us NWCO's to learn how we can collect summer roosting data and
provide it Academia and Researchers to help git a grip on the White Nose
Syndrome.
This groundbreaking first will hopefully set a standard and a bar for the
future. Connecting, the leaders of the industry to the members of the industry
to aid in protecting, studying, and preserving our nations urban wildlife.
You can find links to the live videocast at http://www.wildlifecontrol.tv,
http://wildlifepro.net and http://npwma.com or below here on Skinny Moose:
Hope many of you have a chance to listen in or ask questions via chat.
Visit THE WILDLIFE PRO NETWORK at: http://www.wildlifepro.net
Two years ago very few ever heard of this bat disease since it was both unknown outside of the Albany New York area. Today this bat disease is found in New York, New Hampshire,, Vermont, New Jersey,Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia.
This bat disease has been affecting over 90% of cave dwelling bats in these areas and having a devastating effect on the control of mosquitos and on the pollination of our crops that feed us and found in our grocery stores. This disease is spreading rapidly and soon will affect agriculture in every part of the South Eastern United States.
To learn more about this disease and how it affects the entire wildlife control industry please READ THE ARTICLE
The Wildlife Pro Network has put up its online information site for consumers to learn more about various animal species and adding more daily. The site offers information on their reproductive habits and behavior, diseases associated with them, information on animal and bird exclusions,faq,and a few videos .
Disclaimer: Our listings of businesses are offered by our directories as a public service. The presence or lack of presence on this list implies neither an endorsement or criticism by the owner of these directories.The Wildlife Pro strongly recommends that property owners carefully investigate any wildlife control business before engaging its services. We have provided information to help you evaluate a business on our website.
Thursday, 26 Feb 2009 The Wildlife Pro Network is getting together to discuss Bat Conversation and the guests that have been lined up are Barbara French with bat Conservation International http://batcon.org, Beverly Wallace, of Sapulpa, OK who is a licensed Bat Rehabber who has worked alongside Reginald Murray, Oklahoma Wildlife Control, LLC from time to time and Ken Bowman, with Batcow(Conservation of Wisconsin) Inc. from Wisconsin with http://batcow.org.
This should be a very informative night and another insight on bats in general.Hope you can join us too!
We provide custom bat house builds and installations in order to attract these precious creatures to your properties in order to control insect populations such as gnats, flies, mosquitoes, etc. Bats commonly eat over 1000 insects per night, so their purpose in nature is secured by their actions.
