Had the third bat in my house since I've lived here. Was rudely awakened around 3AM by some fluttering just above my bed. Turned on the bedside lamp and sure enough, a rather largish bat was circling around the bedroom just a few feet above my head!
Ya, I'm no stranger to this. As I said it's the third time and for some reason they seem to like to fly up to my second story and get trapped in my bedroom. So I did what I have done in the past - got a broom from downstairs and went back up to perform some "batting" practice!
The thing was just doing laps around the room, and after a few swings I had it stunned on the floor. In the past I've used the broom to crush it first. This time however I wanted to see if I could get it outside, in the event it was still alive. They do eat bugs after all.
Got the bedroom wastebasket and put it over the bat (large sucker too - probably a 9" wingspan). Tried to pick it up with the broom over the top but it came back to life and started to fly laps around the bedroom again.
By now, my heart was pounding and the BP up several orders of magnitude, so I just retreated to a corner and took another couple swings at it. Felled it on the 3rd or 4th swing.
This time got it in the wastebasket with the broom on top and conveyed it downstairs and out the door where I dumped it on my driveway. I figured if it was alive at all it could fend for itself. If not, I'd dispose of it later.
By now it was clearly at least an hour earlier than I normally rise, but there was no way I could go back to sleep. So had my coffee and then into work. Still too dark to see if it was still where I dumped it. But didn't look to hard either!
Came back home in the light to find no trace of it. Hopefully it recovered from the bashing and flew off to do whatever bats do when they're outside.
The thing I'm always minded of is that they can carry rabies, so no way am I going to handle them. If they're in my house they are vermin, just the same as I'd regard a mouse or rat.
Now the question remains how they are getting in. 3 intrusions in like 17 years. So that's not what you might regard as high, but significant enough. For me at least.
After the first two incidents, I performed a thorough search of all corners of the house. Bedrooms, closets, bathrooms. Looked at every single stretch of space where there might be a crack in the area where the walls meet the ceiling and so forth. Nothing. Still nothing this time.
The only place left must surely be the gap in my fireplace insert flue pipe and the chase to the roof vent. Never really considered this until just today, but came home and got out a flashlight and discovered that there was a good 2" or so gap there.
Hard to believe that bats are making a colony in my chimney flue, but there again I only use the woodstove during power outtages in the winter months, and even then it may be years between using it.
So with this resolve, I got a roll of fiberglass insulation and proceeded to cut strips off it and stuff it into the gaps around the chase and the flue pipeing. I looked into expanding foam insulation at the hardware stores, but none of these were recommended for a temp beyond 450F. In fact most of them were far below that. Don't know what temps the flue temps get up to with a hot fire in the box, but better not to risk it.
Also got a fisherman's net. 2' handle and big net. So if there is a further intrusion I figure I can use this to catch the flyers and they'll get entangled in the net. I can then take them outside and release them without too much trauma.
"Catch and release" - now ain't I the grand PC one!!!
Just call me "Batman" from here............
Cheers,
RR
Ya, I'm no stranger to this. As I said it's the third time and for some reason they seem to like to fly up to my second story and get trapped in my bedroom. So I did what I have done in the past - got a broom from downstairs and went back up to perform some "batting" practice!
The thing was just doing laps around the room, and after a few swings I had it stunned on the floor. In the past I've used the broom to crush it first. This time however I wanted to see if I could get it outside, in the event it was still alive. They do eat bugs after all.
Got the bedroom wastebasket and put it over the bat (large sucker too - probably a 9" wingspan). Tried to pick it up with the broom over the top but it came back to life and started to fly laps around the bedroom again.
By now, my heart was pounding and the BP up several orders of magnitude, so I just retreated to a corner and took another couple swings at it. Felled it on the 3rd or 4th swing.
This time got it in the wastebasket with the broom on top and conveyed it downstairs and out the door where I dumped it on my driveway. I figured if it was alive at all it could fend for itself. If not, I'd dispose of it later.
By now it was clearly at least an hour earlier than I normally rise, but there was no way I could go back to sleep. So had my coffee and then into work. Still too dark to see if it was still where I dumped it. But didn't look to hard either!
Came back home in the light to find no trace of it. Hopefully it recovered from the bashing and flew off to do whatever bats do when they're outside.
The thing I'm always minded of is that they can carry rabies, so no way am I going to handle them. If they're in my house they are vermin, just the same as I'd regard a mouse or rat.
Now the question remains how they are getting in. 3 intrusions in like 17 years. So that's not what you might regard as high, but significant enough. For me at least.
After the first two incidents, I performed a thorough search of all corners of the house. Bedrooms, closets, bathrooms. Looked at every single stretch of space where there might be a crack in the area where the walls meet the ceiling and so forth. Nothing. Still nothing this time.
The only place left must surely be the gap in my fireplace insert flue pipe and the chase to the roof vent. Never really considered this until just today, but came home and got out a flashlight and discovered that there was a good 2" or so gap there.
Hard to believe that bats are making a colony in my chimney flue, but there again I only use the woodstove during power outtages in the winter months, and even then it may be years between using it.
So with this resolve, I got a roll of fiberglass insulation and proceeded to cut strips off it and stuff it into the gaps around the chase and the flue pipeing. I looked into expanding foam insulation at the hardware stores, but none of these were recommended for a temp beyond 450F. In fact most of them were far below that. Don't know what temps the flue temps get up to with a hot fire in the box, but better not to risk it.
Also got a fisherman's net. 2' handle and big net. So if there is a further intrusion I figure I can use this to catch the flyers and they'll get entangled in the net. I can then take them outside and release them without too much trauma.
"Catch and release" - now ain't I the grand PC one!!!
Just call me "Batman" from here............
Cheers,
RR
