Monday, August 12, 2013

BAT CRAZY

So this weekend we went to the lake.  I was going to post about the trip, but something more pressing has perched itself on my mind.  No pictures in this post, and you'll be happy I opted not to include them.  Let me start from the beginning...

When we got home yesterday, we realized that our house alarm was beeping.  It wasn't going off in panic mode, though, and we hadn't received a call from the company, so we just turned the alarm off since no doors or windows were open.  The motion detector had been tripped, but we couldn't figure out what had set it off.  We both turned to look at the detector in the top corner of the room and saw something dark covering it.  Wade yelled, "Bat!", and we both ran out the back of the house.

It's just a mouse with wings, but the whole rabies thing is what really spooks me out about them.  Once you start showing signs of rabies, it's too late.  The vaccine only works if you take it before the virus hits your central nervous system.  I know it's a very small chance that you could get it, but it still scares me.

Anyways, we spent the rest of the evening calling my mom and dad to ask their advice, and my brother who is a doctor.  We finally got a hold of a pest control guy who came out and caught the thing after it flew all around the house, pooping and peeing.  Wade grew up on a farm, so is used to being around animals, but bats are one thing he will not deal with.  I don't blame him.  I wouldn't go anywhere near it.  I feel bad for guys sometimes, because we expect them to be able to handle all these icky situations that we wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

It's not over yet, though.  After the pest guy left, it was about 11pm.  We disinfected the droppings and pee areas 5 times and were feeling a little better that this was just a fluke and only the one got in.  (We think it got in through the fireplace since there was a hole in the flue.)  Wade went to use the downstairs bathroom and found a second bat flailing around in the toilet!!  Gross!  Our conversation proceeded as follows:

Wade: "Should I just flush it?"
Me: "You can't flush it! It will clog up our sewer pipes and then we'll have to pay thousands of dollars to dislodge a bat from them."

I laughed so hard throughout this conversation, since the whole situation was just getting ridiculous.  We live in an old house, so our pipes are already kind of blocked.  We have people out every year to snake them and keep everything flowing, so the image of them coming over to find out what's plugging the pipes and then pulling out a bat was too funny.

We knew it was contained in the bathroom, so we just taped up the door frame to keep it in the room and called Animal Control this morning.  Both times we confirmed that they were going to let the bats go far away from our house.  Apparently, our areas just has a large bat population.  I'm fine seeing them fly around at dusk and appreciate them eating mosquitoes, just as long as they stay outside.

We are now (hopefully) bat free and will fix all the possible entry points.  I still fear one is going to pop out of my closet, though, or be flying around my head when I sleep.  I know that's not rational.  They don't want to hurt us and are fine as long as we don't mess with them.  But seriously, bats, we pay a lot of money to live in our house (alone), so stick to the rooftops and trees outside.  The outside has much prettier scenery anyway and all the bugs you can eat.

Ever come home to a bat or other rodent?  How did you deal with it?

8 comments:

  1. OK...I would have loved to watch you and Wade run! I'm cracking up at the mental image. Sorry.

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  2. Agh! Bats are so creepy. I'm not a fan of rodents and bugs in the house. I'm fine with killing bugs, but anything bigger and I'm not going near it. My parents used to have a rat problem in their backyard and had these boxes that contained poison. The rat would go in, eat the poison, and then die elsewhere. A couple times Scout brought dead rats into the house ... so disgusting.

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  3. Yikes! I do love nature and wildlife, but I am a bit of a wimp and I like to admire it from a distance. The boys like to bring things into the house and right up to my face for me to fully appreciate. I squeak something like, "That's wonderful, NOW GET IT OUT OF MY KITCHEN!" Maybe you need to invest in a big bat net in case there's another one...

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  4. Kari, I feel for you, having to deal with all that as soon as you got home, but also, you tell a good story and I am sat here giggling to myself whilst my boyfriend keeps the kids I'm nannying amused with wii sports, curling. Life eh?

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  5. Ps, my parents and I had mice in our kitchen once, we just learned to put chocolate baited traps down before we leave on holiday now, they love chocolate! Unfortunately, mum doesn't go for the humane traps so it's a little disgusting to come into the room and find the squished mouses, poor thing. But like you say, stay outside little animals, it's much nicer out there. :)
    X

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  6. what a story! i cannot say i have ever experienced such an incident!
    lovely blog you have.
    xx

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  7. Remember the episode of The Office where Dwight catches that bat on Meredith's face and then they have the Dunder Mifflin Rabies Awareness Fun Run Race for the Cure (or whatever)? Well anyways, I'm glad you don't need any rabies awareness run after your encounter. I would have flipped too! Glad it's been taken care of!

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  8. Ah! When I read this on twitter, rabies were my first thought and I felt bad for you. You tell quite a story though and I couldn't help but laugh at "Wade yelled, "Bat!", and we both ran out the back of the house. " I would have too. You're so right in feeling bad for men and for women expecting them to be the tough ones all the time. We put so much pressure on them. I feel bad for them too. Your conversation with the bat in the toilet also seems hilarious but I totally get your irrational fears of more being in the house. I freak when any other living thing is in my house besides myself, my husband and my babies. The worst we've gotten though are crickets and a flying beetle type thing that scared the hell out of me. We used to have mice at my parents house and that was just awful. I shiver just thinking about it. I almost grabbed one once, I went to do laundry and saw what I thought was a sock in the washer and reached in to grab it only to have it scatter away from me. Ah! It was horrible. I screamed and couldn't believe I almost touched it!!!

    I'm so glad you got them out of your house and although I hope you can laugh about it now, I hope that it never happens to you again.

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