Omigod, I just found a dead BAT in my bathroom (long)

The BBQ Pit
1

Jesus Christ, I’m still skeeved out. I got home from the gym tonight and as I got into the shower, caught a whiff of something-not-quite-right. I finished in the shower and as I got out of the tub, I again caught a whiff of something-not-quite-right. So, being curious and not particularly interested in having something nasty smelling in my bathroom (no jokes/comments, please), I sniff the trash can–nothing. I sniff at the shower door runner–nothing. I poke around in the basket of crap (a/k/a girly shit) next to the tub–nothing. I MOVE the basket of crap (a/k/a girly shit) next to the tub and see…what? A little mat of fur about 3 inches long, WITH A LITTLE HEAD AND LITTLE STICK ARMS. Jeebus, I think, what the fuck is THAT? I look a little closer and at first I think it’s some sort of odd, flat, dead mouse but then I realize IT’S A DEAD FUCKING BAT AND IT’S IN MY BATHROOM AND IT SOMEHOW GOT CAUGHT UNDER THAT BASKET OF CRAP AND OH FUCK HOW AM I GOING TO GET RID OF IT???

Now, I’m female and I live alone and I can handle lots of stuff, but this really, really, really skeeved me out. But, there’s no one else who’s going to deal with this so I go get a plastic bag and some paper towels to pick it up and toss it. I go back into the bathroom and realize there is no way in hell I’m using my hand to pick that thing up, even with multiple layers of plastic between my hand and it and even though some sick little part of me is interested in seeing if the little stick arm will break if I pick up the dead bat by its little stick arm.

So I go back to the kitchen and realize I can finally put a spatula to good use. So I use the spatula to pick up the stiff little corpse, and toss the spatula into the bag with the stiff little corpse, because, obviously, there is no cleansing ritual in existence that will make that spatula suitable for its intended use ever again. On an only marginally related note, I know someone whose mother-in-law washes the toilet brush in the dishwasher, but that’s a topic for another thread. So I tie up the bag and toss it in the trash, and take the trash out, and now the DEAD bat is not in my house anymore.

My next thought, of course, is WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT THING COME FROM AND AREN’T THERE USUALLY HUNDREDS/THOUSANDS OF THEM? Here’s my theory–I live in an attic apartment but there is a crawl space over me. There is a big industrial fan in the kitchen ceiling–the kind that has slats that open up when the fan is on and that close when the fan is off. It’s been brutally hot so I’ve had the fan on a lot the past several days. The other night, one of my cats freaked out–she went running like a bat out of hell (HA!) from one room to another and finally into the bathroom, so I think the bat somehow got out of the crawlspace and into my apartment and the cat scared the shit out of it and it died under the basket of crap (a/k/a girly shit) that is next to my bathtub. Needless to say, I won’t be using that fan anymore. I can’t think of any other way it could have gotten into the apartment.

I have two final thoughts/questions:

  1. This really sucks because until this happened, I really liked my apartment but now I think I have to move.

  2. Are there any Dopers around Hartford, Connecticut willing to undertake dead bat cleanup in the future? I don’t think I can go through this again.

2

9.9 on the Rant.

And welcome to the Boards. :smiley:

where you been? you should post more often

3

As one who is at this very moment resting his legs on the subwoofer because a huuuuuge (really big! really!) spider went by a while ago, I can honestly say I understand.

The spatula thing you could work differently: we all understand that spatula would be ok after a few washes, but would never use it again anyways. Clearly, the sensible thing to do is sell it. (Actually, this makes more sense with vacuum cleaners, otherwise every time suction must be used to defend against the insect realm, expensive replacements must be procured.)

As for the fan, I (seriously…) recommend mosquito netting, or some sort of closely spaced grill. Or never turning the fan on during local bat hours. :wink:

4

I understand you don’t want bats in the living spaces. The mosquito netting is a good suggestion.

Take reasonable precautions, and keep your nice apartment. The bats in the crawl space are actually an asset to your neighborhood, as they eat a lot of mosquitos that otherwise would be giving you West Nile Virus.

Just watch out for the bats getting in your hair. :smiley:

(Just kidding! This never happens!)

5

Man, ‘bating’. When gerbling is just to pedestrian.

But I thought you were supposed to remove them BEFORE they died.

:slight_smile:

Hehe sorry couldn’t resist.

I’m hoping that you left a window open and our little bat friend tries to investigate your house, then had an unfortunate run in with the mirrior.

6

Well, if it cheers you up any, a bat got into my house a few years back. (Note: a ShopVac is excellent at bat removal. You can hear the bat pinging the inside of the Vac.) I was nervous for a while but no signs of any other bat visitors since. So it’s likely to be a once-in-a-very-blue moon occurence. Still, I would do the following:

a. Make sure the cat has its rabies vaccination. (No need to panic – the incidence of rabies in bats is very low, maybe < 1%. Still, better safe than sorry.

b. Go outside your house/apt. just before dusk and watch to see if bats are exiting your crawlspace. If so, you’ll probably want to get the landlord to patch up the entrance hole. Wait until they migrate later in the Fall before you do this so you don’t have any left-behinds generating that not-quite-right smell up in the crawlspace.

c. Make sure there are no other ways that a critter could get from the crawlspace to your apartment, e.g. unfinished closets or small holes in the plaster. Check for missing window screens, or holes in the screens.

7

You need to call your county health department to report the dead bat and will likely be advised to have the bat tested for rabies. Bats do not normally enter houses, and ones that do should be considered suspicious. It is unlikely you would know if you had been bitten, so unless you want to go through rabies shots, have the bat tested right away. Don’t mess around with this. Call.

8

Oh, more cold comfort. You’re not alone. Today’s Boston Globe (8/15/02 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/227/metro/Tired_of_all_this_heat+.shtml) had an article on the heatwave, including the somewhat horrifying line:

“And hundreds of bats left hiding places in sweltering suburban attics only to find screaming residents one cooler floor below.”

Which seems reasonable enough – I don’t know about bats, but I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t survive a full day in a 120+ degree attic.

9

My brother told me about the Globe article, so I don’t feel quite as alone. The cats have their rabies shots and I’ve thoroughly cleaned Melville’s (as my sister christened him, for some unknown reason) final resting place with bleach, which I’m told by my vet is sufficient. Mosquito netting is a great idea for the fan. Also, I’ve told my landlord about Melville but haven’t yet heard back from him about what, if anything, he’s going to do. Finally, Melville (and the spatula) are now resting peacefully in the local landfill so I can’t have him tested for rabies.

10

Seriously, KSO, a man just died in CA from bat-derived rabies - he killed a bat that was in his house, and swore that he never touched it. He died anyway. :frowning:

When the health department investigated they found a colony of bats (Mexican long-tailed fruit bats, I think) living in his attic. The other family members living there, two family members who had visited, and over 20 ‘social contacts’ are now taking the post-exposure shot series. Sorry I don’t have a cite handy - this was on the PRO-MED list a few days ago. I could look it up, if you’d like.

Please, please, don’t take this lightly - although human rabies cases are extremely rare, the fact remains that once you are infected there is nothing that can be done - you are going to die a horrible death. I think JillGat has the actual numbers somewhere, but there have only been about 6 people who have survived a rabies infection, and all of them had been vaccinated previously, plus received the post-exposure series.

Unless they do things differently in other states, the post-exposure series is not the painful nightmare it used to be - in Alabama you receive a dose of RIG (basically rabies anti-bodies, and the only injection that is supposed to be painful), plus three rabies vaccination spaced out over several days. My veterinarian took the series (for the nth time) a couple of years ago after treating a dog that was attacked by a rabid raccoon.

11

Wow. Well, last monday night, I had a run in with a bath in our house. It flew around the house, from the living room to the dining room, to the kitchen and back into the living room - just doing laps. Every time it made it into the living room, I’d scream bloody fookin’ murder. Animal control had to come out and they caught it and tested it for rabies. Just yesterday, I got a letter in the mail saying that it did not show any clinical signs of rabies. That made me feel much better, especially since one of the cats was jumping at it.

They are like rats, with wings. Nasty little things.

I think if it happens again, you should call animal control so the county public health dept can take a look at it; I’d imagine that your cat caught it and killed it. They are just nasty fookers.

Bat in the house less than a week ago - I completely understand.

We had a bat guy come out and he had us stand around the outside of the house around dusk because (according to him) that is when they are most likely to enter the house. He covered the top of the chimney with some mesh and went all through the attic and basement.

No bats since. Hang in there!

Tibs.

12

I don’t blame you - even if your bath is one of the molded plastic variety, rather than the heavy old-fashioned claw-footed kind, it would scare the bejeezus out of me too. They’re called ‘fixtures’ for a reason, and that’s that they’re supposed to stay put, not fly around the frickin’ house!!

Needless to say, there’s no way I’m coming out there to help you move now, Tibs. :smiley:

13

RTF, I just spoke with the bats (we have a rapport now) and they have agreed not to infest your home if you show up this Saturday morning to help me move.

See, they owe me for leaving out fruit and bowls of blood.

Yours truly,

Tibs.

14

I wouldn’t freak out about it. I mean, there are worse things than bats running amouk in your house.

I mean, have you considered that perhaps your landlord is psycho and entered your apartment while you were out and left you a macabre little present? And that maybe he also installed a camera and is watching you tippy-tap as we speak?

See, I told you there were creepier things than bats…

15

No, no. I’m perfectly OK with bats; I used to go caving a lot when I was younger. But until you come to a rapprochement with your flying bath, I’m staying safely on the east side of the Appalachians. :smiley:

16

Jesus, I didn’t even notice my earlier typo. Uh, yeah,…watch out for flying bath tubs in our house. I’m a doofus.

Um.

Still stands. If you don’t help me move, I’m going to tell the washer and dryer where you live.

Tibs.

17

This is a bit of a hijack, but my mom built and assembled a “bat house.” Like a birdhouse, but for bats. Hung next to the patio door in the back yard. AFAIK, no bats ever took up residence.

She also has an impressive skull collection. Weird woman.

18

I’ve been offline for a while because I bought a new computer. At any rate, Calliope and coosa freaked me out enough that I called my doctor who decided to play it very, very safe and so I’ve had the joy of getting rabies shots. In case you’re interested, this no longer involves a bunch of shots in the abdomen but now involves 2 shots of immunoglobulin (sp?) (which gets the immune system cranking) and a series of 5 shots of vaccine (brand name RabAvert) over 28 days. The shots aren’t bad but certainly better than rabies…

19

Hey, thanks for checking back in, KSO. I’m sorry you had to take the shots :frowning: but I’m glad to hear you’re okay!

20

I find that a tennis racket makes a good defense against “air-rats.” (Bats are air-rats, squirrels are tree-rats, rabbits are long-eared-rats.)

For some reason, the old, wooden, Bjorn-Borg-model tennis rackets seem to be more effective; perhaps it’s because, being massier, one can get a more destructive swing going, and really, it’s all about inertia, isn’t it? I mean, we’re dealing with mammals, and inertia (for some reason) strikes me as a very mammalian concept.

Or perhaps it’s because you can pick them up for fifty cents at the junk store; they’re disposable bat-swatters.