Bats Evicted After Church Tears Off Roof

Holy eviction, Batman! About 1,000 bats lost their home when a Central Valley church had the top of its roof torn off.

Parishioners at Central United Methodist Church had left the winged-pests alone for 10 years until the population exploded and they feared bat urine would soak into the roof and cause a stink in the sanctuary, said church administrator, Connie Edgecomb.

San Joaquin County environmental health officials ordered the church to get rid of the bats and work to replace the roof should be done by next week.

The Rev. David Bennett joked that the longtime home may have helped the oft-demonized creatures.

"Perhaps we've converted these bats so that they no longer are rabid, or we're making rabid Christians out of them," Bennett said.

The church's next plague? Termites, with a scheduled eradication in August.