A Bat in the House!!

[AngieB]

Well, "The Bat Specialist" was a no-show, but "The Skunk Whisperer" came to the rescue. Super nice guy. Ned Bruha, totalwildlifecontrol.com. He inspected all around the exterior and went into the attic on a bat hunt. We still don't know where our little friend is now, but he found "minimal guano" in the attic. However, he said that not seeing them doesn't mean they aren't there. He has inspected attics and found nothing then staged a "bat watch" and saw dozens come out at dusk. They like to get into small tight spaces, so if there's just the one, then he'd be easy to miss.

My dad just came over and we moved everything in that room, went through the clothes in the closet, moved furniture away from the wall, looked everywhere....no bat. We hope/pray that somehow last night, he went back into the closet and into the attic again. I think that this evening, we will stage our indoor bat watch and see if he makes another appearance. If not, I'm just going to have to believe he is no longer in our living space.

We are going to have Ned "bat-proof" our home in the next few weeks. And when you "bat-proof" you also keep out the birds and squirrels. Which we have had problems with in the past anyway.

I'm feeling a little better, a little less jumpy, but I am still going to be very cautious in that room.

I need a nap.

[sauerkraut]

Where there's one bat, there has got to be more. Perhaps the room he was locked into has a small crack where they enter & exit/hide. I understand many bats can have rabies so care must be taken.... Getting bit by a bat could mean you'll have to undergo the rabies shot thing.[xx(]

[sauerkraut]

Hey- For what it is worth, I heard on one of those weekend home & garden radio shows that one way to get rid of bats, and I guess some other animals like squarls and birds is to play a boom box in the closed attic area. He mentioned the best kind of music to play but I forgot what it is. Maybe you can ask your pest control guy about that, or if he ever heard of doing things like that. it's also bad because bats will make alot of bat droppings and you'll have those droppings all over your house and attic.[B)]

[NellieBly]

http://www.batcon.org/bhresearcher/bv10n1-04.html

Here's a bat house for you. I don't think they like those little ones with slits that you can buy at home depot, etc. They prefer living in larger buildings.

[dbacks fan]

Prime Transmitters of Rabies
One of the most widespread misconceptions is that bats commonly carry diseases, especially rabies. Of the 30,000 humans that die from rabies each year worldwide, ninety-nine percent of these cases are due to contact with rabid dogs (Brass, 1994). Only a fraction of one percent of bats have rabies (Mazzotti and Brandt, 1990), and infected bats very seldom become aggressive as other mammals do. Up to now, only twenty-four people have contracted rabies from bat bites in the United States, largely as a result of picking up a sick bat (Gannon, 1992). One is more likely to die from food poisoning contracted at a church picnic than from getting rabies from a bat.

http://users.erols.com/nolan/vivian/bats.htm

[AngieB]

Thanks for that, dbacks. That is comforting.

I read earlier that 1/2 of one percent of bats have rabies. And with this particular bat which is a Large Brown Bat, you'd know it if you got bitten. Small Browns, you might not realize it, their teeth are very tiny.

[sauerkraut]

Yes but you never know what bat may have the rabies. That is why I like to avoid all snakes, I can't tell a poison snake from a harmless non-poisonious snake, so I play it safe and treat every snake I see as if it was poisonious. In fact there's rhyme about one coral snake and I still don't know if I got it right. The snake has color bands of red, yellow and black, if the colors are one way on the snake it is harmless, if the colors are the other way the snake is deadly.... The rhyme is something like "If red next to black snake is no friend of Jack, If yellow next to black he's a friendly fellow" or something like that. I forgot what is what. (I know I butched that rhyme-poem too).[B)]

[Tulsa Twister]

quote:Originally posted by sauerkraut

Yes but you never know what bat may have the rabies. That is why I like to avoid all snakes, I can't tell a poison snake from a harmless non-poisonious snake, so I play it safe and treat every snake I see as if it was poisonious. In fact there's rhyme about one coral snake and I still don't know if I got it right. The snake has color bands of red, yellow and black, if the colors are one way on the snake it is harmless, if the colors are the other way the snake is deadly.... The rhyme is something like "If red next to black snake is no friend of Jack, If yellow next to black he's a friendly fellow" or something like that. I forgot what is what. (I know I butched that rhyme-poem too).[B)]

If red touches yellow, kill a fellow, but if red touches black, then poison is lack.

The quickest way to tell the pit-vipers (we have 3 in this country) is to look for a triangular shaped head. But i agree in general that its a good idea if youre not sure or if youre fearful of snakes, to judge avoid them altogether. I wouldnt kill em, but either run them off or have the fire department remove them to another field nearby as snakes are very beneficial at controlling the rodent population which do harbor diseases that can harm and even kill humans.

Oklahoma is fortunate (in some case unfortunate depending on whom you ask) to have all four poisonous varieties as well as a host of non poisonous species like kingsnakes, ratsnakes, bullsnakes, garter snakes, greensnakes, watersnakes, cornsnakes and blacksnakes. But theyre doing there part to keep rodent/varmint populations undercontrol.

Australians have it the worst when it comes to deadly serpents. 4 of the worlds top 10 are found in the land down under.

[si_uk_lon_ok]

You're lucky. I have friends who have lots of bats in their attic and they are protected. It's a crime to kill, move, try to sell or disturb a bat in the UK. And the fine is $10,000 for each bat involved, the police can also search your land without a warrant if they think you maybe harming bats. They've got used to them though; you can sit out in their garden on a summer's night and not have a fly bother you.
I think bats are great, they are truly amazing and unique creatures.

[mr.jaynes]

quote:Originally posted by Tulsa Twister

quote:Originally posted by sauerkraut

Yes but you never know what bat may have the rabies. That is why I like to avoid all snakes, I can't tell a poison snake from a harmless non-poisonious snake, so I play it safe and treat every snake I see as if it was poisonious. In fact there's rhyme about one coral snake and I still don't know if I got it right. The snake has color bands of red, yellow and black, if the colors are one way on the snake it is harmless, if the colors are the other way the snake is deadly.... The rhyme is something like "If red next to black snake is no friend of Jack, If yellow next to black he's a friendly fellow" or something like that. I forgot what is what. (I know I butched that rhyme-poem too).[B)]

If red touches yellow, kill a fellow, but if red touches black, then poison is lack.

The quickest way to tell the pit-vipers (we have 3 in this country) is to look for a triangular shaped head. But i agree in general that its a good idea if youre not sure or if youre fearful of snakes, to judge avoid them altogether. I wouldnt kill em, but either run them off or have the fire department remove them to another field nearby as snakes are very beneficial at controlling the rodent population which do harbor diseases that can harm and even kill humans.

Oklahoma is fortunate (in some case unfortunate depending on whom you ask) to have all four poisonous varieties as well as a host of non poisonous species like kingsnakes, ratsnakes, bullsnakes, garter snakes, greensnakes, watersnakes, cornsnakes and blacksnakes. But theyre doing there part to keep rodent/varmint populations undercontrol.

Australians have it the worst when it comes to deadly serpents. 4 of the worlds top 10 are found in the land down under.

I think the rhyme is, if red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow; if red touches black, then you're ok, Jack. Thing about snakes is, it's best to err on the side of caution, and just don't mess with them, period.

[Breadburner]

Some numer 8's in a 410 shotgun should do the trick...If you don't have one of those try a raquette ball raquette....

[sauerkraut]

quote:Originally posted by Tulsa Twister

quote:Originally posted by sauerkraut

Yes but you never know what bat may have the rabies. That is why I like to avoid all snakes, I can't tell a poison snake from a harmless non-poisonious snake, so I play it safe and treat every snake I see as if it was poisonious. In fact there's rhyme about one coral snake and I still don't know if I got it right. The snake has color bands of red, yellow and black, if the colors are one way on the snake it is harmless, if the colors are the other way the snake is deadly.... The rhyme is something like "If red next to black snake is no friend of Jack, If yellow next to black he's a friendly fellow" or something like that. I forgot what is what. (I know I butched that rhyme-poem too).[B)]

If red touches yellow, kill a fellow, but if red touches black, then poison is lack.

The quickest way to tell the pit-vipers (we have 3 in this country) is to look for a triangular shaped head. But i agree in general that its a good idea if youre not sure or if youre fearful of snakes, to judge avoid them altogether. I wouldnt kill em, but either run them off or have the fire department remove them to another field nearby as snakes are very beneficial at controlling the rodent population which do harbor diseases that can harm and even kill humans.

Oklahoma is fortunate (in some case unfortunate depending on whom you ask) to have all four poisonous varieties as well as a host of non poisonous species like kingsnakes, ratsnakes, bullsnakes, garter snakes, greensnakes, watersnakes, cornsnakes and blacksnakes. But theyre doing there part to keep rodent/varmint populations undercontrol.

Australians have it the worst when it comes to deadly serpents. 4 of the worlds top 10 are found in the land down under.

Thanks for the info & Rhyme. I'll try and remember it now.. I'm not really fearful of snakes, it's just that I don't poison snakes from safe ones. The same goes for bats and other animals like racoons. I play it safe.

[sauerkraut]

quote:Originally posted by mr.jaynes

quote:Originally posted by Tulsa Twister

quote:Originally posted by sauerkraut

Yes but you never know what bat may have the rabies. That is why I like to avoid all snakes, I can't tell a poison snake from a harmless non-poisonious snake, so I play it safe and treat every snake I see as if it was poisonious. In fact there's rhyme about one coral snake and I still don't know if I got it right. The snake has color bands of red, yellow and black, if the colors are one way on the snake it is harmless, if the colors are the other way the snake is deadly.... The rhyme is something like "If red next to black snake is no friend of Jack, If yellow next to black he's a friendly fellow" or something like that. I forgot what is what. (I know I butched that rhyme-poem too).[B)]

If red touches yellow, kill a fellow, but if red touches black, then poison is lack.

The quickest way to tell the pit-vipers (we have 3 in this country) is to look for a triangular shaped head. But i agree in general that its a good idea if youre not sure or if youre fearful of snakes, to judge avoid them altogether. I wouldnt kill em, but either run them off or have the fire department remove them to another field nearby as snakes are very beneficial at controlling the rodent population which do harbor diseases that can harm and even kill humans.

Oklahoma is fortunate (in some case unfortunate depending on whom you ask) to have all four poisonous varieties as well as a host of non poisonous species like kingsnakes, ratsnakes, bullsnakes, garter snakes, greensnakes, watersnakes, cornsnakes and blacksnakes. But theyre doing there part to keep rodent/varmint populations undercontrol.

Australians have it the worst when it comes to deadly serpents. 4 of the worlds top 10 are found in the land down under.

I think the rhyme is, if red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow; if red touches black, then you're ok, Jack. Thing about snakes is, it's best to err on the side of caution, and just don't mess with them, period.

OK your reading of that little poem/rhyme is more like the one I remember, I remember the word "Jack" in the rhyme, but now I notice even your not sure how it goes. I always heard the rhyme say something like if (whatever color) touches (whatever color) he's no friend of Jack,  but if it touchs (whatever color) He's a friend of a fellow. They should of thought up a better rhyme for this snake so it would not be so easy to mix up or forget. I first heard that rhyme on a TV nature show. If I ever come across such a snake I'd need to keep far away since no one seems 100 percent sure how that rhyme goes-- Anyhow we are way off topic. Thanks for the info.

[mr.jaynes]

No, i got that rhyme from the father of a friend of mine who still to this day goes to all these rattlesnake hunts (I can think of better father-son activities, but to each their own I suppose), and has been bitten more times than Quaker has oats.

[AngieB]

UPDATE!!

The bat has been captured! He made another appearance tonight and my husband caught him in a butterfly net.

I don't know where he has been "hanging out" all this time, but it warmed up a bit today, so he got active...and now he is outside in a coffee can with the lid duct taped and some holes punched in the top for air.

The Skunk Whisperer told me that when and if we caught him, we would have to take him to the Health Department for rabies testing. It's highly doubtful that he has it, but we have to know.

Whew! I am so relieved now! I had pretty much convinced myself that he wasn't in the house, but there was a part of me not 100% sure.

Batgirl, out.