I was at a friend's house recently when a bat when flying around their apartment. There was more squealing and flailing than at your average slumber party pillow flight. Afterwards we all smiled sheepishly at each other and declared how awesome it was to shoo a bat.

Hope no one got bit.

No, arse, but that's exactly why I wanted him out of the house. If it weren't the rabies thing, he could've hung around a little longer.

Pun! I pun!

Miko, you wouldn't know a pun if it bit you in the ass.

;P

Miko, health departments generally advise a rabies shot unless you saw the bat fly in and out and it never touched anyone -- if you didn't see it enter the house, it might have bitten you in your sleep.

I had to do a story on this once, as I had an editor who was obsessed with how he had to have a rabies shot for this exact reason.

Oh, how cool. :D

I love bats. (But I understand why he couldn't sleep in the house.) In warm weather, we try to cook Sunday dinners out on the deck, and eat out there too... I always love watching the bats zip out of the woods behind our house, zig-zag around catching dinner, and then whisking back into the darkness of the trees.

When we first moved here, this neighborhood was PLAGUED by mosquitoes- I don't know if someone imported bats or if they just found their way to the bounty, but either way, it's a nice balance in that we get to have bats around but never really see mosquitoes.

How very goth! heh.

This is my only experience with bats.

I saw one flying around the hallway in the English-Philosophy building at Iowa--and there's tons of them roosting under a bridge in Austin, but I didn't see them. I tried calling the city's Batline last March, but didn't get any info.

Remember the Paula Danziger book?

Bats - "They Will Suck You Dry"

There's a rat in me kitchen, what I'm a gonna do?

yay ub40 reference!

The Bumblebee Bat or perhaps more correctly Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat, (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) is the worlds smallest species of bat at 29-33 mm in length and a weight of 2 grams (about as much as a dime).

I love sitting outside in the summer months as darkness falls, watching the bats swoop lower and lower, catching mosquitoes and moths for their supper.

Wow. If that bat was inside at this time of year, is it likely it has been inside for a while?

We had a similar experience this summer. The funny thing was we were watching an episode of Good Eats where Alton is acting as a therapist to a guy who is afraid of garlic. It is hinted the guy is a vampire trying to get over this fear. So we found it amusing that the bat chose that time to fly through our living room. We opened the doors and I eventually was able to shoo it (with a dish cloth) while turtlegirl stood at the entrance to the upstairs to keep it from going near there. When it finally left we found it amusing that by leaving the doors open we actually let the real blood-suckers in... mosquitoes.

We love watching the bats on our property in the evenings during the summer. And it is great to know they are around controling the insect population.

Sounds like you have an interesting evening.

I love bats, too. The first ones I ever saw were at my aunt and uncles' farm. I loved to sit outside and watch them swoop. There was an occasion when I saw a firefly light up the moment a bat snatched it up. When we moved here, I was thrilled to see bats come out at night. Sadly, I didn't see any last summer. Where are the pictures?!!
Oh, and on my first honeymoon, we were hiking in New Hampshire's White Mountains, and we saw a bat flying around in broad daylight. I know it was most likely sick, especially since it was a: daylight, and b: it stayed in the same 15 foot area, in circles. But I did manage to get a shot or two (pre-digital days).

We used to have a bat that lived over our back door at our old house. The cute thing was, it hung right next to a giant furry spider. They were best friends. I'm sure of it.

My daughter has suddenly become obsessed with StellaLuna, so there's been a lot of talking and learning about bats lately. She does a great bat impression, but her attempts to navigate the house using sonar have been decidely unsuccessful.

I like bats fine from a distance, but when they get up close and cozy I get nervous. The old farmhouse in Maryland where I used to live was full of them - they were roosting in an interior wall between my daughter's & stepdaughter's rooms. I asked the landlord to come plug up the holes but that didn't work out (actually, this is like my favorite story EVAR) because he and his handyman guy, a guy we called Ralph the Zinc because that's how he pronounced sink, came over and stood outside the house, staring at the holes. "That's where your bats are getting in." said Ralph helpfully.
"Yes," I said, "Now can you plug them up?"
"Why no," he said, "Can't do that. Too many holes."
"What do you mean there are too many holes?"
"There's too many holes up there to plug."
"But, if you start with one hole and you plug it and then you plug another one, soon there will be less holes. I mean, there's not an infinite number of holes."
"Nope, sorry, can't do it. Too many holes!"
Impasse. Actually the conversation went on a bit longer with mutual incomprehensibility on both sides. Eventually we built a bat house down by the edge of the woods and drove the bats out of our house with the same method that worked on General Noriega: a boombox tuned to the classic rock station turned up very loud and wedged against the wall while we went away for the weekend. Nothing can withstand the evil forces of classic rock radio.

f you didn't see it enter the house, it might have bitten you in your sleep.

Thanks, Brina! Now I really can't sleep.

After reading this quite informative CDC page on bats and rabies, I have decided not to panic. For one thing, I am pretty sure the origin of the bat was in my housecleaning yesterday. There is a door from my kitchen to the cellar, and I left the cellar door open for a couple of hours while I was getting things in and out. The cellar is quite dark with an earth and ledge floor and a very low ceiling. It is open to the outside via two bulkhead doors which fit rather loosely.

Now, we've had an exceedingly cold and snowy few weeks, and it doesn't surprise me at all that a bat would have taken up residence in the cellar to overwinter. I think it must have flown up from downstairs yesterday evening. There's really no other way it could have gotten it - my house is pretty well sealed up for winter, the walls are high, clean and white, and for lots of other reasons there just doesn't seem to be a way he could've been in the house too long without being noticed.

On the other hand, if I succumb to the foaming madness, it has been a great pleasure knowing you all.

Bats!

R.A.T.S.

I think I was on irc when a bat flew into my room this summer. Anyone who was in the room might remember how I nearly crapped my pants. We (i.e. not me, who was standing at the other end of the basement and hitting the deck any time it flew close) had to knock it out of the sky with a tennis racket. When the thing was on the ground and stunned, we took it outside and ceremoniously deposited it on the porch slab.

Freaked my shit out.