Unwelcome roommates flocked to Central Campus this summer.
Bats invaded apartments and dorms, forcing students to evacuate temporarily to prevent the transmission of rabies. No strangers to Duke’s campus, these bats proved to be a problem last summer as well. The ominous creatures that usually make an appearance for Halloween celebrations migrate from the Duke Gardens and Durham area from late April through the middle of August. Last summer, they created such a disturbance that Housing, Dining and Residential Life had to evacuate 1914 Lewis during the second summer session.
“We did a lot of preventative maintenance work on the roof and exterior after last summer,” said Assistant Dean for Central Campus Terry Lynch. “The frequency of incidences has definitely gone down.”
Along with the additions to housing, HDRL created a standard protocol for any student who encounters a bat in their dorm. They immediately contact either the office or the RA-on-call and vacate the space. Instead of using Durham Animal Control, Duke now pays a private pest control company to capture the bats.
“We couldn’t predict the timeliness of [Durham Animal Control],” said Lynch. “Sometimes it was one hour, and sometimes it could take them six to eight hours to respond.”
They send the bats to Durham County for rabies testing, and if the results are positive, the student is contacted immediately. However, a student has yet to catch rabies from one of these instances.
Despite these preventative measures, the bats did return again this summer to Central Campus. Late one night, sophomore Peggy Li, who lived on Pace, was surprised to find a bat on top of her suitcase. With help from a neighbor, they captured the bat and released it outside.
“Even after thoroughly searching the rest of room and apartment, I was very jumpy that night and for a few weeks afterward,” Li wrote in an email.
This was the first of three (maybe four) incidences in Li’s apartment alone, and finally HDRL sent a maintenance worker to fix the problem, sealing all gaps where a bat could slip through.
So to all those who plan on staying at Duke for the summer—beware of the bats.
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