View Full Version : In which I learn something new about myself
Miss Cellane
6-3-12, 8:17pm
I'm in my 50s, single, never married. I tend to think of myself as a person who can Cope. The cat brings in dead mice, live mice, disemboweled baby rabbits, I Cope. The kitchen floods, the toilet overflows, the refrigerator dies, I Cope. I have my electric drill, my hand saw, my sewing machine, my cousin the carpenter who shows me how to fix things, and Super Glue--with all these things and more I can Cope with quite a lot. I can change a flat tire, a baby, the filter in my air conditioner, and the color of my hair.
Apparently what I can't even cope (with a lowercase "c") with is bats. Or even one bat.
One bat sent me flying out of the bedroom last night, without even stopping to grab my glasses. And I put my glasses on before I get out of bed and take them off after I"m in bed. I didn't realize the glasses were missing until I went on the computer to look up way to get the bat out of the house. Then I discovered I couldn't read anything on the screen. Fortunately, I keep my old glasses around and was able to find them.
I crept back into the bedroom, armed with leather gloves and a towel and wearing my long raincoat over my PJs, because somehow I needed armor to deal with the bat. Didn't see the bat. Opened the windows and screens, tied back the curtains and fled the scene. My cat was of absolutely no help. The mighty hunter, killer of mice, hid under my desk and would not come out of the office. This morning, there was no sign of the bat, but it could be hiding somewhere, behind the bookcase, under the bed. I *think* it is gone, because the cat is finally moving about the house again. But I'm leaving the windows open tonight and sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the office again, just to be sure.
And I've learned that sometimes, I don't want to Cope. I just want to curl up in a ball and let someone else deal with the problem. And yet I managed to cope (small "c"). Maybe not well, maybe not in the best way, but I coped.
Looks, bats are super creepy, the idea of them, anyway.
Some years ago our neighbor had one and calle dus in a panic late at night. It was super late at night and I wasn't going over to her house, but I told her to close her bedroom door. Surprisingly, later, she said that was good advice since she couldn't think clearly.
I wnet over the next morning and didn't really expect to see a bat, but there was one, huddled on her brick wall on the 3rd fllor.
She ended up called an exterminator since money was no object, and that took care of the bat.
OMG! I would freak! Check all over, Miss Cellane. Behind bed, under bed, in behind night-cabinets, closet, all over! Do you not have window screens?
It is amazing what one can cope with. As you get more comfortable with your experience, you will find that you may well relax somewhat with what did happen.
My question that you may have answered with the open window, is how did the bat get inside?
Congratulations on your coping skills in general, BTW.
You actually did the right thing to get all dressed up like that. I wouldn't get near a bat without leather gloves, and I'm not scared of any animals except centipedes. Bats are one of the most common carriers of rabies in North America. And rabies is no joke. Even saliva into a wound or possibly mucous membranes is enough to possibly get rabies - you don't even need to be bit. If you end up seeing the bat again, try to kill or trap it. To confirm if it has rabies they have to analyze the brain.
And then you get rabies shots. I was exposed once, and due to my profession I've had the pre-emptive rabies shots. As soon as rabies was confirmed in the puppy, the health department jumped into action, and dozens of people were called in to get post-exposure vaccines. Luckily I only needed 2. I think the general public had to get 4 or 5. It's a scary disease, and the general public doesn't often realize that an animal exhibiting any strange behaviour might be rabid, even if that abnormal behaviour is extreme friendliness or lack of fear.
Thanks a lot, Miss Cellane... now I can't get bats off my mind! :laff:
I was thinking back to my childhood, and how us kids would be out (fairly late into the night/evening) playing kick-the-can or hide-&-seek, and how we'd be nervous over bats. They always seemed to be in the habit of dive-bombing us! Getting too close for comfort to our heads/hair!
I love bats!
Really.
I took my college biology class under one of the premier bat experts...just because.
I was a cave guide...because of bats.
So many are dying from that white nose syndrome - so sad.
One little bat can eat over 2000 bugs a night.
Missouri has over 5000 caves so plenty of room for bats.
Tussiemussies
6-3-12, 11:40pm
Do also like bats but did also have the same situation as you. I couldn't find the bat but aftervavfew days it was behind my toaster in the kitchen. I asked a neighbor to gently put itin a box for me and then it was gone when I looked in the box again. We had so many bats when we lived there they would fly around over our pool eating insects and if we took a walk at night past the high school the outdoor parking lot light would be on and many types of moths etc so there were always many bats flying past the lights.
I think they are cute but was really scared when the one was in my house so I can understand how you feel.
Hope you find it too!
loosechickens
6-3-12, 11:46pm
It's such a shame that bats have gotten such a bad press.....because they are incredibly useful animals and a key component in our ecosystem. It IS true that many carry rabies, in some areas, so dead bats, etc., should always be handled with care, and touching them avoided, but most of our worries about them are unfounded.
If a bat somehow gets in your home and is flying around, turn off the lights, open doors and windows and it will find its own way out......they aren't going to get entangled in your hair, attack you or cause you any problems at all......honestly. That poor bat was way more scared of you than you were of it....if you were a tiny bat and (as usually happens), being pursued by giants wielding weapons swatting at you, you'd find humans pretty scary yourself.
As Float On said, so many of them are being endangered by the white nose syndrome problem, that we'd better hope (as with the honey bees), that we save as many bats as we can. There is no better mosquito catcher, and ADDING bat houses to your property and encouraging MORE bats to take up residence around your place is really the better option.
If more people knew more about how useful these little guys are, AND if there wasn't SO much association with the "dark forces", we'd have much more appreciation for them, and much less fear. JMHO
Another bat lover here, although I would probably prefer not to have one in my bedroom. When DH and I are on vacation in the Berkshires, one of our favorite things to do is watch the bats flying over Laurel Lake in the evening.
Miss Cellane: I'll echo Razz - your general coping skills are very impressive!
My poor newly widowed mother in law has had to deal with bats in the attic for about a year. Last year when it was in the 90s she called us totally hysterical (we are 600 miles away). Gave her instructions but I have to say having a bat fly at your hair would freak me out too.
She was crying so hard the exterminator made an exception and came out on Sunday to help her. They found out where they were getting in (hopefully) and she has not had one since. But I am staying in a hotel and not in the upstairs bedroom for this last trip before we move her here.
Bats...yow! My mother and stepdad used to live in an old home in SE Michigan that had plenty of bats. In the winter, they'd sometimes manage to get into their bedroom. One night, they woke up thinking one of the cats was playing on the bed, but in fact, it was a cat busy ripping the head off a bat! Another night, my mother went downstairs in bare feet, without turning the light on. Her foot slipped on something...crunch! Slip! She nearly took a header down the stairs and realized she'd lethally squashed a bat with her heel. Arghh!
Bats are fine…..in their place…..and their place is any place where I am not.
Ditto, Goldensmom. I love bats and what they do, but we each have our own place and I prefer to keep it that way...
I was just having a pleasant moment (laughing moment) thinking about the lyrics to Ray Parker Jr's song, Ghostbusters, and how comical it sounds reworking the ending of each verse to say, "Miss Cellane... bat-buster"! LOL!
Miss Cellane. Been thinking of you (non-stop) since you posted this. Did Mr. Bat, show up anywhere?
http://th1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/Robbert_Bapalapashamalamadingdong/th_smiley_bat.gif
I don't mind bats either, as they are really cool to watch. However, I do not want them in the house ever again. Twice in my life I have had bats inside...shudder.....
I loved really loved bats.Then one evening in the back yard of the home we owned at the time built in 1890 I was watching the wonderful bats flying out. Wow they just kept coming, how great!.....OMG they were flying out of my house! Bats can not be removed during certian times of the year so we had to move fast. I learned so much about bats! Then tent on the side of the house, was a bit embarrassing to me since it had to hang for a few weeks for the city so see. The "bat man" told me there are 3 Xs more then you can count in a colony generally. Too funny, the lady who was very elderly told me that her dad had fought with the bats when she was young. SO we kicked the bats out that had probably lived there since 1890. The city is full of them and my neighbor accused me of sending them into his house :)
Miss Cellane
6-6-12, 4:54pm
Mrs. M, I love the "bat-buster" idea. Now I've got that song stuck in my head.
As for how the bat got in, well, this house was built in 1900. It's a three-family house. The landlord has been changing all the windows in my part and the attic unit, as well as putting in a new dishwasher and refrigerator in my unit. So doors have been open, windows have been non-existent. There's no one living in the attic right now, fortunately, as the workmen found another bat up there yesterday.
There's a small park across the street from the house and on the other side of the park is a house that has a lot of bat houses in the back yard. So the bat may have come from there. My landlord is getting someone in next week to check out the whole house and make sure that no bats are nesting inside.
I think that my bat must have left through the open windows that first night. I stayed out of the room for another night and day and then inspected as best I could. The key factor in helping realize the bat must have flown the coop is that my cat came out of hiding and was willing to enter the bedroom. She spent a significant amount of time sniffing under the dresser, but is now willing to stay in the room. She's a pretty good barometer if there's danger of any sort about, and she was freaked out enough about the bat the night I saw it, that I'm now confident it's gone. (The cat just got a rabies booster 10 months ago, so I'm not worried about that. I will never again wonder why always indoor cats need rabies shots.)
Oh, Miss Cellane... that darned song has turned into an ear-worm for me ever since! LOL! I cannot get it out of my head!
Shivering, just thinking about all the open windows. Creepy-crawlers, bats... I hate anything inside the house that belongs outside. On a more positive note, I'm happy to hear Mr. Bat, was no where to be found. As kids, I remember we'd come across an occasional one every now and then, stuck to a wall or lying on the street.
They fly like birds with no sense of direction.
Miss Cellane
7-9-12, 9:33am
Ah, well, lucky me. There was a bat in the kitchen sink this morning.
This time, it was a bit more serious, because the bat could have been flying around in my bedroom while I was sleeping. I might have been bitten and not know it. So I had to trap the darned thing. Fortunately, the previous incident had taught me what to do.
I threw a towel over it. Then I put on gloves and picked it up, towel and all, and put it in a shoebox.
Then, at 5:15 in the morning, I called the state department of Public Health. Guess what? There's a real, live person on the other end of the phone, even at 5 in the morning. A nice gentleman from the Fish and Game department was here by 8:30 to pick it up and take it to the state lab. I should know by tomorrow morning at the latest if the bat is rabid or not. (He asked me if I wanted the towel back, as I had left the towel on the bat when putting it into the box. I assured him I did not.)
I have to say that I'm impressed with how fast and efficiently the people from the state handled this. They took it seriously, but didn't try to freak me out or make me more afraid than I already was. I had no idea that we have Public Health nurses on call 24 hours a day--or that they could be so cheerful at 5:30 in the morning.
This is one of those times when you see your tax dollars at work and you are happy you are paying those taxes.
Gardenarian
7-9-12, 12:04pm
Wow, how creepy! I really think you kept your head, considering the situation.
Let us know how it turns out.
And - it's always great to hear when our public servants are on the ball!!
Oh, no! And here I was hoping your bat problems were over.
Miss Cellane
7-10-12, 6:49am
So, to update.
The bat didn't have rabies, but it did have "white nose" disease, which is killing off a lot of bats in my area.
I got the news about 11 hours after I contacted the state, which I'm pretty impressed with. I had thought I'd need to drive to some obscure, remote part of the state to drop the bat off at the lab, and then wait for days until they got around to testing it. Instead, the Fish and Game guy came to my house and drove it directly to the lab. The lab called with the results mid-afternoon.
My poor landlady. She had someone out to look at the house after the first incident and they recommended some repairs to the chimney and to the roof. The chimney repairs are done, and the roof repairs will start next month. Let's hope after they're done, the problem is solved.
Grew up with a tennis racket under my bed for when the bats came into my room. Their sonar goes right through the strings so they don't know it's coming their way. As they are flying around the room a gentle wack will knock the poor thing out so you can sweep it into a container to set it outside to fly away when it wakes up. They we're gone by morning :)
Thankfully my parents did eventually fix the roof so they no longer entered my room in the middle of the night. They are the cutest little things and when we do settle down I hope to put up some bat boxes to give them good homes. Hopefully they'll eat all the mosquitos!
Many years ago, I woke up feeling a fluttering over my head. Turned the light on and it was a bat. I woke up DH and we both laid there freaking out. The bat flew into the living room. We dressed up from head to toe. We found it on our stone fireplace. DH killed it with a broom. I have always felt really badly for that, to this very day. I would never kill another bat. I would open up the door and guide it out.
Good news, Miss Cellane. Fingers are crossed.
Dhiana. What more can you tell me about bat-boxes? I like the idea.
CathyA. I'm the same as you. I don't fancy the dispatching alternative.
Miss Cellane
7-10-12, 5:57pm
I do feel a little guilty about the death of the bat. But from what I've read, the percentage of bats with rabies is on the rise. You can contract rabies from a bat bite, or even just their saliva. If you are asleep in a room and a bat is flying around, you could be bitten and never realize it. The current standard is that if a bat is found in a bedroom with a sleeping person (or a person who had been asleep while the bat was in the room), the bat needs to be tested for rabies. If the bat cannot be tested, the person is given the rabies shots to prevent them from developing the disease, at an average cost of $5,000 per person.
If you are sure that no one in your house has been in contact with the bat, and that includes just being brushed by a bat wing, you can catch the bat and release it. And make sure your indoor pets are up to date on their rabies vaccinations, as well.
Another fun fact from my reading is that some insurance companies will attempt to deny paying for the rabies shots, because technically, it is a vaccine and the insurance companies won't pay for vaccines. They'll only pay for the medication you need after you are sick. Of course, the only medication that works for rabies is the vaccine, and if you wait until symptoms show, well, at that point, it's a fatal disease and the vaccine won't help. And fortunately, most states have provisions for uninsured people to get the shots, and the companies that manufacture the vaccine have programs for people with no insurance and low incomes.
Bat Box info can be found on several websites such as with the National Wildlife Foundation:
http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Outdoor-Activities/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bat-House.aspx
I believe the kind of bats we get in the northern part of North America will like the bat boxes, and I absolutely love the idea of them being a natural pesticide consuming all those mosquitos!! If you decide to make some for your area let us know how it goes and if you get any bats hanging out :)
There is additional information at Bat Conservation International:
http://www.batcon.org/
I had no idea that we have Public Health nurses on call 24 hours a day--or that they could be so cheerful at 5:30 in the morning.
I just want to note that most of us nurses that are on-call at 5:30 in the morning are cheerful. We are trained, you know!
And I am glad that your bat did not have rabies.
Great! Thanks for the links, Dhiana! There's something that makes me feel warm inside knowing our squeaking little friends have a safe and comfortable place to call home.
Found a new bat-smiley for you, Miss Cellane! I love this one even better than the bat I posted on page 2!
http://ic.hobh.org/forums/images/smilies/1620862a04f4hqekd.gif
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