Bats! No Belfry.

Factual Questions
1

Last night I found myself in the middle of a real life horror movie. There was a BAT in my bedroom!

As I lay me down to sleep, around 1:30 AM, an unfamiliar rustling sound was keeping me awake. At first, I though something had probably taken up residence in the attic. But the more I listened the more inside-the-room it sounded. It was coming from behind the window curtain! I jumped out of bed and headed for the door. When I looked back at the window, at the top of the curtains, I saw a black, pointed shape briefly poke up. “That’s one BIG bug,” I thought.

I grabbed a can of flying insect killer and, from about half-way across the room, sprayed above the top of the curtain. A few seconds later a black lump fell to the floor and just lay there. I immediately thought, “That’s a frikkin’ BAT!” It was. It flew up into the air and began circling the room. I noted that, unlike a bird, which I would have heard fluttering, the bat made no sound.

Since it was circling consistently, counter-clockwise, in speed and position, after a few tries, I was able to knock it out of the air with a large towel. It stayed on the floor, motionless, and I captured it underneath one of those dollar styrofoam coolers.

I then jumped back into bed and went right to sleep.

Yeah, right!

After placing garlic plants above the bed and digging out an old crucifix to wear. I finally drifted off around 4:00 AM.

Thank you for reading this far. The question is, where did the bat come from? It may seem like a dumb question, but my windows have been closed and have screens anyway. It’s been in the 90’s the last few days so the apartment has been locked down very tightly. I’ve lived here 20 years and thought I knew every inch of every inch but somewhere, could there be a bat-sized hole I’m unaware of? I didn’t open a door since mid-afternoon. So WTF?

2

Hmmm…basements? Attics?

Or a door in a closet ceiling, leading to a crawlspace?

3

Did you open the door at night at any time over the last two days or so? If it didn’t come in through the windows, and it didn’t come in through a hole, it had to have come in through the door. The most logical time for that to have happened would have been after dark, when the bat was out foraging, and mistook your open door for a flyway.

ETA: assuming your apartment building has a main door to the outside, yes? Quite simple for it to have come into the vestibule, then have traveled to your door, and enter when you had it opened. As you noted, they fly silently, so you wouldn’t have noticed.

4

Kukri, holy water, coarse grained hawaiian salt, all within easy reach of the bed. That’s how I sleep soundly at night. Need me a gun and some silver bullets, but this is Soviet Canuckistan, so that’s not as easy as in 'Merca.

5

Bats can squeeze through an incredibly teeny opening. It could have been in the basement of the building and gotten into the duct work.

But if you’ve lived there 20 years and this is your first bat, I’d say it’s a fluke. Either that or they’re colonizing somewhere you haven’t discovered yet. :smiley:

We get bats in the house all the time. Old house + big attic = bats. The advice about turning out the lights and opening a door or window? Yeah, right. The one time I tried that, the bat ignored them and went straight to the basement. But I figured it would reappear the next night, so I was ready with a badminton racquet. Their “sonar” doesn’t detect them.

You don’t have to slam them. A light bop is enough to knock them down. Then you can either trap them with a bowl and slide a piece of cardboard under it or pick them up with a heavy glove (like a fireplace glove).

6

I’ve searched the living space high and low and can’t find an opening for a bat to gain entry. I have a utility closet that contains the water heater and air heating/cooling system plus a lot of stored junk. Because it has the air system in it, there is a four inch gap under the door. I’m going to take everything out of there tomorrow and inspect it for a bat hole.

The end of the story is; I took the bat, still in it’s styrofoam cooler (I’d poked holes in the top), to our family get-together, 20 miles east of here, today for show and tell. I found a clear plastic lid for the cooler so everybody could admire the furry little bugger up close. Late in the afternoon we put the cooler on its side on the driveway. After about five minutes of looking around and yawning at us (it was very cute) the thing took off into the air.

Heading west.

7

Are you, in fact, Hal Briston, posting in disguise?

8

Google tells me “Hal Briston” is a character in a Mafia game. Does he have bat problems too?

9

I’ve heard their saliva can transmit the rabies. And I’ve also heard that they pretty much ALL carry rabies. (Okay, I’m ultra paranoid about bats and the rabies…but it was a bat that gave Cujo the rabies.)

10

Not all bats carry rabies. In fact I would wager that most bats don’t carry it [no cite]. While they can certainly creep people out, let’s remember that they are beneficial in that they greatly reduce the insect population in your neighborhood. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where there are no bats. :slight_smile:

I have had encounters with bats in my house and it was usually because a window or a door was left open inadevrtently. You should have tried to capture it in a large cardboard box or other suitable container. Take it out to the backyard and release it. Sometimes just opening a door and forcing it in that general direction is all it takes. Trust me, the bat didn’t want to be there any more than you did!

11

Yeah…apart from the rabies scare thing, they aren’t so bad, I suppose. They’re almost kind of cute. (In the zoo. Separated from me by a thick piece of glass.)

12

Doper Hal Briston recently suffered a Horror in the Basement.