BAT CRAZY

So this weekend we went to the lake.  I was going to post about the trip, but something more pressing has perched itself on my mind.  No pictures in this post, and you'll be happy I opted not to include them.  Let me start from the beginning...

When we got home yesterday, we realized that our house alarm was beeping.  It wasn't going off in panic mode, though, and we hadn't received a call from the company, so we just turned the alarm off since no doors or windows were open.  The motion detector had been tripped, but we couldn't figure out what had set it off.  We both turned to look at the detector in the top corner of the room and saw something dark covering it.  Wade yelled, "Bat!", and we both ran out the back of the house.

It's just a mouse with wings, but the whole rabies thing is what really spooks me out about them.  Once you start showing signs of rabies, it's too late.  The vaccine only works if you take it before the virus hits your central nervous system.  I know it's a very small chance that you could get it, but it still scares me.

Anyways, we spent the rest of the evening calling my mom and dad to ask their advice, and my brother who is a doctor.  We finally got a hold of a pest control guy who came out and caught the thing after it flew all around the house, pooping and peeing.  Wade grew up on a farm, so is used to being around animals, but bats are one thing he will not deal with.  I don't blame him.  I wouldn't go anywhere near it.  I feel bad for guys sometimes, because we expect them to be able to handle all these icky situations that we wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

It's not over yet, though.  After the pest guy left, it was about 11pm.  We disinfected the droppings and pee areas 5 times and were feeling a little better that this was just a fluke and only the one got in.  (We think it got in through the fireplace since there was a hole in the flue.)  Wade went to use the downstairs bathroom and found a second bat flailing around in the toilet!!  Gross!  Our conversation proceeded as follows:

Wade: "Should I just flush it?"
Me: "You can't flush it! It will clog up our sewer pipes and then we'll have to pay thousands of dollars to dislodge a bat from them."

I laughed so hard throughout this conversation, since the whole situation was just getting ridiculous.  We live in an old house, so our pipes are already kind of blocked.  We have people out every year to snake them and keep everything flowing, so the image of them coming over to find out what's plugging the pipes and then pulling out a bat was too funny.

We knew it was contained in the bathroom, so we just taped up the door frame to keep it in the room and called Animal Control this morning.  Both times we confirmed that they were going to let the bats go far away from our house.  Apparently, our areas just has a large bat population.  I'm fine seeing them fly around at dusk and appreciate them eating mosquitoes, just as long as they stay outside.

We are now (hopefully) bat free and will fix all the possible entry points.  I still fear one is going to pop out of my closet, though, or be flying around my head when I sleep.  I know that's not rational.  They don't want to hurt us and are fine as long as we don't mess with them.  But seriously, bats, we pay a lot of money to live in our house (alone), so stick to the rooftops and trees outside.  The outside has much prettier scenery anyway and all the bugs you can eat.

Ever come home to a bat or other rodent?  How did you deal with it?