Bats!
By: Nancy | June 12, 2008 | Category: Home and Family
I’ve had so many bats in my house over the years, friends call me Batgirl. They’ve been everywhere:
- One was sound asleep on a wash cloth the morning I turned 34. Glad I switched on the light before putting it under the faucet to wet it down and soap it up. Happy birthday to me!
- When my neighbor Wally tried to help me rescue one that was scratching around inside my furnace, the little brown blur bolted out and Wally dove for the floor, hugging my ankles and screaming like a girl.
- Another once completed a perfectly synchronized, Blue Angels-style overhead maneuver with my pet cockatiel. The bird then hid in the bathroom while the bat played dead on the guest room curtains. Attempting to pull it down, I slipped off the bed, tangling myself and the bat in yards of green dotted swiss. We both screamed.
- And last week, I awoke to the sound of rustling on the floor and turned the light on to find a bat flying counterclockwise around my clockwise-rotating ceiling fan. I don't know which one of us was dizzier.
Bats squeeze inside this time of the year through cracks and holes less than a half inch in diameter. Since my first winged intruder, I've been hunting down and sealing gaps in the attic and around basement pipes and windows in my World War II-era house. After last week's bat, I filled a gap in my floor molding, where I’m guessing it got in.
A bat will usually get out if you isolate it in a room and leave a window open. But if you need to catch one, wear long sleeves and heavy gloves and wait for it to land. Slide your visitor off whatever it's hanging onto and into a lidded box so you can carry it outside safely for release.
If you've been bitten or scratched and the bat can be caught, contact your local health department or animal control center to have the bat tested for rabies. If it tests positive, you'll need to get rabies shots. Only a very small percentage of bats carry rabies, so don't panic when one gets inside, but do play it safe.
Here's some more info on bat myths, other ways to get them out of your house and ways to batproof your home to prevent future visits.
Swap stories with me. Have you ever had a bat in your home?
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My one and only adventure with some bats happened while I was painting one summer. I was painting by a second story window when I bumped the shudder by the window. All of a sudden a couple of bats flew out right by my head. It scared the living day lights out of me. I still to this day do not understand how I did not fall off of the ladder I was on.
Thomas
Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentI started screaming and ran out of the house. I threw my groceries in my car and ran to my neighbor's house. She was very kind (and lauging at me calling me a 'city girl'); she helped calm me down by making me a grill cheese sandwich.
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Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentThey surely do eat a LOT of pesky insects!
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Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentMy mother said she could hear scratching and said something was upstairs. They knew my mother was unhappy with the move and said she was heaing things. Then my mother saw something in the shadows. She said you better get up here. My sister and brother in law came up stairs and were ready to tell my mother that nothing was there. But when they turned on the lights, there were 2 small bats flying around. Needless to say, my mother did not sleep in that room that night. And next day my sister called for someone to fix the situation!
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Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentI haven't had any more bat sightings recently. But knowing my old house, I will again when I least expect it...
;)
Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentAfter using the tennis racket for my first few indoor bat encounters, I have taken to using a bowl and magazine to secure them and release outside.
I'm also wondering why the linked bat articles are archived under "endangered" when they are a very common critter.
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Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentLinda, I'd have screamed so loud if I found a bat in my washing machine! Did your aunt report whether it smelled "April fresh" when it came out?
And Bats Everywhere, all my neighbors swear that they don't see bats either. Why us? Some sort of animal magnetism?
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Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentIn what part of the country do you live? In the DC area where I am, the bats have migrated to Mexico or the Gulf states or are hibernating til spring. If you live in a colder area like I do, that may have been a hibernating bat that could have gotten stirred up if you went up in your attic or other storage area. If you live in the far southern US where bats are still out and about and you had an unusually chilly night, this guy was probably slipping inside to get warm.
I get my bat visits one at a time. They don't seem to roost in my attic in groups, happily. One will just get chilly or inquisitive and slip in somehow--and I've had my drafty old place checked and rechecked and sealed every place I could think of that they'd be getting in. I think these guys must know where I hide my spare house keys! :)
Check around your house in the daytime when bats are snoozing and go through your attic, basement, etc looking for and sealing up cracks or holes the size of your thumb or larger.
Good luck--let me know how it goes!
Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentWe heard a short flapping noise from one of the under-the-gable storage areas and figured it went in there through a gap in the door (this is a big gable where we can stand up in it). after searching we found nothing.
Could it have left ? maybe its still in there ? local animal control is useless.
I sealed the door to the room to keep it out of the rest of the house till I can figure out what to do. I am dreading the idea of sealing up potential holes in the roof (4-stories up!).
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Comment Permalink | Post a New CommentI would call the bat removal people back and tell them the bats are awake and you need them removed. If they won't do it, try calling animal control or another bat or pest abatement/wildlife removal company.
I'm not surprised that you heard the bat in the wall when you were in the tub. Walls that hold plumbing pipes tend to be a little wider and easier for them to move around in.
It's one thing to just hear bats in the walls or ceilings but it's another to have them flying around where people are.
Please check back and let me know how it goes for you and your family.
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