bat guano???

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Messages 1 - 19 of total 19 in this topic

skywalker1

Trad climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 9, 2017 - 05:23pm PT

I don't have a photo, tried google and I got Black Canyon, but if you climb cracks you eventually run into this weird black slimy stuff that you avoid at all cost. What is it really? I have had many partners that refer to it as "Bat Guano". I'm not a bat expert but I have never seen a bat in these locations. My only conclusion is its water seeping and over time you get this black slimy looking "bat guano".

What is this sh&t?

S...

If I had a Grad student I would put them on it immediately...

the Fet

climber

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

Oct 9, 2017 - 05:31pm PT

Could be a night roost. A place bats go to rest at night, but don't hang out during the day.

But more likely slimy dirt.

Fossil climber

Trad climber

Atlin, B. C.

Oct 9, 2017 - 05:39pm PT

If it is, potential for histoplasmosis, which probably wouldn't kill you but might make you wish it did.
Much more likely if it is dried and you inhale the dust.

They often produce huge amounts of guano in caves. How they manage to sh#t upside down I don't know and I'd rather not. Please.

Crazy Bat

Sport climber

Birmingham, AL & Seweanee, TN

Oct 9, 2017 - 05:51pm PT

Bats roost durring the day. Not knowing the crack in question I cannot say. If it is bat quano they would be high in the crack and you might hear chittering noises from them. They can fit into really small cracks. I would suspect it is more likely bird quano if it is quano at all.

Bat quano tends to be small pellets, smaller than grains of rice. It doesnt stick to vertical serfaces very well. Those big piles in caves form from thousands of bats over multiple years, thousands of years, in some cases. You can slice into the piles and see layers.

Bird quano on the other hand comes out as slime. I have parrots, I know bird poo.

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific

Oct 9, 2017 - 05:58pm PT

Had a good friend and his lady, messin about in caves in Chile and contracted Histoplasmosis. as Wayne stated you do not want to have to deal with this. Massive amounts of IV antibiotics for a start..........

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Oct 9, 2017 - 06:09pm PT

Y'all are just not willing to wait for the bat guano. Seriously. Bat guano is like fine wine -- it takes time to mature.

Sure, fresh batshit might have all kinds of horrible fellow travelers that will make you sick or kill you, but if you have the patience to wait a few centuries, or maybe millenia, then you're in the plus, not the minus.

Do I know what I'm talking about? Damn right. Way back in the dark ages I worked on a fire crew in central BC. Looming above our camp was a rock wall. So I had a friend ship my climbing gear up, dragooned one of my firefighting mates, and headed up.

Probably not a climb that's going to get written up in Alpinist, but a decent little 3-pitch rig, with a cave belay at the top of either p1 or p2 (can't remember which)...

The anchor was tying off a pillar of petrified bat guano. Shiny brown, smooth as marble, and hard as rock.

the Fet

climber

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

Oct 9, 2017 - 06:32pm PT

Don't let fear of disease lead you to think bats are bad. Bats eat tons of harmful insects including mosquitoes and are important for a healthy ecosystem. If you see a bat in a crack or your house don't kill or harm it.

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Oct 9, 2017 - 06:45pm PT

hey there say, skywalker1... very interesting share, here...

thanks... leads into more interesting 'learning' info, too... for folks...

:)

and, perhaps more adventures, :)

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 9, 2017 - 06:50pm PT

Do not discount Ghost's perspicacity when it comes to the gourmand delights of vintage guano, be it Chiropterae, Mustelid, or Rodentae produced.

drF

Trad climber

usa

Oct 9, 2017 - 06:59pm PT

Histoplasmosis is an excellent ol'school route on Mt. Lemmon.

Guano is an extremely effective food plant fertilizer.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Oct 9, 2017 - 07:35pm PT

When Jeff Mathis took to gardening at Sunset Inn, he created a monster by mixing in concentrated bat doo-doo with his irrigation water.

I don't know how he came by the sh!t, but it stunk the place up pretty good but not as bad as his pigs, Porky & Spam, whose pen was placed WAY TOO CLOSE to his cabin.

Chaz

Trad climber

greater Boss Angeles area

Oct 9, 2017 - 07:44pm PT

Tastes like chicken ... sh#t.

Crazy Bat

Sport climber

Birmingham, AL & Seweanee, TN

Oct 9, 2017 - 07:51pm PT

Histoplasmosis is a fungus. Antibiotics do nothing for it. The most effective treatment used to be the same a tifungal they give you orally for toenail fungus. It is rare to get it. A mild exposure to it rarely results in problems. Some caves (rare), older style chicken houses and pidgeon roosts are the primary places it it caught.

I dont know what was rigged to, bu I doubt very much it was petrified guano. It was far more likely a stain from their urine on stone if it was from bats. Why an animal that can sh#t upside down winds up leaving urine stains is beyond me and I have seen them doing both. LOL

Contractor

Boulder climber

Oct 9, 2017 - 08:50pm PT

Rattlers will hang out pretty far off the ground in those bat sh#t stained cracks looking for a snack.

G_Gnome

Trad climber

Cali

Oct 10, 2017 - 08:38am PT

Some of those are centuries old rat guano too, usually wood rats. They live in the crack and keep pushing it out to the edge forever and make some of those dark brown goo piles.