To my surprise, I opened the back door and found a bat laying on the doormat. It appeared injured and was kind of flopping around. Eventually it crawled across the lawn and up our rock retaining wall and nestled in between two rocks. I called animal rescue and they said bats could not fly unless they were around 15 feet above ground(didn't know that.) They suggested I put on leather gloves and put it in a tree. Well, thats what I did. It hung out there most of the day, and I checked an hour ago and it was gone. Hopefully it made it out OK. Another fact I did not know is that they can eat around 1200 insects an hour. So I hope he hangs around. He did hiss at me and show his teeth while I was handling him.
Rescued a bat!
- Thread starter gullzway
- Start date
Good job - you are much braver than I am!
We have bats swooping down across our pool, back and forth, around late dusk every night...honestly they scare the c-r-a-p out of me and I go inside when they start up. Long story short, 5 bats got into our mountain home (log cabin) when I was a little girl, and the trauma of watching my mom try to get them out of the house with a broom is hard-wired in my brain!
We have bats swooping down across our pool, back and forth, around late dusk every night...honestly they scare the c-r-a-p out of me and I go inside when they start up. Long story short, 5 bats got into our mountain home (log cabin) when I was a little girl, and the trauma of watching my mom try to get them out of the house with a broom is hard-wired in my brain!
A sickly or injured appearing bat should probably be called in to your animal control service. They are common rabies vectors. I hope that you washed your hands really well after handling it.
http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/bats/index.html
http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/bats/index.html
svenpup
LifeTime Supporter
Yay!! 
I did a lot of caving in my college years and have been in VERY close proximity to bats. The rabies issue is overstated (you are much more likely to get rabies from dogs), but you do have to be extra careful if the bat is injured, disoriented, or can't fly since this can be a symptom of rabies. Apparently non-bite transmission of rabies is possible.
As OP stated, bats are a huge benefit in controlling insect populations. Bats are currently threatened by a new condition called White Nose Syndrome, which is decimating some populations of bats in the northeast, and appears to be spreading.
I did a lot of caving in my college years and have been in VERY close proximity to bats. The rabies issue is overstated (you are much more likely to get rabies from dogs), but you do have to be extra careful if the bat is injured, disoriented, or can't fly since this can be a symptom of rabies. Apparently non-bite transmission of rabies is possible.
As OP stated, bats are a huge benefit in controlling insect populations. Bats are currently threatened by a new condition called White Nose Syndrome, which is decimating some populations of bats in the northeast, and appears to be spreading.
257WbyMag said:
I definitely didn't touch it with my bare hands, I used some heavy leather gloves. Animal control stressed to never touch one with bare hands as they Will bite. Although this one did not try to bite me.
I have a friend that lives in the middle of town and has bats swooping down nightly. So I'm surprised this is the first one I've seen since I am not in town.
Welcome to TFP!!
IMO, ya done good! :handshake:
We're all God's critters and we've been given dominion over the Earth, we should help out the 'lower orders' when we can.
I fully agree with 7pup on the actual danger of rabies transmission from bats, but it IS a possibility and, therefore, it's best to take all reasonable precautions!
Thank you for this uplifting post!
IMO, ya done good!
:handshake: We're all God's critters and we've been given dominion over the Earth, we should help out the 'lower orders' when we can.
I fully agree with 7pup on the actual danger of rabies transmission from bats, but it IS a possibility and, therefore, it's best to take all reasonable precautions!
Thank you for this uplifting post!