Bats in My Belfry - EEK

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

I love bats! I want to know how you guys are getting bats in your houses?

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100 year old house. Holes everywhere. They only need about 1/2" opening to get in. They take up residence in attics and crawl spaces.Usually bats that get in the living area of a house are either sick or juveniles. I've been lucky that mine haven't been sick just young and stupid. Anyway, how to safely catch a bat:
-one large Tupperware canister or other container easily managed with one
hand.
-one dustpan big enough to cover the opening of the container
-you may need a step ladder as well

When bat is first noticed keep an eye on it at all times. Turn on lights. This will almost always result in said bat landing on something because that is their nature. Note where bat has landed. Have somebody bring your bat catching tools. If alone get them yourself but leave lights on. If bat is gone turn the lights off again and wait...he will return. Approach roosting bat quietly. You will be able to get right up to it and it won't move I promise. In a controlled but quick motion place canister over bat pressing it tightly against the surface to which he is clinging. Very quickly slide the dustpan between the surface and the canister. You might have to slide the canister onto the dustpan depending on the situation. Do Not give the bat time to escape. Keep dustpan held tightly to canister and remove from surface. Ignore icky screeching and scratching sounds coming from canister as well as the flop sweat that will be running into your eyes. Open door to outside. Go out. CLOSE door to outside. Look for relatively soft spot in yard. Throw bat catching device at soft spot and RUN LIKE HELL back inside!!!! Next morning retrieve bat catching device from yard and disinfect with bleach. Fill with chocolate chip cookies to reward yourself for being so brave. Works every time.

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

I love bats! I want to know how you guys are getting bats in your houses?
I've never had the (good) fortune, and it's a good thing, my cats would probably kill the poor little things.

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By the way, Biciclista, you do realize that bats relieve themselves while flying around, right? PM me your address, and maybe I'll send you a nice little packet of what I clean up! :eek: Blech! That's my main objection to having them in the house, aside from my general freaked-outedness.

I found more this morning, so I guess there is another one lurking somewhere. Sigh. I WISH my cat would go after them! He's a lazy little lump. Yep, a lazy little 17 pound lump.

Sort of related:

was sitting out on the porch earlier tonight, and before the mosquitoes drove me inside, a big dragonfly (3-4") was swooping all around me scooping up the mosquitoes. It was pretty amazing, I'd never experienced anything like that before. It was almost worth getting all bit up...

We had one in our cabin in the middle of the night. I got up to use the potty and it stared me down from the floor. It followed me to the bedroom, crawled under the door (I watched it come from beneath the door with a flashlight), and flew around our room.

I woke my husband up who, while in his underwear, caught the bat with a child's butterfly net and released it outside. Who says chivalry is dead??

He recently put 2 bat boxes up behind our house. I wonder if he's looking for another opportunity to charm me??

First of all, Flybye, that is the creepiest story I have ever heard! Having a bat follow you, and even crawl under the door to be near you - clearly a vampire stalker. That is, a vampire that is stalking you, and not a bat that is a stalker of you, who are a vampire. Just to clarify.

So a little while ago there was an EEE EEE EEE noise coming from the woodstove. The kitty was camped in front of it. That can only mean one thing. DH found a box, and I slowly cracked the door open, to find 2 of the little critters hanging right in the corner of the front face. One escaped into the stove, and the other crawled up and into a crevice of the stove. DH was able to reach in (with a tube sock over his hand - his method of choice for mouse retrieval) and grab the one and release it outside, but the other is on the loose. He'll come out sometime, but we couldn't flush him out. I was already pretty sure we have one loose, so now there are 2.

Waaaaaahhhh! Why is there no sobbing smilie? Sobbing and shrieking like a little girl? And maybe shuddering uncontrollably. The frownie face just doesn't cut it sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Skierchickie

First of all, Flybye, that is the creepiest story I have ever heard! Having a bat follow you, and even crawl under the door to be near you - clearly a vampire stalker. That is, a vampire that is stalking you, and not a bat that is a stalker of you, who are a vampire. Just to clarify.

So a little while ago there was an EEE EEE EEE noise coming from the woodstove. The kitty was camped in front of it. That can only mean one thing. DH found a box, and I slowly cracked the door open, to find 2 of the little critters hanging right in the corner of the front face. One escaped into the stove, and the other crawled up and into a crevice of the stove. DH was able to reach in (with a tube sock over his hand - his method of choice for mouse retrieval) and grab the one and release it outside, but the other is on the loose. He'll come out sometime, but we couldn't flush him out. I was already pretty sure we have one loose, so now there are 2.

Waaaaaahhhh! Why is there no sobbing smilie? Sobbing and shrieking like a little girl? And maybe shuddering uncontrollably. The frownie face just doesn't cut it sometimes.

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I would have lit the stove. I don't care that it's 90 outside.

So I left the top part of a window open last night, not realizing that it only had a half screen on the bottom. :o

I woke up at 4 a.m. to a scrabbling sound. Normally in my house that means a mouse, and that freaks me out, because IMO there are not many things more disgusting than a mouse running across my sleeping face.

I turned on the bedside lamp, which would normally cause a mouse to freeze, but the scrabbling continued. Then I realized where it was coming from ...

Poor bat couldn't find her way out even though the window was wide open. She was flying in circles around the bedroom, obviously getting tired, stopping to rest on the ceiling fan for a few seconds but not nearly long enough for me to think about herding her or throwing anything over her. I eventually just opened the screen in the adjoining bathroom and waited for the bat to fly in there, then closed the door, put a bedsheet across the crack at the bottom of the door, and went back to sleep.

Before I opened the doors wide this morning I made sure to check the lamps, shower curtain, edges of the medicine cabinet, everywhere I thought a bat could hide. Apparently she found her way out. :)

We bought a bird net at a pet store - got pretty good at swooping them up in the net, and taking them outside.
On a rafting trip a number of years ago, we didn't bother to set up the tent and slept under the stars. Morning 1 - woke up when a frog landed splat on my cheek. There were thousands of them, all about 1" in diameter and hopping everywhere. That was freaky and neat.
Night 2 - woke up to see giant butterflies hovering everywhere in the middle of the night. I quickly realized there were dozens of bats instead. That was freaky and neat.

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Originally Posted by Muirenn

How do you know it was a girl? ;)

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So many people just automatically call an animal "he."

I'm using the generic feminine. :)