My meeting with Batman

[FADEC]

Tonight I was sitting in front of my computer, when I got interrupted by a strange noise next to one of my open windows (I live in an attic flat, and it's hot currently). I switched on the lights to have a look. My first thought was: butterflies. There are plenty of them in the hallway currently. But then I realized that something bigger than a butterfly is exploring my flat. It was very fast but relatively silent. It only created noises while touching the walls or window shades inflight. So it was obvious who had visited me: Mr. Batman :lol:

I never had such a visitor before (only hornets). So I started to worry how to catch the bat. It was flying through my flat like crazy. After a while the bat finally decided to take a break. Luckily below my computer keypad. So I only had to throw a towel onto the keypad, take a glass from the kitchen and catch Mr. Batman. Obviously it was a young animal. That poor cutie was breathing like a machine gun.

I took the chance to take a few photos quickly:

I took her out shortly afterwards.

Has anyone similar or "worst" experiences (bat invasions for example)?

 

[Codz]

Nice. Once, my cat dragged a living bird into my bedroom and chased it around at about 6:00 in the morning on a weekend. I'm not sure whether the bird or the cat scratched me more.:lol:

 

[Keatah]

A good number of snakes invaded our garage after being gone on vacation for several days. We shoveled them into a box and carted them out across town.

 

[dumbo2007]

A cow invaded my garden here. Very difficult to get rid of them . And yeah they dont scratch.

 

[Andy44]

Last year I walked down into my finished basement and back by the patio door where I park my bike I noticed something on the floor next to my bike. I walked closer and switched on the light, and it was a fairly large snake, inside my house! I have no idea how it got there; the sliding glass door was closed and locked, and there are no other entrances to that room, maybe it came up through the drain in the floor under the water heater, I don't know. I found a way to get the snake into a shoebox without getting bit or killing it, and when I walked outside to let it go, the creature stuck to the inside of the box and wouldn't drop out. I had to smack the bottom of the box to get him out, and he wasn't happy at all. During the process of rounding it up he struck at my broom several times. I let him go at least a block from my home, and told him he was lucky I didn't just kill him.

About bats: at my uncle's farm when I was about ten years old a bat came down the chimney pipe and into the wood stove in the living room. My uncle killed it. Farmers are less squeamish about that sort of thing than most of us. I thought that was overkill, but they had had lots of problems with bats. The old farmhouse needed an exterminator to get them out of the attic.

 

[jedidia]

I used to live in a pretty run-down flat for two years in Bosnia (with a petty thief as a landlord, now that was annoying. I had one of the local Mafia bosses as a landlord once too, but he never caused me any trouble...).

Anyways, I never had snakes, only blindworms, but scorpions in the bathtub were pretty common. There were bats galore, but never in the actual flat. I guess quite a few of them lived under the roof, which was easily accessible since there were plenty of holes in it.

 

[Kyle]

When I read the title of this thread, I thought you met this guy :lol::

 

[orb]

And when I read the title of this thread I thought you met one of the Orbiter veterans, John "MrBatman" Wilson (known here on O-F as JonnyBGoode). :lol:

 

[n122vu]

A good number of snakes invaded our garage after being gone on vacation for several days. We shoveled them into a box and carted them out across town.

Where did the snakes go on their vacation?

:lol: j/k

 

[Loru]

Where did the snakes go on their vacation?

:lol: j/k

I'm not sure but they certainly went by the plane

 

[Ghostrider]

I'm not sure but they certainly went by the plane

Uh-Oh. You shouldn't have said that.

Now he KNOWS who's to blame.:lol:

 

[RisingFury]

A few years back a giant moth flew into my room. I estimated about 15 cm across the wings.

 

[T.Neo]

What a beautiful creature! I don't understand why anyone would look upon such animals with disdain; they are adorable.

Bats can carry rabies though, so there's very good reason to be careful when encountering them (most cases of rabies today in the US are transmitted by bats). FADEC, if you suspect that you have been bitten or are otherwise concerned, you should seek medical treatment. Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms have set in, but post-exposure prophylaxis is highly successful if properly administered.

 

[FADEC]

What a beautiful creature!

I think it was a young common pipistrelle. She was very cute.

I think those animals are really awesome. Although I was shocked in the beginning, when I realized that there is a bat in my flat.

And I think I was very luckly that there was only one...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Tyb2RB0UU"]Fledermäuse zu Hause - Bats at home - YouTube[/ame]

I don't understand why anyone would look upon such animals with disdain; they are adorable.

People often look upon such animals with disdain sadly. Especially when relying on old myths and rumors. Like for example: wolves are deadly killer beasts (which is really nonsense). Or: hornets can kill you by one sting. Also nonsense, in case of European hornets. They are not more noxious than wasps, it's only more painful. Hornets do live in the attic above my attic flat in the summer. I never got a sting, nor are they aggressive at all (they don't even care about sweets like wasps do).

Bats can carry rabies though, so there's very good reason to be careful when encountering them (most cases of rabies today in the US are transmitted by bats). FADEC, if you suspect that you have been bitten or are otherwise concerned, you should seek medical treatment. Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms have set in, but post-exposure prophylaxis is highly successful if properly administered.

We'll know in about 7 days...

:lol:

In Germany it's not as dangerous as in some other countries luckily (like in the USA as you mentioned, especially vampire bats). We had only 5 cases of rabies since the 1970s. 3 of them came from dog bite during holiday in foreign countries (just as the majority of all rabies cases comes from dog bite). For 12 years there wasn't any case of rabies in Germany (on humans). And bats seem to stray in flats during the late summer quite often. So I think I don't have to worry.

I didn't have any direct contact with the bat anyway. I only was worried about the feces (I found 3 small droppings). But I already read that it's innoxious. It's a good fertilizer for flowers.

The only inconvenient thing is that they fly very close above your head and by your body. I got goosepimples during the first minutes, until I realized that she never touches me. It was interesting to watch how she avoided obstacles and navigated by her sonar.

 

[Artlav]

Bats.
Called flying mice here.
Only seen them twice - near a forest on Adriatic coast in the evening, flying above my head.
And in the catacombs of Mayan city of Yaxchilan, hanging on the ceiling.
That time, i took some pictures.

A mouse with wings indeed.
Looks cute, if you don't remember the vampire part.
Wouldn't want to be bitten by a "mosquito" this big.

.

 

[FADEC]

 

[Screamer7]

You are really a kind person FADEC.
I know a lot of people who would kill the creature without thinking twice.
And that is not so easy to do when in flight.
They have a very sophisticated radar and can avoid obstacles with ease.
BUT.....be careful.
They are wild animals.
They always carry some sort of disease, some which are fateful to humans.
If you handled one at least wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.
And if you were bitten or even scratched by them, don't hesitate.
Get medical advise.
It does not matter where you live.
To die of rabies is not a very pleasant way to die.

 

[FADEC]

You are really a kind person FADEC.
I know a lot of people who would kill the creature without thinking twice.

Yes, sadly. But this is due to misinformation. A lot of people think that bats are dangerous creatures, and all of them do transmit deadly diseases.

In fact, the most likely way to get rabies is from your dog; if he often strays in certain forests unobserved; or from dogs living in the wild or on the streets (mostly; i.e. by nearly 99%; in developing countries). In Germany there were only 5 cases of rabies during the last 40 years. 3 of them from dog bite in foreign countries (during holiday). So I think the concerns are a little exaggerated.

As a farmer you are used to have hundreds/thousands of bats in your cowhouses. I knew one farmer, when I was a kid, who said that they belong to the cowhouse than any other animal you can find in it and on the farm. I remember bunches of hundreds of bats hanging below the roof inside the cowhouses of the farm. They never were any issue to us or any other humans on the farm.

But in Africa it might be different though. It's a huge continent, with lots of regions where rabies can't be recorded and treated well. Same for India.

 

[Urwumpe]

No problem with bats, I like watching them fly past my balcony at night. you don't really see them until you adapted for darkness, but even then, it is just silent black spots flapping around quickly.

I also had one in my room some years ago... I simply used a jacket and then took it out with my hands... I wasn't bitten, the poor bat was already too winded to do that. It was soft, warm and smelled awful. But still, cute little animal.

 

[FADEC]

No problem with bats, I like watching them fly past my balcony at night. you don't really see them until you adapted for darkness, but even then, it is just silent black spots flapping around quickly.

The bats are indeed silent. I could only hear it when it was touching the walls or window shades. But inflight she did not create any noises with her wings.

I also had one in my room some years ago... I simply used a jacket and then took it out with my hands... I wasn't bitten, the poor bat was already too winded to do that. It was soft, warm and smelled awful. But still, cute little animal.

I probably could touch it as well, as she was exhausted. But I felt that the glass was a good cover. I didn't want her to fly around once again

But I didn't smell anything. The glass also didn't smell afterwards. I cleaned it very careful nevertheless, mostly for psychological reasons.