While I was at work today, the kids found a bat. The one thing I never warned them about was picking up bats from the ground. We called animal control as instructed by the all knowing internet in case the animal has rabies. Several adults and some of the neighborhood kids played with it all day. It did not bite anyone, but Im still a bit nervous. Animal control never showed to pick up the evil spawn of Satan. When I got home tonight, my son is all excited about showing me the little sucker. We went outside to look at him. As we approached the box, we were swarmed with bats..lol. The bastards were everywhere. My son dove in the car as I opened the lid to inspect the contents. Satan was hanging on the lid and quite awake at this point. I sat the box up on the hedge and hells fury climbed out of the box and hung on the lid. Another child of darkness (way bigger) flew up and wrapped itself around the smaller one. In one fell swoop, it took off.....clutching the little one in its hellish little feet. It was like a perfectly planned hostage rescue. Some other neighbors found bats in their yards too. This one had to be a baby. Hope we dont all die of rabies or west nile! Here is a pic:
[img]http://images.andale.com/f2/112/111/7410906/1055132433978_BAT1.jpg[/img]

Aww, bats are cute.  We have a whole nursery of them living in our attic (a part that is unaccesable).  Every once in a while we hear them chirping, and sometimes we watch them come out at night.  It's pretty neat.  One by one, about 20 of them come out to feast on bugs.

I was not home at the time, but my mom said that a few days ago a mother bat flew out of the hole with two babies nursing, and apparently the mother was not ready to fly with that unbalanced weight, and crashed and broke her neck.  One of our cats got the mother, but my family rescued the babies and put them back in the bat nursery.  My mom commented on how adorable the babies were, and I only wish I was there to see them.

Several years ago we had a bat trapped in our garage, and it just kept flying around in circles.  Finally it landed, and we managed to catch it.  We held it with gloves for a while,  It got away in the house, we caught it again, and finally let it go.

Bats are cool.  At least if they're not rabid.   And as you've noticed,  they're protective enough of their babies that they'll actually launch a commando operation, complete with close air support teams, to rescue one.   What could possibly be cooler than that?

Haven't seen many bats around your place?   Look around more carefully at dusk, particularly in the general vicinity of streetlights that attract a lot of bugs.   You WILL see some bats.

CJ

Haha.. awesome story. The happy ending (i.e., the rescue) was cool.

You can thank those bats for keeping the mosquito population down. On average, a brown bat will consume hundreds of mosquitos a night:

Bats are cool.  Shoulda seen the look on my fiance's face when I told her what those erratic-flying little 'birds' that she always saw at dusk really were!

Bat Conservation Intl.

[url]batcon.org[/url]

Texas used to build large bat houses in the Rio Grande Valley to combat mosquitos.

Bats are cool

'West Nile'...

Mosquitoes give you WN, not bats...

Bats EAT mosquitoes (lots of them), and therefore actually help against WN by reducing the carrier population...

I was recently doing a little research on abandoned mine tunnels and found that bats are a threatened part of the ecology here in Nevada that take advantage of the mines to roost. Programs to close up dangerous shafts are encouraged to use bat friendly barriers instead of simply blasting or barricading the entrance.

Several years ago I was at a church where homeschool parents were meeting for cooperative teaching of science subjects. One of the kids spotted a bat hanging in an outdoor recessed light, probably for warmth. I caught it and took it into the bathroom and let it fly around, to a capacity audience of about twenty kids. Probably a genius thing to do but hey, it was educational and no animals (or humans) were harmed in the making of this story.

Tip: if you are trying to catch a bat, use something like a flannel shirt that won't echo  and alarm the bat untill it is too late.

bats eat mosquitos and thats superb in my book

You might want to give your county health dept a call tomorrow and describe what happened. In my area (due to the high amount of rabid animals) everyone who came in contact with the bat would be getting shots right now (not having the animal to examine).

[url]http://ehs.ucdavis.edu/animal/bats/[/url]

33% of all bats carry rabies, but are not sick with it.  Where was the bat found?  If it was found under an eve, it should be okay.  If it was found on the ground and/or in the sunlight, then you may have a problem.  Bats have small little teeth and some times people do not know that they got bit.  If there was no blood you should be okay.  

As stated by the others any thing bad about the bats is out weighed by all the good.

And you cannot get West Nile from a bat.

I was under the immpression that the incidence of rabies in bats is relatively low.  I think that you would find more rabid skunks and raccoons than bats.  I may be wrong.

Anyway a few years ago I caught one hanging on the wall at work.  I brought it home, it flew around the house, sisters cat tried to catch it, I let it go.  Very interesting animal.  My daughter is very interested in them now that I have convinced her that they are not going to turn back into a Vampire and bite her neck!  

We could use about a dozen Bat-Homes around where I work.  The amount of insects is incredible.  They should take care of the June Bugs (and July, August, September...) very nicely.

Bats are cool.  I remember being a kid in my backyard at dusk.  I watched as the bats flew about from one side of the yard to the other.  I used to throw a baseball up in the air when they few by.  They always zeroed in on the ball and followed it down.

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This is one of the happy happiest stories I have ever read here.
Thanks for the post.
Bats are cool

you know the walls of your house are filing up with bat shit?  i know a family that had some bees in their house.  oh, neat, look at the bees!  after a few years they replaced one wall because of all the wax and honey.

Send it to me!

My son and I built a bat house a few years ago and we have not had any move in yet!


We even rescued a bat from the school once but it only stayed a few minutes in the house before it flew away!!


I still miss him...



Bats or West Nile.....you have a choice!

Bats have no more chance of catching Rabies than any other animal.  Probably less because they most likely would not survive the bite of a larger, infected animal.

Bats are good.  The eat lots of mosquitoes.  Once again you have been influenced by hollywood.

Well there is a ton of information out there that suggests differently. I am really really nervous about the rabies thing and the animal control people still havent called back. I dont know if I should take my kid to the doctor or what. Now that the bat has been rescued, like Owen Wilson in Behind Enemy Lines, nobody will ever know if the thing had rabies or not. It was found in the daytime under a tree, in a place where bats arent normally found. According to some things I read at the cdc web page....that equals bad juju. It was very small compared to the "chopper" that picked it up though. What should I do?

It's your call dude.
no bite hu? esp. didn't break the skin.
if it were my boy i wouldn't worry about him.

the doc is going to want to start the shots.

but this is your boy.

I thought your were funning about the special forces rescue.  That's wild.  It was probably a baby. Did the tree where it was found have any holes up in it.  Thats where they live.

Im going to inspect the tree and the area right now.

New information. Rabies shots are not covered by insurance. The series is $1500. 1 in each arm, 1 in each leg, 1 in the hip, 1 shot a week and they hurt like hell. The doc said that if there is no evidence of a bite wound, then carry on. My kid says he only touched it a few times and that was on the fur (on its back). The rest of the time it was handled using a bowl.  

Incidentally,  bats were evaluated during WWII as possible weapons.  True stories:


Some bright boy came up with the brilliant idea of attaching tiny little incendiary devices to a bunch of bats that had been refrigerated (to reduce their metabolism and keep them quiet) and then toss them out the back of an airplane flying over various Japanese cities, in the hopes that the bats would fly down, roost under the eaves of Japanese houses in the early morning, and then the little incendiary charges would go off on their timers and the bats would burst into flame, burning down the houses, which were mostly constructed of wood and paper.

Unfortunately,  it was discovered that when you toss bats out of the door of a C-47 at over 200 MPH,  the slipstream rips their gossamer little wings off.   Oops.


During the testing of this wacky idea,  a lower speed test was made (the bats survived) and the bats took it into their tiny little minds that the house provided in the target area wasn't up to their standards.   So the whole damned flock of bats found a nearby house more to their liking, and roosted there under the eaves.

The timers worked as expected, the bats burst into flame, and the house burned down.

The house was....care to guess???


Yep.  It was the base commander's house!


Lesson:  Bats can't read house numbers, or if they do, they really don't care.


An allegedly true story.


CJ

Damn, cmjohnson, I always thought your avatar was a picture of you in a scuba/wetsuit...that is, until a few moments ago. I just read your sig line.. Damn, I must need glasses.  [:E]

[img]http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/eutheria/battwo.gif[/img]

Dave,

CALL YOUR LOCAL HEALTH DEPT NOW !!!

And if you don't get a response, call your state epidemiologist, its in the phone book or ask any veterinarian for the number.

You, and a few more who have posted here need better information on this type of exposure...especially the "doc" you talked to.

Start here:
[url]http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/[/url]
This will help explain the importance of the situation, answers to many of your questions and has various links to other sources as well.

I urge you to look in the epidemiology link> scroll down & click on [b]Tennessee[/b] for a similar situation as yours.
Also note on this page there should be an active link in the References section for the 4th one listed...this will explain in massive detail the post-exposure protocol, including bat exposure.


If you have pets that tangle with wild animals:
[url]http://www.avma.org/pubhlth/rabcont.asp[/url]
This is the Compendium on Rabies, 2003 from the National Assoc. of Public Health Veterinarians. It explains the protocol for animal/animal exposures and animal/human exposures.


Again, I STRONGLY urge you to seek competent medical advice from competent,knowledgible health professionals. Do not rely on an internet gun forum for medical advice, there is no reset button or second chances when it comes to rabies.

Yes bats help us by eating all those nasty bugs and mosquitoes, and that is where they should stay. Bat/Human contact is risky business and should not be taken lightly, or discarded because of monetary concerns.

You mentioned that "several adults and neighborhood kids played with it all day"...I'm sure the Health Dept will be interested in talking to them as well to see if any injuries occurred.

Play this one real safe. Whether or not your exposure or your child's requires post-exposure prophylaxis shots is your physician's/health dept's call. Just don't wait till it's too late...let them help you make the decision that is right for you.