Boon Keng Residents Found Bats Outside Flats and Were Advised to Hang ‘Shiny Objects’ at Doors and Windows

We have all had our fair share of unwanted house guests but this time around, the folks over at Boon Keng really take the cake.

For those of you coming in cold, let us bring you up to speed.

Recently, residents of Block 14 Upper Boon Keng Road have been in the company of bats swooping around in the vicinity.

And by company, we mean these night creatures have been flying into their homes and most probably, prompting a choir of screaming aunties and uncles.

As a result, the residents had been having increasing worries about the pest invasion and especially over their health.

Of course, their fears are not entirely unjustified considering bats’ abilities to allow deadly diseases to hitchhike on their bodies without succumbing to them.

According to LiveScience, these flying mammals can host more than sixty human-infecting viruses.

Thankfully, for the rest of us and our bat-free abodes, this isn’t too much of a concern.

Who Do You Call?

Following the incidents, the town council located and pruned nearby fruit trees to encourage the bats to move their homes away from residential units.

In addition, an officer and a bat research specialist were engaged to visit those affected to reassure them those bats did not possess virulent strains of coronavirus.

The residents were also given tips on how to discourage the bats from coming near their homes by hanging shiny objects such as CDs at entry points and installing a magnetic fly mesh or insect netting at windows.

Installing bright lights or using aluminium foils can also help to deter them from coming near them.

Other tips from NParks and Wildlife Reserves Singapore include: applying lubricants or glossy paper on areas where they perch or roost to discourage them from doing so, and leaving them alone.

They will usually fly away when they are done feeding.

In addition, facts about bats, in general, were shared to inform them of the roles of these creatures in the ecosystem as a whole.

But at the end of the day, bats are not as scary as you think they are. These creatures, according to the bat research specialist, are mostly shy and unaggressive.

Of course, that’s so long as no one starts being extra by whipping out their phone for an Instagram Story.

Pretty sure that’s going to look like an assault weapon to these bats. If so, then y’all better haul ass.