I have (had) a bat in my house

[Abraxas]

OK, I'm playing AVP2 - aliens and alien 3 are on TV - when out of the corner of my eye I see what I think is a big moth. I live in Michigan and we have a couple varieties of big moth here. I think nothing of it. Then it flutters by again in my periphereal vision - and it doesn't quite look right, so i get up go into the hall and ITS A FREAKIN HUGE BAT. RIGHT AT FACE LEVEL. All I could think was Face Hugger, bout had a heart attack.

I'm mean I've seen some pretty big bats (for Michigan that is) but not at 1 foot from my nose! This thing had a 12 - 15 inch wingspan - thats enormous for a Michigan bat (must have been some kind of mutant), and its really huge for a bat in my spare bedroom.

Took me the better part of twenty minutes of opening and closing doors and windows to get it outside. Then I think I see another one - so I've spent another 20 minutes checking out the house for open windows and more bats.

Now I can't play anymore AVP cause I'm jumpy and can't shoot straight.

Just had to say this and get it out of my system.

 

[Ashwyn]

Yikes. If you find another one, you should keep it as a pet and train it to fight off other bats that might seek to enter your house.

 

[Ferret]

Good thinking. Maybe they've made a nest in your house and choosen you as a master. Next time take some pic?

 

[Abraxas]

Well I've spent part of the day looking and I can't find anymore mutant super bats. If I see another one inside I will try to gets its picture - If, for no other reason, so I can look it up online and find out what kind of bat it was.

I can now go back to playing AVP2 and avoiding face-huggers onscreen.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I had an encounter with a bat once. I was doing my radio show at school when I saw a bird or something flying around in the next room. I shrugged and continued doing my thing, but kept looking up. And then I realized it looked more like a reflection, so I turned and there was this big honker bat flying right at me. It ended up being about a foot above my head. So big wussy that I am deep down, I pack up all my stuff, turn the radio station transmitter off, and go home.

Still, bats are the only animal I cannot stand one iota.

 

[dream66_]

Heeheh, I like bats, fruit bats are cute in their own way.

I played a bat in a Gamma world game.

Whatever you do, don't hurt the bat, they are covered under migratory animal laws and possibly endangered species.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

My parents have a colony of ~100 in the roof of their house. Creepy, a pain in the butt and they're a protected species over here, so no moving them on. Used to get them in the house quite a bit and they are freaky!

Couple of things to try if you get another one:

Throw dishcloths, t shirts or other light cloth over them. Can then bundle them up and release them outdoors. Doesn't seem to do them any harm as long as your careful with them. Funnily enough, waiting till they land is easier than mid flight, unless you're some kind of ninja.

If you can get them in a room with a stereo. Try turning the thing on and off a few times. The 'thump' the speakers makes seems to upset their balance and I've seen them get disorientated... much easier to catch. Could have been a coincidence, but it has worked a few times.


If you think they're bad during AvP, try watching a few late night vampire movies.

 

[Voadam]

My parents house used to be invaded and colonized by bats for a couple years when I was in college. It turns out everyone in my family (six of us then) except my father and me are phobic about bats. So I'd go up with a tennis racket and clear them out until I figured out to slide the cover of a shoebox so that I could trap them when they were sleeping and release them outside or donate them to the Audubon society. Later I worked for the Audubon society and did animal demonstrations for kids programs, some using the bats I had caught in my own house which was pretty cool.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Couple of things to try if you get another one:

Throw dishcloths, t shirts or other light cloth over them. Can then bundle them up and release them outdoors. Doesn't seem to do them any harm as long as your careful with them. Funnily enough, waiting till they land is easier than mid flight, unless you're some kind of ninja.

Yep, this works fine - they wear themselves out and will stop to rest if you can pen them into an area and keep them moving (trying to avoid you). You just need to hope they aren't rabid. I've caught several using this method, one at an old job and for some reason at both of the Bed and Breakfast's I've ever stayed at. Got a nice thank you from the owners for one of them. The bottle of champagne is still sitting on the hutch of my computer desk as I write this.

 

[rbingham2000]

When I first saw the little bastard on the floor in my room the other day, I thought it was one of those little birds that Max (my cat) likes to take down now and again, and I was set to chew him out for it once I was finished with taking it out -- if you're going to kill and eat stuff, do it outside!

It could only squirm slightly when touched, it was on its stomach and its wings were folded much like a bird.

Except for two things:

1. Birds usually have feathers, and it would have left some around my room.
2. Birds don't have ears or fangs, as I found out when I got a pair of gloves to take it outside -- and the shape of the wings when they're at full spread is unmistakable.

Yep, it was a BAT. Turns out the little bastard must have gotten sick or something before or after coming down the chimney, which accounted for why it couldn't fly, though how it got into my room is anyone's guess.

Taking my shoe and putting it out of its misery was out of the question. I don't use my shoe on anything bigger than a cricket or a cockroach, especially when the area in question has a carpet, and getting bat blood out of my carpet would have been a serious hassle -- and I sure as hell wasn't touching that thing again. Period.

Dad's usually the one who takes care of bats in the house, because neither my mom or my aunt who lives across the street are very good with bats at all. Dad was out helping another relative with some hauling work over at Fort McCoy, so he didn't get home and get rid of the little bastard until about an hour or so after Mom got back from work.

The way it ended was that Dad put the bat up on one of the trees for the birds and bugs to finish off.