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| Author |
Message |
danr
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BATS!
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Jul 29 22:35 UTC 1993 |
My wife found a bat furiously clinging to our screen door Tuesday
evening. Yesterday, I spotted one flying around outside a friend's
house. It was pretty neat watching it pick bugs right out of the air.
Do you have any bat stories you can tell us?
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| 37 responses total. |
srw
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response 1 of 37:
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Jul 30 01:27 UTC 1993 |
A lot of people will see bats flying (usually just after sundown) and
mistake them for birds. You can through a stick up in the air, and
bats will fly tight circles around it (birds will scatter).
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srw
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response 2 of 37:
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Jul 30 01:28 UTC 1993 |
(I meant "throw", of course.)
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katie
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response 3 of 37:
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Jul 30 02:25 UTC 1993 |
I have lots of bats around my house. They may roost in the barn, but
I've never actually seen any in there. I bought a bat house a couple
of years ago but I have yet to figure out how to get it where I want it.
I need a very tall ladder.
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rcurl
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response 4 of 37:
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Jul 30 02:29 UTC 1993 |
Bat Conservation International recently published an issue of their
newsletter with extensive studies of successful bat house designs,
and some plans for their most recent recommended designs. If you
are interested in bats, you should join BCI P.O. Box 162603, Austin,
TX 78716-2603). You'll be seeing more bats now, because the young
of this year are flying now, and have to put on a lot of "fat" to
prepare for their first hibernation.
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glenda
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response 5 of 37:
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Jul 30 13:36 UTC 1993 |
Once a bat got into the building where I used to work. It was one of those
office/retail buildings in Dearborn. Our office was in the basement if you
came in the main entrance, the 1st floor if you came in the back. There was
a resturant at the end of the hall. Our office didn't have a restroom of its
own so we had to use the public one out in the hall. The poor little bat got
in somehow and was flying up and down the hall just below ceiling height (the
typical mall 15-20 feet up). I was the only one in the office for three days
that would go out into the hall to go to the restroom or to the restaurant for
dinner (I should mention that I worked the late shift, prime time for bat
flights). It was funny to hear the other woman squeal when the poor thing flew
past. They all thought I was crazy and that the bat would fly into me and get
stuck in my hair. I told them that they were all nuts and he wouldn't even
get close and that there was nothing to be afraid of, but they wouldn't even
consider venturing out into the hall until the building super came and informed
us that the bat had been captured and removed from the building.
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md
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response 6 of 37:
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Jul 30 13:37 UTC 1993 |
There are swarms of bats all around the neighborhood every evening.
A bat once strayed into our house, and I was able to capture it in
a butterfly net and release it out a window.
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danr
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response 7 of 37:
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Jul 30 16:31 UTC 1993 |
re #4: That was my theory for the sudden increase in my sighting of bats.
Thanks for the info on BCI, too.
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rcurl
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response 8 of 37:
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Aug 16 01:26 UTC 1993 |
We were treated to a beautiful display of feeding bats in front of
a restroom in a state park in the Blue Mountains of Washington. Moths
were attracted by the light, but we were in the dark under an overhang.
More bats than meteors in the recent "shower" (pun).
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mjs
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response 9 of 37:
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Aug 26 03:20 UTC 1993 |
One August *two* bats got in through a gap in the screen door. They must have
been flying around for hours until I woke up at 2 am and saw one flying over
the bed. Not wanting to stick around and not having a butterfly net, I flung
open all the windows, went to an all-night diner, and waited for dawn.
There were no mosquitoes in the house when I got back.
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rcurl
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response 10 of 37:
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Aug 26 05:23 UTC 1993 |
Bats seldom eat mosquitos. They aren't worth the investment of energy.
Beetles and moths are preferred. Bats are beginning to "swarm" at this
time. "Swarming" is when adult bats show newborn bats around the territory,
and alternative hibernation sites. The adults are also checking them out.
They will come into houses, since houses are potential hibernacula.
Anyway, opening the windows was a good idea, though I have caught the
bat (in a box, not a net) and put him/her outside. But, I would like to
know, why didn't you want to stick around? Bats are fascinating, and you
had a marvelous opportunity to study its behavior.
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mjs
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response 11 of 37:
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Aug 26 23:03 UTC 1993 |
Of what I could see in the darkness, it did nothing but happily fly around
in circles. The other one was in another room, I found out later.
When I turned on the lights one of them parked on the window screen and the
other one was in a box of books. I'm sure they were fascinating, but at the
time I was a little impatient about the whole thing. I think they were
Little Brown bats.
A year ago I had the fortune of seeing the nightly swarm of bats emerging
from under the Congress Street bridge in Austin. Not everyone knows that
the bridge they show on the credits for "Austin City Limits" has an enormous
bat colony under it.
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srw
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response 12 of 37:
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Aug 27 00:51 UTC 1993 |
They just did an article on the Bats of Austin (and the bridge) on the
ABC National News.
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danr
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response 13 of 37:
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Apr 15 02:11 UTC 1994 |
I was down in Austin last summer and saw the bats emerge from
underneath the bridge. It was amazing.
I've just built myself a couple of bat houses. Now, hopefully, I'll
attract some bats.
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rcurl
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response 14 of 37:
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Apr 15 06:57 UTC 1994 |
What design did you use, Dan?
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katie
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response 15 of 37:
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Apr 15 19:32 UTC 1994 |
I have a bat house but need help affixing it to someplace high up. Same
goes for my owl house.
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danr
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response 16 of 37:
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Apr 16 00:24 UTC 1994 |
I got the plans from the state of Indiana, but they seem to be plans
from BCI.
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twolf
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response 17 of 37:
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Nov 6 19:17 UTC 1994 |
You should see what they are saying about bats on Kitchan #85 pumpkin :-}. But
bring your sense of humor, it's really gotten silly.
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scratch
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response 18 of 37:
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Mar 26 03:28 UTC 1995 |
I have a bat story. Last summer, I was getting ready for work. I was in the
bathroom and had just put rollers in my hair, when I saw a black object
flittering above me. I hurried and got out of the house and went to get a
friend. WhjWhen he came back there was no bat that we could see. So he (my
friend) left. I came back at noon only to see the bat hanging from my kitchen
door. Again I went to get my friend. He came back and we couldn't find it.
This process went on for a week. Finally, one day I was going to getmy
thermos from the kitchen and the bat flew out of it. Luckily we were able to
get it out of the house. This story always brings back memories, because my
friend always joked with me telling me that I had lost my senses
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rcurl
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response 19 of 37:
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Mar 27 07:38 UTC 1995 |
There was no need for you to leave the house. Open the door, or a window,
and after a while the bat will find his/her way out again. Simple. I think
it neat, though, that the bat chose the thermos as a place to roost. Was
it upright on a counter? Do you think the bat was trapped in it because
of the smooth sides (and lack of room to fly)? By the way, there are no
black bats. Some are dark brown, the the silver-haired bat has many white
hairs among black. What month was it, by the way?
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mcpoz
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response 20 of 37:
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Apr 2 15:17 UTC 1995 |
Most people fear bats and want to kill them. Bats are essential to quite
a few things and it is worth while to join and support Bat Conservation
International.
I have a bat house and it gets a few bats in it, but if you are making one
be sure to use rough sawn lumber and DO NOT put any paint, stain, varnish,
oil, or other finish on it. The finish keeps them away. Even a new house
will take at least a season of weathering to be satisfactory to bats.
I had wasps in mine, and they aparantly coexisted, but I used a long thin
piece of wood trim to knock the wasps down on a chilly morning (so they
were not too active - wear a hat, long sleeves, gloves, and button your
collar)
Somewhere I read that in a bat's lifetime, they each eat enough insects
to equal $20 worth of insecticide. I dont know if this is accurate or
not, but they are really tough on mosquitos.
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mwarner
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response 21 of 37:
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Apr 3 21:02 UTC 1995 |
Most people I know really like bats.
Don't most insectiverous bats generally eat insects larger than
mosquitoes?
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mcpoz
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response 22 of 37:
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Apr 4 01:23 UTC 1995 |
I'll bet that most of the people you know are well informed. I work
regularly with people who think if it moves, kill it.
As for insects larger than mosquitos, you could be right, but a lot
of non-scientific articles indicate that they are voracious eaters
of mosquitos. I have lots of bats since I am near a fenn (bog) and
the bats are swooping at small insects constantly.
The few bats I've caught (because they came inside) are mouse-sized and
have mouths which are pretty small. I dunno !
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mcpoz
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response 23 of 37:
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May 3 01:49 UTC 1996 |
Well, speaking of bats, the McPoz bat house is occupied again.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 37:
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May 3 06:50 UTC 1996 |
Congratulations!
Bats feed mostly on moths, in terms of net nutrition - bigger and juicer.
We better get out box up.
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