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Look out Joker, Riddler, Cat-Woman. I succeeded where you so often failed. Here comes "The Raven" for I got rid of that pesky rat with wings.
It started when I got up this morning. I slept downstairs, in what eventually will be "Little Sister Room". As I walked out into the hall my wife, who slept in our upstairs/too warm during summer bedroom was getting dressed.
I yelled, "How did you sleep."
She responded, "Pretty good accept we have a bird in the house. I heard him fluttering around last night, and when I got up around 4:30 to hit the bathroom, he flew right near me."
With that I felt a light feathery something touch my back, like a really big bug. I spun around wondering if it might be the bird Cindy was talking about.
Then I realized-- most birds don't fly at night. I didn't see anything. I went upstairs to get my clothes as Cindy explained how close this bird came, though she couldn't see it well without her glasses.
Our main room is large, with vaulted ceilings, and three walls made of stone. As I came down the stairs I watched as our visitor climbed the walls slowly.
It was not a bird.
What had flown around my wife at 4am, and what had fluttered against my back was...
a bat.
I watched as he climbed up the wall, perhaps limping a bit, searching for a safe hideway from the daylight. He was between the wall and an external wiring conduit that is the only way to legally run electrical wires on a wall of stone.
Slowly, calmly, without letting her scream, I explained the situation to my wife. She behaved quite well, and went searching for a butterfly net.
Luckilly we are a gun-free home, or she would have had me shoot it. The wasp spray I had just bought was another option (see my "Lucky" thread on why I now have an abundance of wasp spray), as was a water hose--but the bat's proximity to our TV nixed those ideas.
No one had ever got Sasha a butterfly net.
We still needed to get ready for work, wake Sasha up, etc. I hit the shower while planning strategy. Our ladder was outside. Combine it and a trashbag and the daylight starting to come in the house (we wake up at 5am.) and I should be able to catch him.
My wife was on the phone to her mother. She is an expert on pests and natural critters/plants. She was suggesting we call in expensive experts.
We closed doors and made sure Sasha was out of the bat's possibly flight path. I prepared to capture him--and he had moved.
I watched from too far away to see him do the disturbing "bat-crawl" under our couch.
Time to change tactics.
An old styrofoam bait container, and lots of furniture moving and I was ready. Yet that whiley bat had vanished again.
Cindy was taking the full responsibility of getting Sasha ready for the sitters, while I had half the house tore apart looking for a small brown bat.
Finally I moved a bag of unmatched socks that we had left in the living room in order to match them while watching TV.
One of the socks moved.
I didn't scream. I'm darn proud of myself for not screaming, especially for not screaming like a little girl.
More moved furniture and the mostly sleeping, harmless bat was boxed. Add a filefolder, then a piece of carboard, flip the box right side up, and I had Bat-To-Go.
I was "The Man" both to my wife and my son.
We have a big woods outside the house, where I took our non-feathered friend. With a dexterity that surprised even me, I released him back in the wild.
He may have hurt his wing flying inside our house, for he didn't fly off at once. Indeed, all morning he had done more crawling than flying. Still, he seemed well enough. He went one way and I another.
I hope he stays around the house. Bats are great mosquito eaters. I just hope he stays outside the house.
Come to think of it, I am not much better at this Super Villian thing than anyone I mentioned above. Sure I caught "the Bat", but in the end, despite my best laid trap, he did get away to fly another day.
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That's a great story, Dan_raven! Thanks for sharing...
And - I'm kind of new, so I got to read the 'Sasha Chronicles' (not sure what the story's really called) all at once. I picked up the 'Little Sister Room' reference... Are there more great, heart-warming adventure stories to come? : )
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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The whole "bat flying into Dan's back" thing triggered alarm bells in me, maui babe--that just isn't typical bat behavior. And if it was also having trouble moving...well, that isn't really a good sign either.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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What do I know - but - I'd say don't freak, but ask someone who'd know for sure what, if any, your next step should be...
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I suggest you call your local health department - someone in charge of communicable disease investigation would be a good place to start. Describe the incident, ask about the prevalence of rabies in your area (specifically in bats) and whether you should be concerned. They may refer you to a vector control or animal control branch for more information.
Ii can't tell from your profile what state you live in, but I can help you with health department contact information if you need it.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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While many of the rabies associated deaths in the past years have been because of contact with bats, that number is really quite low (from what I've been told by animal rescue personnel). Unless he Dan was scratched or bitten, I think he'll probably make it.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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You may want to look into having an expert come in and investigate how the bat got in and take care of the bat entrance. To say it showed up in your house at night says that it probably had a way in and others will follow.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Jan 2001
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I did this thing on a fairly regular basis in my teens. The bats were getting in through the unscreened vent in the bathroom. I got to be fairly expert at either shooing them out the back door, or scooping them up in a pool cleaning net. (We didn't have pool, but that's another story.)
I kinda feel sorry for the critters in a way. My mother running about screaming "rabid bat! rabid bad! rabid bat!" didn't help things any.
Posts: 196 | Registered: May 2005
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On the subject of bats + their eating habits... I went to Asheville last weekend and on Saturday night went to see Hamlet at an outdoor 'theatre'. There were bats flying all about because the insects were attracted to the spot-lights. It was pretty cool.
sorry for the side-track........
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I live in central Texas which has an abnormally high bat population. You are right when you say most bats are not rabid. I once heard it is something like 1 in a really big number like half a million but I can't find that info now. According to the CDC bats that aren't moving normally or have gotten into places they shouldn't be, like your house, are more likely to have rabies. But we get bats in buildings here all the time and most of the time they are moving funny because they have been hit by a door on their way in or they are injured in a panic while trying to get out or while being captured. I would make sure your pets are ok if you have them but otherwise I am sure you are fine.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Karl, how do you get them into the hat, and how do you keep them in it until you're out the door? I've been getting pretty good at bat catching, but I always use a shoebox, since it has rigid enough sides to scoop bats off of curtains/towels/showercurtains, and has a handy lid for keeping them from getting away before I'm outside.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:I went to Asheville last weekend and on Saturday night went to see Hamlet at an outdoor 'theatre'.
Pure coincidence: Last night I attended a Summer Shakespeare festival production (not a Shakespeare play, however) in a tent, something like a big top. Near the beginning of the performance, a bat flew in through the main opening of the tent, and one of the main characters (without breaking character at all) exclaimed: "BAT!" and then went on with her lines. It fit perfectly because the character is just plain batty. The bat flew over the audience and out the opposite side of the tent.
Nice to hear how many Hatrackers have an afinity for bats. I usually close doors to isolate the bat, open a window and wave a broom on the other side of the room until the bat flies outside.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Belle: I think bats are awesome and wish we had some around here (outside, of course!)
Aren't there things you can do to attract bats? Bat houses you can build or something?
You could move to Texas, plenty of them there MILLIONS AND MILLIONS.
When I lived in Malaysia we had alot of bats, and we liked em. They would swoop down and drink from our pool, and I am sure they helped keep the HUGE misquito population under control.
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We have tons of them here in the desert. I suspect, however, that they are all carrying tiny canteens.
Posts: 1167 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Excellent bat catching! In college, I lived in a very old house with a bunch of girls. I was the resident bat catcher. When we built our house in Dragonwood, bats got in regularly (until we blocked off the attic). We would just leave the windows open and they'd find their way out.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Dan, that's a great story. I'm glad your family and the bat all escaped unscathed.
I don't believe I've ever seen a bat in person. My parents' house in semi-rural Illinois has plenty of critters around, but I don't know if bats are common in that area. I've always been a bit disappointed by this because bats are neat.
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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