Bat killed in removal from building

Pest control workers caught a bat inside the nursing and allied health complex this morning with glue boards used for mice, killing the animal.

"We normally try to use a net," said a custodian who asked not be identified on the basis that killing the bat could be considered inhumane.

The bat was spotted flying around the third floor lobby, but eventually landed on the top of a brick wall where it sat for several minutes undisturbed.

The pest controller taped the glue board to a pole provided by the custodian, and the pest controller gently placed the glue board against the bat, sandwiching it against another glue board before he exited the building.

Facilities superintendent David Ortega said that the way pest controllers handle the animal depends on the situation, such as whether students are in present danger or a window can be opened to free it.

"It doesn't look good," Ortega said of bats flying inside buildings.

He did not comment when asked about the use of glue boards to control pests.

On whether using glue boards to capture and kill the bat is considered inhumane, Chuck Knudson, manager of Big M Pest Control in San Antonio, who is contracted by Alamo Colleges, said, "it's in the eye of the beholder."

While it isn't illegal to use the boards to catch bats, insects or any animals, Knudson said pest controllers don't take their job "in any way lightly or in any disrespect for the animal."

Control workers will try to catch the animal and release it unharmed when they can, Knudson said, but because occurrences of bats are so infrequent, pest controllers do not carry nets on their trucks.

If they rush to an emergency call, they are often forced to kill the animal.

He said they receive one or two calls a year for bat removal from all their clients.

"Our concern is to protect the students and the faculty and to do it in the best and most humane way we can," he said.