Bat Defense System - Version 5.0 (approximately)

I have posted before on the annoying problem of bats at my cabin.  With an entire forest to chose from they feel the need to use the rafters over my door as a latrine. They don't sleep there, which is probably wise on their part.  You are not supposed to take a tennis racket to them even when they enter your house.  But a home owner can only be expected to tolerate so much....

Hey, it is fine that they flutter around at night.  Kudos and my appreciation for eating all those mosquitoes even if they missed a few billion.  But there is no need for them to hang over my front door and excrete stuff that is indubitably obnoxious and at least in theory laced with rabies virus.

My prior attempts at Bat Deterrence have run the gamut.

I first just tried to cover the rafters in their entirety.  But that looked awful and made me wonder what other life forms might decide to take up residence in that cozy little vermin loft.

Next up was hanging little bags of moth balls.  It may have reduced the numbers of moths, but that was not the issue.

In frustration I sprayed liberally with wasp killer.  It is a potent insecticide and I figured if the bugs were gone the bats might go elsewhere too.  No go.  They are using my porch more in the manner of an unsanitary rest stop for truckers, not as a restaurant.

In desperation I tried to hang up ribbons of aluminum foil.  I was hoping to confuse their sonar navigation.  If they bumped their fuzzy little noggins together like hyperactive Three Stooges I would not have been disappointed.

It did nothing.  Or at least nothing I could perceive.  If the NSA is really eavesdropping on all of us I apologize to whomever was trying to pick up my WiFi signal.  You did not miss anything btw.

So eventually I just did this:

This is just thin, slippery plastic sheeting.  I used little tacks to put it up, a staple gun would be better and faster.  The bats need something they can sink their little claws into, and this ain't it.

A detail view.

Note that I have only run it out part way.  I am a reasonable man and will give the bats a little space so long as they do not excrete directly onto my Welcome mat.  And in exchange I expect ongoing work on those mosquitoes.