ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — 8 On Your Side is helping a St. Pete renter find answers after she found four bats inside her apartment within two months.
Jasmin Cusimano said management is not working with her to resolve this issue.
Bats are protected in Florida, so you can’t harm or kill them, but Cusimano said these bats are a nuisance. She feels like she has no other option than to pack her bags and leave.
She said she’s found a dead bat on her porch and three bats flying at different times inside her Inlet Bay at Gateway Apartment.
“I ran across duct and open my door and let it out and I saw it go out,” she said.
On her balcony, the floor and walls are covered with what resembles bat droppings.
“I don’t ever see insects out here so I don’t know where all these droppings are coming from,” said Cusimano.
“I called the emergency line. First, they said there’s nothing they can do about it, so I took my stuff and left I haven’t slept in my house since July 3,” said Cusimano.
Bat maternity season runs from April 15 to Aug. 15, and it’s illegal to install devices that block bats from returning to their roost.
Florida Fish and Wildlife said the state has 13 native bat species, which normally roost in trees or caves, but sometimes they are attracted to man-made structures.
“We can take them outside and release them and let them fly,” said Joshua Ely-Carter, the operations manager at Truly Nolan Pest Control. “Let them go somewhere else what we can’t do is prevent them from getting back inside the structure, we can’t seal it up where they can’t get back in.”
Ely-Carter said bats are misunderstood, and that the mammals are important to our environment and play a critical role in mosquito control in Florida.
“They make a huge dent in our mosquito population they can eat anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 mosquitoes per feeding per bat,” said Ely-Carter.
But the bats inside Cusimano’s apartment are forcing her and her son out.
“I have nowhere to live,” she said. “I’d rather stay in my car with my kid, then live in the house and risk rabies.”
While the manager at the leasing office told me there is no bat issue, Cusimano said she is withholding her July rent payment.
“I don’t feel safe living here, and I don’t think that it’s fair that I should be forced to stay here or I’m going to be messing up my credit risk having an eviction,” she said.
The manager also said staff repaired an exposed dryer exhaust last Wednesday which was believed to be how the bats were entering, but Cusimano said she is still seeing bats.
Truly Nolen said if you have a bat problem at your home, you can call them or a local wildlife group to help you remove them safely without harming them.
Fall is the best time to evict bats from inside, according to FWC officials.
“In order to legally exclude bats, any exclusion device must be left up for a minimum of four nights and must be conducted when the overnight temperature is forecast to be at least 50ºF,” the FWC website says.
