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Ah, what a nice day to eat lunch in the courtyard behind my office!
Or maybe not.
Or maybe not.
Kim's mother has been visiting this past week (I'll post pictures of our recent trip later). She has appreciated our house, but we wanted to make sure she got the full experience of living here. So as we all sat calmly chatting in the living room at the end of the day, we were surprised by a visitor:
Yes, we once again had a bat in the house. It flew around our heads in the living room for a while (didn't touch us, happily, and the cats are up on their shots), so I scuttled around the corner and grabbed my tennis racket. After a few minutes of me chasing it around the main floor (mostly without contact) it finally roosted on the wall, at which point I grabbed it with a towel and took it outside.
The surprising thing to me is how much calmer I was about the situation this time: it's almost old hat at this point. (Ok, I was still pretty wired while it was actually flying around our heads, but I calmed down quickly once it was sitting still. Calm enough to take a picture, in fact, though Kim wouldn't let me take time trying to get a better one.) Can't say the same for Kim's mom, though.
Looks like we'll have to get someone out here to find and plug some holes as soon as we're back from next week's trip to Nebraska.
Yes, we once again had a bat in the house. It flew around our heads in the living room for a while (didn't touch us, happily, and the cats are up on their shots), so I scuttled around the corner and grabbed my tennis racket. After a few minutes of me chasing it around the main floor (mostly without contact) it finally roosted on the wall, at which point I grabbed it with a towel and took it outside.The surprising thing to me is how much calmer I was about the situation this time: it's almost old hat at this point. (Ok, I was still pretty wired while it was actually flying around our heads, but I calmed down quickly once it was sitting still. Calm enough to take a picture, in fact, though Kim wouldn't let me take time trying to get a better one.) Can't say the same for Kim's mom, though.
Looks like we'll have to get someone out here to find and plug some holes as soon as we're back from next week's trip to Nebraska.
Kim just woke up to the disturbing feeling of a bat (herein labeled Bat #2) brushing past her arm as it circled the room. We turned on a light, but by the time we'd formulated a plan it had disappeared. Had it decided to roost somewhere because of the light? Had it squeezed out of the room the same way it got in? We're still not sure: we were complete cowards when it was actively swooping past us around the room so we didn't watch everywhere it went (especially when it was swooping low to the ground) and a fairly thorough search of likely roosting places turned up nothing.
Once we started searching the rest of the house, Kim spotted a swooping bat by the side door. (I'd already turned on lights throughout the main floor, but it was still dark there.) I managed to thwack it with a tennis racket, leaving it dead or very stunned, and we stuck it in a covered trash can. Occam's razor suggested that we'd found Bat #2, so we started to relax.
But then, Kim happened to see two more bats roosting behind the blinds in our breakfast nook. I've now grabbed those (using the earlier "towel and gloves" procedure) and stuck them in a cooler. (They don't sound happy.) But having found those, we now have no idea whether Bat #2 is still in our bedroom somewhere, waiting for the lights to go out.
Sweet dreams.
Once we started searching the rest of the house, Kim spotted a swooping bat by the side door. (I'd already turned on lights throughout the main floor, but it was still dark there.) I managed to thwack it with a tennis racket, leaving it dead or very stunned, and we stuck it in a covered trash can. Occam's razor suggested that we'd found Bat #2, so we started to relax.
But then, Kim happened to see two more bats roosting behind the blinds in our breakfast nook. I've now grabbed those (using the earlier "towel and gloves" procedure) and stuck them in a cooler. (They don't sound happy.) But having found those, we now have no idea whether Bat #2 is still in our bedroom somewhere, waiting for the lights to go out.
Sweet dreams.
So, just out of random curiosity, how does one safely remove a small bat that's hanging asleep from a curtain rod in one's living room?
No reason.
Update: My curiosity on this topic has abated.
I can happily endorse the "quickly wrap it in a towel" approach (even in awkward spaces), as long as that's coupled with leather gloves and a few other precautions. Apparently, the space between the downspout and the wall outside makes a perfectly adequate substitute for a curtain rod. Meanwhile, our bedroom doors were closed last night, so we're pretty sure he wasn't in there with us. I think we're safe.
No reason.
Update: My curiosity on this topic has abated.
I can happily endorse the "quickly wrap it in a towel" approach (even in awkward spaces), as long as that's coupled with leather gloves and a few other precautions. Apparently, the space between the downspout and the wall outside makes a perfectly adequate substitute for a curtain rod. Meanwhile, our bedroom doors were closed last night, so we're pretty sure he wasn't in there with us. I think we're safe.
Riding my bike to work has been fun this past week: every morning, the trees along the bike path are swarming with very large metallic green beetles, each well over an inch long. I think this picture is representative of the breed:
These beasts are constantly flying back and forth across the path from tree to tree and then down to the wood chips that cover the ground nearby, where whole flocks of crows wander the area gorging themselves.
Meanwhile, I am a fast-moving object plunging straight through the middle of it all. I'm sure the beetles are basically harmless, but that doesn't make it any less alarming when they bounce off my helmet or thwack between my backpack and my collar. I've taken to riding in full hunched-down racing position just to minimize my cross section, and I probably look pretty goofy ducking all the time.
(*)(Image available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0 from this Wikipedia page; original photo by User:Jengod.)
*
These beasts are constantly flying back and forth across the path from tree to tree and then down to the wood chips that cover the ground nearby, where whole flocks of crows wander the area gorging themselves.
Meanwhile, I am a fast-moving object plunging straight through the middle of it all. I'm sure the beetles are basically harmless, but that doesn't make it any less alarming when they bounce off my helmet or thwack between my backpack and my collar. I've taken to riding in full hunched-down racing position just to minimize my cross section, and I probably look pretty goofy ducking all the time.
(*)(Image available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0 from this Wikipedia page; original photo by User:Jengod.)
I don't think I'm excessively nervous around spiders. Sure, I tend to react poorly if they're actually on my body, and I'm not eager to share my living space with big ones. But in general I think spiders and their webs are pretty cool. Relatively few are dangerous, so there's no reason to be paranoid about them. In fact, I've never been near a dangerous spider that wasn't in a cage.
Or so I'd assumed. A student mentioned last week that some Scripps dorms have black widow spiders in their basements. Still, I've never spent much time in the Scripps dorms: no worries. But then another student commented that you could sometimes see them around the steps of our science building. So, ok, they're around, but it's not as if they're a visible presence.
But no. Coming back from lunch today, another faculty member pointed out a big web made by a black widow. Three feet from where I park my bike. This suddenly casts the small webs I've found on my bike itself from time to time in a whole new light.
Or so I'd assumed. A student mentioned last week that some Scripps dorms have black widow spiders in their basements. Still, I've never spent much time in the Scripps dorms: no worries. But then another student commented that you could sometimes see them around the steps of our science building. So, ok, they're around, but it's not as if they're a visible presence.
But no. Coming back from lunch today, another faculty member pointed out a big web made by a black widow. Three feet from where I park my bike. This suddenly casts the small webs I've found on my bike itself from time to time in a whole new light.