B is for Bat

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I've been trying to decide what to tell you and how much to tell you where the bats are concerned.  I'm just going to type a chronological timeline of the events as they unfolded.  This could get quite lengthy.  Also, I have a couple of photos.

You've been warned.

May 7: We woke up at 4:30 in the morning to find a bat flying around our bedroom.  Mike chased it around the upstairs, eventually knocking it down, trapping it in a sheet and throwing it all out our bedroom window.  I, meanwhile, was hiding under the comforter with Gene.  It was hanging on the house when the sun came up, so we called animal control to pick it up and test it for rabies.  Thankfully it tested negative and we went on with our lives.

Little Brown Bat

May 21: I had just finished my weekly #clothdiapers twitter chat and was doing a bit of sewing before bed.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and turned to look.  It was a bat flying around my dining room and living room.  I dove to the floor in the kitchen and tried to decide how best to get Mike's attention and get to the baby.  I eventually settled on army crawling through the dining room, living room, and up the stairs.  I lost sight of the bat.  I woke up Mike and grabbed Gene.  We never found the bat.  Realizing this was not an isolated incident, I was really uncomfortable staying in the house.  We packed some stuff and headed to a hotel.

May 22: Mike took the day off from work to search for the bat and paint our bedroom (He told me to Pack. Our. Things. We are MOVING.).  I spent the morning making 412 phone calls as I searched for someone to come out and tell us if we had bats living in our house.  My first call was to Animal Control.  They gave me a couple of numbers, including the wildlife trapper.  He was my second call.  I got his voicemail so I kept dialing.  After searching 'nuisance animal control' I came across a website for a local guy who deals with bats.  I dialed.  It was the wildlife trapper.  He called me back a short time later.

I'm not going to lie, talking to him on the phone made me want to cry and throw up.  I knew when he started with "Are you sitting down?" that it was going to be bad.  He guessed correctly that I live in a brick house in the West End without me telling him.  Apparently bats are more of an issue in this area because we are near wooded areas and a river, so there are plenty of bugs.  He talked about scary things like bat nurseries and colonies, but assured me he could take care of the problem if indeed there was one.

May 23: The Bat Man came out around 8PM to talk to us and look at the house.  He checked for areas where they could potentially be getting in and out of the house.  We found two spots on the front of the house that appeared to have what we can only guess is raccoon damage.  Once the sun went down, it didn't take long for the bats to start pouring out of the house.  He watched and counted as 22 bats left our house over the next 45 minutes.  Since the roost is never completely empty, he estimated that we had a colony of 30-35 bats living in the soffit on the front of our house.

May 29: Bat Man came over to measure the holes on the roof and to explain his plan of attack.

May 31: Bat eviction device was supposed to be installed, but it rained.

June 2: Bat Man came over late in the afternoon and began working on our roof.  He sealed up one hole and was preparing to install the eviction device on the other hole when it began raining.  It was a steady downpour, so he had to stop.

June 3: Bat Man came back and installed the device in the early afternoon.  He returned at dusk to make sure bats were leaving through the device. 

They weren't.

There was apparently a spot that didn't seal well and bats were getting out under it.  This meant that Bat Man had to get on our roof.  In the dark.  With bats flying around.

Awesome, I know.  We all want his job.

He ripped the device down and bats slowly began coming out.  Instead of coming out and flying away, they came out and were flying around the front of the house, visibly agitated.

A few minutes after Bat Man left, I heard loud crashes coming from upstairs.  When I asked what was wrong, Mike said there were bats upstairs.  He swatted at the bat and it landed.  He trapped it in the net and took it outside.  While he was releasing it, I heard scratching in the bathroom.  I quickly shut the door.  Mike caught the second one and released it and a third bat showed up.  At this point we chose to shut the door and shove t-shirts underneath.

While all of this was going on, I was on the phone with Bat Man asking what we should do.  He offered to come back over and catch them, but we told him it wasn't necessary.

June 4: Bat Man came over in the afternoon to install a different eviction device.  While he was here, he went up to the bathroom and caught the bat.

This was in my BAThtub

Around 6PM I decided I was going to take a shower.  It was still daylight, so I figured it was safe to go up there.  I opened the door and cautiously looked around the bathroom.  I saw a wing sticking out between the linen closet door and the wall.  Mike came up, caught it and took it outside.  

Bat Man came over again that night to watch the eviction device.  We told him we'd had another bat.  We checked the bathroom before he left and it was clear.  Ten minutes later there were bats.  Again.

June 5: We checked in the morning and saw two bats on the window -- one above the window and one hiding under the blinds.  I called Bat Man and asked if he could come by.  He quickly came downstairs with a bat and asked if I had a container with a lid.  The bat under the blinds was not one bat.  It was three bats.  All together, Bat Man got 5 bats out of the bathroom that afternoon.

That evening we went outside to see if the bats were coming out of the eviction device.  We noticed scratching sounds coming from the soffit for the main level of our house.  

Four bats!

June 6: While cooking dinner, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.  When I turned around I realized there was a bat, in my kitchen, at 5PM.  I ran from the room screaming, "MICHAEL! THERE'S A BAT IN THE KITCHEN!"  Mike knocked the bat down and took it outside.

That afternoon I had called Bat Man and asked if he could more bats from under the blinds.  I also mentioned the new sounds in the lower soffit so he came over in the evening.  He found another three bats in the bathroom.  One of them was dead.  He also discovered that the bats have found a new place to stay during the day.  So now we need another eviction device.  Awesome, right?

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One of the obstacles about the bat situation is that we are dealing not only with the normal bats, but also juvenile bats.  The baby bats are in the upper soffit, chirping away.  The bats in the lower soffit are mama bats who don't want to leave their babies.

So there you go.  The whole ordeal.  There's a bat in our bathroom right now.  We've had 16 bats in our house in the last month, 14 of which have been in the house in the last week.  They were coming through a humongous hole in our linen closet.  We've covered up the hole, so hopefully they stop getting in.

I am so tired of the bats.  My tolerance of them is wearing thin.  I want my house back. :(