# The Flying Mice are out early... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 30, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589 "2006-07-30T00:02:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pixisis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@Pixisis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixisis)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/21 "2006-08-01T22:22:52Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston] “Dusk! With a creepy, tingling sensation, you hear the tingling of leathery wings! BATS! With glowing red eyes and glistening fangs, these unspeakable giant bugs drop onto…” [/QUOTE] [Susie Derkins] Bats aren’t BUGS ! [SD/off] ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/22 "2006-08-02T13:10:22Z")
[QUOTE=indecisive1] I have a big group of bats living in my attic. They _are_ really cute, much like little mice with wings like to OP states. Every year, in July, a number of them find a way into the house so I have to catch them to put them back outside. Bats do not like being caught. They prove it by showing their pointy little teeth. They don’t look much like mice when they do that. [/QUOTE] Our neighbors in the house we used to live in (in Little Rock) had to evacuate their house for several months because of a bat infestation. I don’t know the specifics (it was before we moved in), but the bats somehow caused structural damage and made the house dangerous to live in. I would check it out. Re: the OP I thought dusk was when bats always came out? The do here…we have fruit bats with wing spans up to 3 feet! They’re huge. One lives in the tree next to our house. Very cool. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/23 "2006-08-02T14:28:31Z")
Not all mice fly at night. Some do it during the day…[IN HEROIC STYLE!](http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~pds24/images/mighty%20mouse/MM%20flying.gif)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/24 "2006-08-02T15:00:06Z")
[QUOTE=Renee] Our neighbors in the house we used to live in (in Little Rock) had to evacuate their house for several months because of a bat infestation. I don’t know the specifics (it was before we moved in), but the bats somehow caused structural damage and made the house dangerous to live in. I would check it out. [/QUOTE] I don’t see how, IIRC bats don’t do anything to ruin the house, they do want to live there and all. It could be that there was a whole lot of them though. I was looking into this a month or so ago when I was straying for ants and was under the deck, turned around and was face to face with about six of them. At first I thought they were mice, but I wondered what mice were doing hanging from the deck in the first place. The bats under the deck ended up leaving a couple of weeks later. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/25 "2006-08-02T15:21:50Z")
We’ve got flying foxes. Magnificent on the (5 foot) wing, they sound oddly disorganised when disturbed by my dog in the park. > [@](#): > > _Dazzling White Diamonds_ > Twinkle, twinkle, little bat… > How I wonder where you’re at. > Up above the world so high > Like a teacup in the sky. Tea **tray**! > [@](#): > > _Winston Smith_ > :: taps large leather-clad volume :: I like this a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/26 "2006-08-02T21:37:13Z")
[QUOTE=hawthorne] Tea **tray**! [/QUOTE] That’s what I get for going by memory. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/27 "2006-08-02T22:03:30Z")
[QUOTE=Edward The Head] I don’t see how, IIRC bats don’t do anything to ruin the house, they do want to live there and all. It could be that there was a whole lot of them though. . [/QUOTE] I think it may have had something to do with toxins (?) or mold (?) or something like that in the guano. I never got the details, and I’m not sure how big the population was, but it must have been pretty big. All that squeaking and flapping of wings must have made for a restful night’s sleep. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/28 "2006-08-02T23:43:25Z")
[QUOTE=Renee] All that squeaking and flapping of wings must have made for a restful night’s sleep. [/QUOTE] Not to mention the bodies drained of blood. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/29 "2006-08-03T01:24:42Z")
Here is a list I compiled some time ago of European Languages Ranked According to their Word for Bat. Today’s random list: European Languages Ranked On The Basis Of Their Word for Bat. 1. Most Straightforward: German, _Fledermaus_. “Fluttering mouse.” It looks like a mouse that flies. Completely to the point, and a bitchin’ opera besides. (Further investigation reveals that this only refers to small species of bats; the larger ones are called _Flughunde_, “flying dog,” which is just fucking scary.) This is tied with the Catalan _ratapinyada_, “rat with wings,” which I thought meant pigeons. 2. Most Ominous: Spanish, _murciélago_. All vampirish and creepy. Dusk! With a demonic flutter of leathery wings, the murciélagos are on the move. Makes me wonder why Bacardi chose it as a logo for rum. (I used to think that Ron Bacardi was the guy it was named after.) Too bad it comes from the incredibly bland _mus caecus_, “blind mouse” - see “Most misses the point,” below. 3. Prettiest: Italian, _pipistrello_. Actually cute. Pipistrelli are your friends! Tiny little bundles of cheerfulness. Almost elfin. Can you imagine being afraid of a pipistrello? You can almost picture a bat equivalent of Hello Kitty. It would be called Ciao Pipistrello. 4. Most misses the point: French, _chauve-souris_. So what you’re saying is that this astonishing little creature’s most salient point is that it’s bald?! Did you miss the wings? And not all of them are even bald! 5. Most inscrutable: English, _bat_. Completely opaque. My dictionary doesn’t even give a derivation for it other than “from Scandinavian bakke.” 6. Most picturesque: Aragonese, _apagacandil_. “Candle-extinguisher.” Kind of creepy and quaint at the same time, like certain members of Parliament. 7. Most boring: Scientific Greek, _Chiroptera_. “Hand-wing.” Well, yeah. Their hands are modified into wings. Whee. I mean come on, it can be cool - even “Mammalia” means “creatures with boobies.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589/30 "2006-08-03T01:46:37Z")
That’s pretty cool, Matt. But, golly “aragonese”? Don’t you have a job or something? 🙂 Truly, very cool. And it is a bitchin’ opera. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-flying-mice-are-out-early/366589.md?page=1)