A Louisiana university has closed one of its buildings temporarily after becoming infested with thousands of bats.
Ken Alford, the interim dean for the University of Louisiana at Monroe's College of Health Sciences, confirmed Sugar Hall has been closed after the bats first spotted in the building's vents about a month ago started wandering into classrooms, halls and offices.
"It is a nuisance more than anything else right now," Alford told KNOE-TV. "Once they're in, they are hard to get rid of, and they can fit through the smallest cracks."
He said pest control personnel tried to bat-proof the building, but they were not successful.
"The team came in and provided some exits for the bats, the hope was, or for the company, was that the bats would exit for the evening and not be able to get back in," Alford said. "But that was not the case."
The building has now been closed until all of the bats can be evicted from the facility and the air quality can be assessed. Officials said the process is expected to take about two weeks
Upi
