Looking out my Backdoor: Bats in my belfry

I was sitting on my front patio talking with my gardener, Leo, when a velvety brown bat fluttered between us and landed in a hollow metal rafter supporting the patio roof.

Ah, I had wondered if bats might be moving in. This morning there were figs on the floor below the bat perch. (Figs in full, figs in processed form, but identifiable by seeds.)

Several neighbors have false fig trees which drop a nasty fruit, not a true fig. Bats haul these fruits to their perches but drop some along the way. Operative word, drop. The tree is majestic. The fruit is messy, squishy and leaves a nasty stain.

Tha...