AN ELDERLY couple say they are being driven batty by a gang of squatters making regular night-time flights into their homes.

A colony of pipistrelle bats made their home beneath the roof tiles of a terraced house in Milhoo Court, Waltham Abbey, two years ago.

The winged invaders, which are the size of a 50 pence piece when asleep, have gradually grown in number and started making late-night commutes into neighbouring houses.

But homeowners in the cul-de-sac are unable to take action to shift the pests - because UK law makes it an offence to capture or kill a bat or even to disturb its roost.

Josephine Whithear, 70, said she was regularly pestered by the creatures entering her home through open windows at night.

She said: "One got in my bedroom so I thought 'right you little sod, you're going downstairs'. I managed to get it downstairs.

"I got up the next morning and I could still hear it somewhere.

"Eventually my son found it asleep in a vase.

"He took it out, but in the evening I had a cigarette. I came out in the garden, went to put on my coat and a bat flew out of my sleeve."

Miss Whithear's 71-year-old partner Harry, who has emphysema, is recovering in hospital after slipping while trying to fend off one of the bats in the middle of the night three weeks ago.

"He went to flick it away from him and as he did he's fallen and he's cracked his hip," she said.

"Now I'm by myself, he's in hospital, you're just listening for every noise."

Miss Whithear is on good terms with the owner of the infested house, but both are at a loss as to how to control the bats.

"Because they are a protected species you can get fined £1,000 if you kill one," she said.

"We've got to get something done."

Heather McFarlane, of the Bat Conservation Trust, said: “Bats and their roosts are protected, so even if the bats aren’t there, their roosts are protected.

“There’s been a huge decline in bat numbers over the last century, so we have got to try to look after them where they are.

“If you find a bat in your house, make sure you’ve got gloves and a tea towel.

"If it’s on the ground and not flying around you can scoop it into a shoebox with some holes in and maybe a little bit of water in a bottle top, then release it at dusk.”

• If you think bats may be roosting in your house, call the trust’s helpline on 0845 1300 228 for advice.

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