BRANDON, Fla. — A Brandon resident is complaining about a bat infestation in her building. She said it’s a quality-of-life issue, but the situation is complicated.
Nearly four years ago, Asia Watson moved into the Woodberry Woods apartment complex in Brandon. “Well, when I got the place, I was excited because I didn’t have one. So, I was happy to be here,” said Watson. It was a new start and a new place, but she didn’t know she’d have uninvited guests.
Asia took me outside of her front door, where bats could be heard.
“It’s just normal to me right now at this point. I’m used to hearing it. I hear them 24/7. It’s usually louder than that,” said Watson.
She said two weeks after moving in, she was on her balcony with her neighbor eating when the unexpected happened.
“And then bat poop fell in my food and I wasn’t sure what it was and she told me that was bat poop. I would not finish that. So, I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’ And she was like, ‘yea, there’s a bunch of bats up here,'” Asia recounted.
In fact, Asia showed me a video she took of several bats flying out of a hole in the side of her apartment building. She said she has health concerns and that the bats are impacting her quality of life.
“In this closet is where I smell the bats the most. Like, as soon as you come in this back room, you can smell it very strong,” said Asia. That smell, she said, is urine. I called the complex’s leasing office. However, they told me they did not want to comment on this story.
“Our heart goes out to people like this,” said Jon-Paul Lavandeira with Hillsborough County Code Enforcement.
He said between April 15 and Aug. 15, it’s illegal to trap or exterminate bats. The reason: that’s their mating season and they play an important role in Florida’s ecosystem.
“It complicates the job more because, unlike other situations, these are protected animals by the state. So, whereas someone’s calling for a rodent or someone’s calling for another type, you know, bed bugs, whatever, that’s an easy fix,” said Lavandeira.
Watson said though she understands bats are protected during those months, she still sees, smells, and hears them through much of the entire year. So, I asked Tom DiFiore with Bay Area Legal Services what should tenants who have a bat infestation do outside of the months of their mating season.
“Get it resolved by talking back and forth. If not, offer to repair it and maybe get the pest control to come in and then deduct it from your rent. Be sure you get that in writing if you do that,” said DeFiore.
He said push comes to shove, report it to your county’s code enforcement agency, but do it during the months the bats aren’t mating.
As for Asia, I asked her what she’d like to see done. “I would like to see all of the bats gone. That’s what I’d love. I would love to see that,” said Watson.
