Althouse: Bat trouble chez Althouse.

August 11, 2007

Bat trouble chez Althouse.

That hits a little too close to home.

10 comments:

KCFleming said...: In the 1970s we lived in a little rivertown in Minnesota. Bats aplenty, swooping and flapping in the trees, and always heard scritching and scurrying in the walls of our 100-year-old house. Occasionally, they'd fly in when someone opened the door, especially around 8 p.m., so one learned to sliiide out a little sideways, so the door was just barely ajar.

My mom was deathly afraid they'd fly into her hair, so for a kid to see Mom run screaming and waving her hands around her bouffant was kinda funny.

My youngest brother had to get rabies shots when he was two because we found a bat in the curtains of his room one morning, and little bites on his feet.

Ick and Ow.; 8/11/07, 9:12 AM
KCFleming said...: After that, though none of us played tennis, we had many tennis rackets around the house. One night, I killed three in our basement. It was a month before I went back down there.

Thanks for dredging all that up, Ann. Now I need to check the eaves.; 8/11/07, 9:15 AM
Meade said...: Isn't there a vaccine for rabies? Like taking a flu shot?; 8/11/07, 9:50 AM
Paddy O said...: I've had 3 bats in the house over the last four months. Happens every year. Do I get a news report about me? Oh, wait. I didn't panic. So maybe not.

Having had bats in the house before I looked into it. Juvenile bats like to explore. And as they can get into really small spaces sometimes that means exploration in a house. They are active and busy and fly in circles around the roof. They don't want to be caught in there.

Bats with rabies tend towards being lethargic. Don't touch a dead bat and don't touch a bat that's moving slow.

Do give them a way out. After this happening in years past I learned that bats want out. And because they are used to caves and enclosed spaces they know how to get out.

Now when I see a bat flying around I stay low (bats don't have a sense of personal space and tend to fly too close... Freaks me out!), and then open all the doors and the sliding glass door. The longest I've had a bat stay in the house after doing that has been about 5 minutes.

No insects inside.

What's weird to me is that the bats almost seem to pester me to let them out. They get my attention by flying above me (sometimes in another room) then follow me as I go to open the door.

They are much smarter than birds, who once in don't want out.

Yeah, bats carry rabies. So, there's a risk. Mice around here carry hanta virus. There are all sorts of dangers in nature.

City dwellers are so namby-pamby.; 8/11/07, 9:58 AM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/11/07, 12:54 PM
Kev said...: Yeah, that was pretty weird reading two stories of "Althouse bat encounters" in a row. This kid isn't a distant relative of yours, is he?

Re your post about the bat encounter: I was intrigued that you were able to catch a bat in a margarine container. Seems like the container would have had to be really bigl, or the bat really small...or you managed to get it to retract its wings all the way.; 8/11/07, 2:03 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Ruth Anne: Someone emailed it to me.

Kev: Bats are much smaller than you think. When they land and fold up their wings, they're like little mice.; 8/11/07, 4:49 PM
Goatwhacker said...: paddy all I can say is your bats are smarter than my bats. I've chased 3 or 4 out of the house over the years and they can't seem to find the way out nearly as easily as yours.

I chased one out onto our porch, closed the door to the house and opened the porch door to the outdoors. The next morning he was still hanging on the wall in the porch, guess he just liked it in there.

I now have a couple of butterfly nets I use. For all the talk about bats and their vaunted radar they're not that tough to catch. Wait until they light on the wall, put the butterfly net over them, slide some cardboard or something behind the net, take them outside and let them go.; 8/11/07, 5:12 PM
Kev said...: "Bats are much smaller than you think. When they land and fold up their wings, they're like little mice."

Yeah, I guess I've seen too many horror movies (and I didn't know that they retracted the wings immediately upon landing--blame the movies for that too).; 8/12/07, 1:57 AM
Tibore said...: Again?? What is it with bat infestations? Need I remind everyone of my own experiences with bat-kind?

(*Shudders*); 8/13/07, 9:29 AM