NSW Farmers executive councillor Reg Kidd said a large colony had taken roost at the southern end of Cook Park.

“They have taken up in three large plane trees,” Mr Kidd said.

He said they were clearly visible from both inside the park and on the Kite Street footpath.

“There’s a hell of a mess under the trees.”

Mr Kidd, who monitors the bats in Orange said they appeared to be the same species that were in the park in December but then left.

He said some were spotted near cherry orchards last month.

“The cherries have all but finished. I haven’t had any reports of too much damage for a while,” he said.

However Mr Kidd said the apple picking season was now only a couple of months away and farmers were concerned about the bats.

He said a few bats had been spotted in trees near Duntryleague but they did not seem to be roosting there.

Mr Kidd said they had not returned to trees in Ploughmans Lane where a colony roosted before Christmas.

He warned people not to touch bats as they carried the potentially harmful-to-humans lyssavirus.

“Particularly with this heat if any of the bats, or pups, fall to the ground, do not touch them.”

If you see a bat on the ground you should call the Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) on 1300 094 737.

Apple grower Peter Darley said he did not believe the bats had left the Orange region.

“They are a major problem to the apple industry,” he said.

“They don’t pick one apple, they pick a dozen apples.

“They knock apples off the trees as they fly through the orchards.”

Mr Darley said netting protected apples from the bats but it was expensive.

“It costs about $10,000 a hectare. I have 25 hectares. It’s a lot of money.”

He said orchadists were hoping for rain as their crops began to ripen,

“We’d like a couple of inches of rain,” he said.

“We could be picking galas by the third week of February.

“But we may not get them till the first week of March.

“It is very much a lucky dip at the moment.”