There's a BAT in my house!

[NancyDz]

So I'm sitting here on BYC and watching Letterman and I look up and a bat is flying around inside my house! I see them outside sometimes and I have doors that are split so I can have the top open . Well it's nice out tonight so I have the door to the front deck open on the top and the back door open ... so apparently a bat made it's way into the house and now it is flying around and almost hitting the fan....

 

[saddina]

Quote:
Turn off the fan, open the door, turn off the lights and it'll fly back out. We see about a dozen at sunset, no worries they're eating bugs.

 

[anngili]

Call animal control asap and get away from the bat! They're an extremely high risk species for rabies and if it's not flying with the rest of the bat colony, it may be sick. I'd open a door on my way out, if I was you. If it can't find its way out then with it's echo location, it probably is sick.
We have some big bat colonies in Austin and I used to work in the Animal Shelter and almost every bat they brought in had rabies. I try to stay well away from any lone bats. I like bats a lot; they're great, interesting, and beneficial animals but the rabies threat scares the heck out of me.

ETA: Forgot to add that here if you even pick up a bat (and don't get bitten) you still have to go through the rabies shot series. I think it's because they groom themselves so much and there's always a good amount of saliva on their fur and skin.

 

[danischi24]

You are lucky! They are such special creatures that do so much good.

 

[NancyDz]

heheee that's just what I did, turned off the fan as it was flying right around it... then I turned off the porch lite by the back door and creeped over to the couch ... looked up and it was gone! Phew! I like them but I was worried the fan might hit it and knock it on me.... I'm not interested in that up close and personal of an encounter. I'm not sure that would happen with their radar but then they dont encounter ceiling fans normally LOL It seemed to enjoy flying around and around the fan.

 

[saddina]

Glad it worked out for both you and the bat. He most likely was fishing for moths by the porchlight and came on in for snacks.

 

[anngili]

Whew! Glad you did all that and that it turned out so well! I think we are quite lucky to have lots of bats in the area; one bat can eat an enormous amount of mosquitoes and I have no shortage of those! It's also such an impressive sight when they come out from under one of the main bridges downtown that it's turned into a big tourist attraction, believe it or not. Check out this video on Youtube:

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Ah, found a better video:

 

[NancyDz]

Cool video , thanks for posting.

Last year I saw a cool program about a woman in TX somewhere that rescues bats and has an old building that a bunch live in. She
does a lot of education on bats and a lot has been learned about bats , researchers come from all over to see the bats.

Let me see if I can find the site I bookmarked...yep here it is...


Here's a website with the sanctuary, info about bat rescue's and tons of info... it' pretty cool .

http://www.batworld.org/wild_sanctuary/wild_sanctuary.html



It's in Mineral Wells , TX ...

 

[redhen]

Quote:
X2!!...I'm trying to get the bats back around my yard.

The bugs have been very bad since they left.

 

[NancyDz]

Redhen, you should hang a bat house. There are plans on that website I posted...

I see the bats outside everynight .. at least 5-6 flying around my back porch.... it's cool!