Oh no! I'm in bat country!

Gabriel_Pitt

I was sitting on the sofa, watching TV, when I heard a weird noise in the entry way, and then a bat came winging into the room. It circled the light, and then my head a couple of times, hit the wall, and then clung to the side of the couch. In the time it took me to run and get a towel to snatch and wrap it up in, the damn thing completly disappeared. I still have no idea how it got in, but now there's a rogue bat in here somewhere... any advice on how to chase it out into the open, or anything (I just need to find it - I'm an old hand at catching the buggers on the wing).

Neaden

my advice would be to leave a window open for it's escape route. It probably already has a way out though, which is however it came in. Check your windows to see if any of them are not closed properly, and if you have an attic check that for a way that it could be getting in. Bat's are very small and can get in tiny openings though, so you might not be able to find it. It probably poses a low risk too you, but there is a chance of disease transmissions, so don't panic but you do want to get it out.

Willeth

One of those sonic mosquito repellers could drive it fucking crazy.

Gabriel_Pitt

All three windows in my apartment are screened, intact, and secure. In the two inches of clearance between the shoe cabinet and the ceiling in the entryway I found a hole leading into the wall that ran pretty much the entire length of the cabinet. That must be how it got in, along with that one other bat last year (I'd assumed it'd just flown in through my crappy hole ridden screens, which is why I replaced them). I guess I'll just have to wait and see if it reveals itself - no way am I leaving a window open. The mosquitoes would eat me alive.

Cyvros

Seconded on just waiting to see if it goes back to where it comes from. Depending on the size of your apartment, maybe you could get someone to help you do a quick search for the bat. If you can't find any trace of it, are you able to seal off that clearance above the cabinet? Presumably, it would be able to survive without your apartment.

As for actually clearing out the sucker if you do find it, I've no idea.

Gammarah

Did anyone else think of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when they saw the thread title? Or is that the point?

Willeth

Gammarah wrote: »

Did anyone else think of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when they saw the thread title? Or is that the point?

Yes. Yes.

Gabriel_Pitt

That was the point. And I also thought about asking if people thought I should interpret it as an omen and start fighting crime in my spare time. And the hole in the wall is now sealed, so there should be no more bats getting in. My big worry is that while I was getting a towel, it fled into my closet of clutter, and may never be seen again. At least, IIRC, there is no rabies in Japan, so I don't have to worry about that if it goes for the face. I just have to get that sucker into the open while I have a towel in my hands, and then it's going out the door.

I just have to find out where it got off too, and flush it out somehow. A thorough search has already been made, and that sucker is just plain gone.

Houk

Gammarah wrote: »

Did anyone else think of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when they saw the thread title? Or is that the point?

That would be one huge coincidence if it weren't.

When I was a kid we used to have a double-pane window upstairs where bats would make their way past the first pane, but would end up getting stuck between the glass and not be able to get out. Nobody ever used that room, so we didn't notice it for a while. When we finally found them, there must have been two dozen bats stuck in there, stone dead. It was one of the creepiest things I ever saw as a kid.

Gammarah

Yikes, now I feel like a dumbass. And I've never had to deal with a bat so I don't have any advice. Sorry.

Ryadic

All you buddy.