TABLE VII 
BAT EXPERIMENT AT THE 
-EASTERN CARIBBEAN FARM INSTITUTE, 1959 

Number of bats flying outside 

After After After After After After After 


Before 1 2 4 4 6 10 13 
spraying week weeks weeks months months months months 
House D 34 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 
House E 36 58 44 33 45 81 88 88 
CONCLUS IONS 
1, In Trinidad, the adoption of the corrugated roof has provided a 
suitable habitat for free-tailed bats, Molossus. 
2. As a result of this artificial situation, house bats now constitute 
a serious nuisance problem in Trinidad from both health and economic 
aspects. 
3. Although serious consideration should always be given to the bat 
proofing of a building during its initial construction, measures 
for eradicating house bats from a building already infested as well 
as methods for bat proofing after construction still play an impor-= 
tant role. 
4. A method for bat population assessment based on recording numbers 
flying out of the house in the evening gave consistent results and 
proved much more accurate than an internal count during the day. 
5. The main points of access for the bats entering and leaving the 
roof spaces of the houses under experiment were the roof corruga- 
tions and openings between the louvres, although the little free- 
tailed bat, Molossus major, can pass through cracks as small as 
one-quarter inch, 
6. Only two species of house bats were recorded, both insectivorous. 
Over four-fifths of the entire population consisted of the little 
14 
