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Down Under
Bats no match for fruit bazooka
2006-06-28
THREE mischievous teenagers used a fruit-firing bazooka in a Melbourne park, endangering a colony of protected bats, a court was told today.

The trio used the 2m homemade weapon to fire oranges at a colony of grey-headed flying foxes at Yarra Bend Park, in Melbourne's east. But the shots were heard by a group of golfers who dobbed the young men in.

The teenagers sat sheepishly in Heidelberg Magistrates Court today as their solicitor Andrew Robinson pleaded with the magistrate to let them off lightly, saying: "Boys do what boys do." Jonathon Welst, 19, of Kew, Alexander Tulloch, 18, of Templestowe, and Samuel Hall, 18, of Balwyn, faced seven charges including disturbing wildlife, and six charges under the Victorian Firearms Act.
Posted by:Oztralian

#28  Someone mentioned bats in the attic. Sorry, but chase them away. Bats carry fleas which first breed in large numbers in attics and then move throughout the entire house.

Posted by: Anginens Threreng8133   2006-06-28 23:27  

#27  Hummmm..... Ima think TW is really Margaret Farquhar.

A friend of bats.
Posted by: 6   2006-06-28 18:08  

#26  LOL tu, you might git put in the sink for that!
Posted by: RD   2006-06-28 17:03  

#25  A "fruit bazooka"? Nevermind using one, just saying that around here would get you in some serious trouble...
Posted by: tu3031   2006-06-28 16:53  

#24  big or small I really like most critters and bats are no exception that rule.

But there are certain critters that do BUGS me. For instance parasitic assholes that fly, like mosquitoes, biting flies, biting knats, kissing bugs, walipi tigers, and a number of other jungle unknowables that sucked the blood and then took off. Leaches aint much fun either but at least they haven't learned to fly...YET..

Although I've been nailed by bees, wasps, yellow jackets, scorpions, spiders, and various ants they don't bugs me so much... huummm.

It's the BLOOD SUCKERS [hummmm, Kofi Annan?] that hunt humans for their next meal that I despise!

recapulation: BATS are professional killers of bugs that suck blood and fly.

in conclusion: So Bats is kool and do Rule But should NEVER be confused with moon-bats!

Posted by: RD   2006-06-28 16:31  

#23  safer than a chupacabra!
Posted by: Frank G   2006-06-28 15:48  

#22  Thanks tw! My bad, got a slow connection here. By the time my comment registered, you already posted! ;)

Will look them up and start slapping them together early next year!
Posted by: Swamp Blondie   2006-06-28 13:25  

#21  Lines one, two and three of my post #19 contain the links, Swamp Blondie. At least, that was my intention. Happy hammering!
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-06-28 13:02  

#20  tw, could you post a few links? Wanted to build one for the new hacienda next year.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie   2006-06-28 12:51  

#19  Bathouse links
homemade
the enthusiasts at Bat Conservation International
the pros

Finally, according to the BatCon.org FAQ page,

What are the odds that a sick bat will endanger my family with rabies?
Fewer than ten people in over 50 years have contracted rabies from North American bat species that commonly live in bat houses. Like all mammals, bats can contract rabies, though very few do (less than half of one percent). Unlike many other animals, even rabid bats rarely become aggressive. They quickly die from the disease, and outbreaks in their colonies are extremely rare.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-06-28 12:06  

#18  Rabid flying rats.

Yeah, I'm won't be fooled anymore, I've seen "Cujo" and all.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-06-28 11:49  

#17  Rabid flying rats.
Posted by: 6   2006-06-28 11:47  

#16  I love bats. Used to have some in my attic. We used to sit at dusk and watch them drop and fly. You could get a flashlight and watch them mass to make the drop out of the thin opening. They'd be all sleepy, yawing ....so cute. But yes, they stink peeyew! Finally had to put the one way net on the opening so they could get out but not back in.
Posted by: 2b   2006-06-28 11:19  

#15  'jim, I just thought that was Iraq. ;)

RD, I would actually wear my kevlar upon entrance/exit of my hooch based on that very reason.

TW - my wife would claim up to age 33 for men :)

wx - ohio blue tips?
Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-06-28 11:09  

#14  My buds and I put hundreds of the stick match tips (no longer available) into a spent CO2 cartridge and launched it from a pipe.
It penetrated a house several blocks away, but left a smoke trail back to us. We scattered before gathering trajectory data.
Posted by: wxjames   2006-06-28 11:03  

#13  Skidmark, recent research shows that it takes to the age of 25 for the human brain to mature, giving up the poor impulse control of childhood. This was indeed a real, "Here, hold my beer!" activity -- but the boys I knew when I was that age were just as likely to do such things at eighteen as at fourteen, and at eighteen they had enough math and physics to make their little projects much more interesting. Admittedly we were East Coast university offspring (not one of the expensive ones, unfortunately, but the principle still holds), which means we were much slower to mature than even normal English-speaking kids, but still.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-06-28 10:51  

#12  despite their reputation of being able to use their sonar flawlessly the critters used to crash into us often enough when we would enter or exit tunnels.

it used to drive us...

/not really, we was already bats.
Posted by: RD   2006-06-28 10:04  

#11  Did you notice a funky smell comming from the area directly below the bats Broadhead? They are cute and usefull, but damn, those little bastards stink to high hell.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2006-06-28 09:33  

#10  I love bats. When I was in Iraq I had a whole load of them living outside my room up in the cement fissures of our old iraqi barracks. I would have to time coming back at night and out the door in the morning for fear of walking through the lot of them coming to and fro from hunting excursions.

12 or 13 yr old kids I could see doing this. These 18 or 19 yr olds need to get a life. $300.00 & a letter seems fair to me. In the future these losers should find some girls to chase w/their "fruit bazooka".

Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-06-28 09:11  

#9  The bats are just an excuse to make what they did sound worse. Hell, if there had been endangered crayfish in the park, they would have said the cannon was disturbing them.

If they were serious, they should have emphasized how such cannon can explode and cripple those who are firing it. The bats thing was just being PC.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-06-28 09:00  

#8  This witch would croak if she knew what we used to do to crayfish. But not when I was 18. More like 12.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-06-28 08:49  

#7  They must be friends of the dude with the spud gun.
Posted by: Steve   2006-06-28 08:44  

#6  ReRead please. Even accepting the natural immaturity of the english, these fellows are old enough to be in the army firing real cannons.
Posted by: Skidmark   2006-06-28 07:38  

#5  Much safer than the Marbles we used to fire with out home made "firecraker cannon" We found some embeded in the asphalt a block and a half away. Now the firecrackers are illegal mand necessity is the mother of invention.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2006-06-28 07:13  

#4  TW,
I heartily second that.

I pity the kids growing up in todays nanny state. If all of these laws were in place when I was growing up I'd prolly be locked up for life.
Posted by: DanNY   2006-06-28 06:41  

#3  Wait until Bruce Wayne learns about that, theses boys sure will remember the spanking to come.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-06-28 05:45  

#2  Much as I adore bats (if anyone is interested, I'd be happy to post links for plans to build properly researched bathouses), to me this falls under the "boys can't help being boys" heading. Not every mischievous bahaviour need be criminalized.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-06-28 05:36  

#1  One deep bush job that I had required using deisel fired lighting, which attracted thousands of bugs. It was fascinating to watch bats skillfully picking off flying insects at will. Bats are much more productive than the Oz brats who intimidate that useful creature.
Posted by: Omaiting Clutch9925   2006-06-28 04:29  

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