LOUD industrial noise and banging have scared almost all the bat colony out of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, but Member for Kennedy Bob Katter is adamant the only way to properly fix the bat plague is mass culling.
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Almost all the bat colony in the gardens has been scared off, with all but about 10 taking flight in search of quieter digs.
Computerised recordings of loud industrial noise and banging sounds have been blared twice a day since last Monday in an attempt to displace the 5000 strong grey-headed flying fox colony.
While Mr Katter agreed the idea of bringing in excessive noise had its merits, he believes culling is the only permanent solution.
"If I was in charge in any town I'd find some way of getting rid of them, but if we have to play by rules, then I think we have to go to the noise," he said.
"But at end of day, if you get rid of them that way, they just fly back. There's no real way to get rid of them except by culling, and culling quite severely."
Mr Katter said in Charters Towers, owners on a secluded private property had effectively used the noise from a lawnmower underneath the mango trees where the colony sits, to scare the bats away.
"But in the meantime, government is going to put us all in jail if we cull them so we have to do something," Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter criticised the LNP Government for reneging on their pre-election promise to "get rid of the bats".
"It's got to be culling, all the new government said is what the old government said, and that is we'll give permits to move them," he said.
"Well, they said before the election that they would get rid of them."
Executive director of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Dr Brett Summerell said the noises had proved a success.
He said annoying sounds were played for about 45 minutes in the mornings and 35 minutes in the evening.
However, bat advocacy groups say more bats are expected to roost around September and October because of seasonal movements.
Bat Watch's Nick Edards said the bats are simply moving on to Centennial Park.
"The number of bats there has increased ... so it seems they've moved there (from the Gardens)," he said.
Dr Summerell said bat colonies did exist in Centennial Park but the bats removed from the botanical gardens had been tracked moving around the state.
"They're dispersing around the Sydney region, up the coast, all the way up to Queensland," Dr Summerell said.
"From the satellite tracking, we've seen they're moving to a whole range of colonies, not any particular location."
The botanical gardens will now focus on repairing trees damaged by the bat colonies and planting a new collection of palm trees.
