A COLONY of millions of flying foxes is wreaking havoc in the community of Surat and residents want them out of their town.

The flying foxes are making life a misery for residents with their noise and droppings and the town water supply is also a concern for the locals.

Surat community member Kevin Watson said there is a colony of bats camped mainly over where the water supply is on the river, giving rise to concerns about community health.

"We're just trying to get together to see if there is a solution to either shift them on or to protect the health of the community and that is what we are after," Mr Watson said.

"We spoke to the council and some complaints have been made to the council but we've been informed that it is not really the council's area, it is more the National Parks and Wildlife's area.

"Where we go from here I'm not sure but the council would have more chance with the National Parks than we have."

Mr Watson said the town would like to see the colony shifted away from the water supply.

"I know the environmental lobby would probably have something to say if you tried to smoke them out but there has got to be a solution somewhere and we don't have the expertise here to come up with that," he said.

"Whose toes will we be treading on if we try something on our own?"

Surat Caravan Park and New Royal Hotel/Motel owner Don Thom said there had been a lot of complaints about the noise and the smell and as the bats flew over they were dropping faeces on vans and cars.

"The noise early in the morning with the screeching wakes everybody up and they are right over our water supply and their droppings are going right into our water supply," he said.

"The whole town smells of the bat poo all over the place and also you find the dead bats in your backyard.

"I've had a lot of complaints from the caravan owners that come and stay in our caravan park getting poo all over their vans."

Mr Thom said Nationals Parks should try to move them on.

"They only have to be 10km down the river and they won't affect anyone," he said.

Maranoa Regional Council has increased water testing of the Balonne River in Surat following the settlement of the flying fox colony.

Maranoa councillor Jan Chambers said the council would continue increased monitoring of the water over the warmer months to ensure residents had clean and usable raw water while the colony was settled there.

As flying foxes are a protected species, the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection has a damage mitigation permit process in place for the peaceful management of bat colonies.

"Council is currently investigating this option in an effort to move the bat colony along as quickly as possible," Cr Chambers said.