Bats

Die Fledermaus

We don't want it to die;-)

I asked for some photos of a garage door that needs widening. And the person taking the photos spotted the bat.

The bat possibly had a distressed landing as it really pissed it down the night before the photo was taken. There is some shelter given via the garage guttering.

Rather like the one I caught on a sticky fly-paper about a week ago

Hehe. After what you said about it being a mouse with wings, I was just reflecting on the fact that Germans call them flutter-mice.

I remember we went to the sister-in-law's house a few years ago, and they had bats coming out at the top of one gable end. We counted well over a hundred all coming out one after another. It happened the same time each evening. An amazing sight to behold. They had to board off one end of the left for them.

Those little ones some times have needles for teeth and sometimes bite.

Was it a small one truly mouse sized? The young ones are flying about now and they will fit through the tiniest gaps. One got into my house last month through a gap I haven't yet found in the ceiling.

Young ones are preprogrammed to find a tree and climb up it if they get stuck on the ground but unfortunately painted skirting boards are too shiny for them to get a grip so they end up stuck on the deck against it and unable to take off again. Adults can usually take off again by gaining a couple of inches height but can get stuck in sinks or baths.

Don't assume that one that isn't moving is dead - they go into torpor when they get too cold and will rapidly wake up and start to struggle in the warmth of your hand. You have at most two minutes after picking one up to return it to the roost before the tickling becomes unbearable. Being wet is bad for them so a kitchen towel is useful to dry off one that has been saturated by rain.

One that is still out in daylight could be rabid and needs to be dealt with by someone from the local bat group who will have the right gear.

If you think they are impressive when they leave the roost with flight muscles still cold try watching them come back at dawn after a nights hunting. They arrive as a fast blur and you only see them briefly as they stop dead against the wall and then scuttle up under the eaves.

No they don't. Pipestrelles can't really break the skin but all of the others can and if you handle them then you should have an up-to-date rabies certificate. It is against the law to disturb bats or their roosts without a license. The big roosts in homes and churches at this time of year are mostly mothers with their young.

We have a roost of about 200 in the attic and under the eaves. I just put an old roasting tray underneath to catch most of their droppings.

All the larger bats can bite human skin and as such are a rabies risk. I suppose you could be very unlucky and get bitten by a pipestrelle but I think it is highly unlikely for an adult.

Strictly you are supposed to wait for a licensed bat handler to do anything but I found this approach tends to fail since by the time they arrive in the evening the poor unfortunate bat is already dead.

I was bitten by a vampire bat whilst on holiday.

We were holidaying on Tobago and wondered why the Humming Bird feeder was always empty in the morning!

"harryagain" wrote: [snip]

Odd, I always had you down as a zombie.

Just our bad luck it wasn't a rabid bat.