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| Embassy Under Siege: The Foreign
Legion of Bats Imagine a bat with a wingspan of three feet. Now multiply that image by hundreds upon hundreds of fruit bats hanging nearby in tall trees, incessantly chitter-chattering day and night and incessantly dropping parasite-infested excrement day and night. Not a pretty sight - or sound. Especially not at the residences of the U.S. Ambassador, the Deputy Chief of Mission, and the Public Affairs Officer. Karl C. Voiles, Facilities Manager for the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, Mali, saw what the three executive officers and their families had to live with, and he knew something had to be done to put an end to the Reign of the Fruit Bats. But he didn't know what. Bats in Bamako, Mali The country of Mali is located in the sub-Saharan region of Africa, near Algeria and the Ivory Coast. It's a big country, larger than California, and totally (?) tropical in climate. The city of Mali, where the U.S. Embassy is headquartered, is on the Niger River. The Embassy is on one side of town; the three official residences are across town, where the giant bats like to congregate in the tall trees that grow by the Niger River. "Bats are a problem that is common all over West Africa," Voiles says. "They go with the territory, wherever banana palms and mango trees grow," he explains. The huge bats, which live on insects and fruit, "like to roost in tall trees, where there's lots of hanging room," Voiles notes. Further, he explains, the bats are a year-round problem: "They're not migratory, and they don't hibernate." Watch Your Step..Your Head..Your Drink Imagine again the U.S. Ambassador's residence. It's the Fourth of July, and the Ambassador is giving a big party. All of the local dignitaries are invited, along with a host of other VIPs. "Hundreds of people come to the Ambassador's parties," Voiles relays, "and here we would have bat droppings falling on clothes, on heads, and in drinks!" Not acceptable. And when the Ambassador hosted an outdoor concert, bats swooped overhead, right over the lead singer and the audience. "Nasty," declares Voiles. And let's not even discuss what bat droppings did to the Ambassador's pool. Prior Attempts to Control Unwanted Guests One prior facilities manager, Voiles recounts, cut down the fruit trees to discourage the roosting bats. But in Mali's hot, humid climate, where daily temperatures routinely hit 115 degrees, the trees grew back rapidly and the pests returned in full force. "Everything was tried," Voiles says, "from loud music to bright lights. Nothing worked. The bats remained, creating an incredible noise and mess. Guests at events were bombarded with excrement and frightened by swooping bats." One retired facilities manager told Voiles that they used to fire guns to scare away the bats; but, after momentary relief, this had no lasting effect whatsoever. Fruit bats, Voiles says, consume tons of insects. "We didn't want to hurt the bats. We just didn't want them invading Embassy events." Calling in the Troops from Abroad Voiles studied the literature on getting rid of pests. When he read about an ultrasonic device designed to repel birds, rodents, skunks, raccoons and other pests, without harming them, he had a hunch that this might work on the offending bats. He contacted Bird-X, Inc., back in the States (Chicago, Illinois) and learned that the device uses intense ultrasonic and sonic sounds to create a hostile environment (?)for up to 2,000 square feet ( square meters), driving out pests safely and effectively - and rapidly. Pests cannot adapt to the intolerable high-level sound output; it bothers their nervous systems, and it works on many varieties of nuisances, not only birds. All Or Nothing When Voiles learned how low-cost the Bird-X Transonic IXL Pest Repeller was, he ordered 15 of them - enough to encircle the three Embassy residences. Voiles, who heads a staff of 50 facilities' (?) maintenance workers, asked two of his electricians to install the wiring, outlets and units at 100-foot intervals around the perimeter wall of the residences. He cautioned his staff that it might take several days or weeks before the sonic units reduced the bat population around the homes. But the results, he reports, were instantaneous. "Like magic," Voiles says, "the bats vanished! The trees were empty; the racket ceased; no more chitter-chattering." And no more mess. Yet, the sound emitted by the Transonic IXL Pest Repeller was above the human threshold. It only bothered the bats. A lot. For His Second Act.. Voiles was on a roll. He took another Transonic IXL unit across town to the Embassy Compound and installed it near the site of the second major pest problem: Rats. In the city of Bamako, as in much of West Africa (?), there are open sewers, drainage ditches and visible garbage. The rats, he says, are "large and bold" - and they were particularly offensive when they stuck their heads up from the drainage ditch while Embassy employees sat on nearby benches eating their lunches. "We didn't want to do indiscriminate poisoning, with the risk of poisoning other critters as well," Voiles says, eliminating rat poisoning as an unsatisfactory solution. Like the bats, the rats left the scene instantaneously when the Transonic unit was turned on. "No more intruders now," Voiles confirms. Although the unit repels rats at a decibel level that humans can hear, Voiles placed the unit far enough away from Embassy buildings so it bothers no one. "The theory behind the ultrasonic works," states Voiles, "and the price made it an easy decision." Double Hit Makes Local Hero When the Deputy at the Embassy announced good riddance to the bats, he also announced that Karl Voiles has become a "Legend of Africa - the first person ever to get rid of bats. You'll go down in history," he claimed. For 17 years, no one had been able to rid the residences of bats and the compound of rats. All of that has changed since the Transonic units. Good news travels fast. "I've e-mailed the information to my counterparts in other embassies," says Voiles. He's also very open about the savings and benefits for the U.S. Government. For example, the three Embassy officers' residences had to be repainted every year due to the bat droppings, at a cost of $8,000 to $10,000 each year in paint and labor. "Now, one paint job should last three years," Voiles notes. He also points out the reduced health hazard. Bat and rodent droppings contain parasites that can spread rabies, plagues, and other diseases. He pauses to think gratefully about barefoot children who might run freely in Embassy yards. Local hero, indeed. |
