IRE AS BAT BUGS BITE IN TOWERS
FED- UP Charters Towers residents are calling for immediate action to combat swarms of fleas and other insects attached to the city’s flying fox plague.
Joy Franks says her family’s home has been “bombed” with insecticide but they still cannot escape the lice and fleas engulfing the town. “The Premier should come and see the sorts of conditions people are living under,” she said.
Traeger MP Robbie Katter said Charters Towers was “under siege” and facing a serious health crisis.
Mayor Liz Schmidt has repeated her call for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to visit the town.
LIKE little monsters from outer space, insects from the bats in Charters Towers crawl up Joy Franks’ arm.
She said the house in which her nephew Barry Stanford and his partner Alison live with their son Josh, 6, had been “bombed” with insecticide.
“These things get into the house and they bite,” Ms Franks said. “The Premier should come and see the sorts of conditions people are living under.
“It is time they stopped putting bats ahead of people.
“They have to change legislation that protects the bats.”
She said Josh could not play in the yard.
“Both his parents work, so I’m looking after him over school holidays so he can get out of the yard,” Ms Franks said.
“The bats are in the big trees that overhang the house and the fleas, or whatever they are, drop down on to the roof and get into the house. You get dead bats in the yard.”
Traeger MP Robbie Katter said the government needed to act.
“Charters Towers is under siege,” he said. “It is facing a very serious health crisis. Undoubtedly the numbers of bats need to be reduced.”
He said there was “no way” the government could guarantee safe air quality in Charters Towers while the bats were there in the “hundreds of thousands”.
He said bat droppings filled the air every night the colonies flew over the city.
Ms Franks and her friend Linda Bredden said people were leaving Charters Towers because of the more than 200,000 bats.
“They don’t want to be here. They can’t stand the bats,” she said. “We are talking of leaving ourselves, but you wouldn’t be able to sell this house with the bats. We feel like we are stuck here.”
Charters Towers Mayor Liz Schmidt yesterday repeated a call for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk or a senior minister to visit Charters Towers.
“The Premier and her politicians need to understand the conditions people are living under,” she said.
“They won’t get that under- standing unless they come here and stand in people’s yards.”
Cr Schmidt said as much as she liked the idea of chopping down trees that harboured bats in residents’ yards, it was against the law.
“You can’t chop down a tree if it has bats roosting in it. That is why the legislation needs to be changed,” Cr Schmidt said.
Mr Katter said “outside pets” such as dogs and horses were at an increased risk of picking up deadly diseases such as Hendra virus.
“The State Government will be responsible for any person who gets sick,” he said.