Squeeeee!! Just seen a bat

[Soubriquet]

I love bats

I used to sit down and watch them fly by the house all the time. I moved in October and I haven’t seen any in years

There is one now flying by the doors. Flying quite close actually and is swooping over our heads. Amazing to watch.

We have a huge pond and the bats come down at night to eat the insects on it. They kind of dive bomb and are so graceful the water barely ripples as they touch the surface. Beautiful things but I'm still terrified by them and hide under the porch out of the way to watch them.

Bluntness that’s awful!

We see bats flying past the windows each night going from tree to tree. One once got in and flapped round my head when I went to the toilet though the night. Eurgh. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

We get quite a few bats (pipistrelles), they have summer roosts under the soffits - not actually in the house so they're very welcome.

God this thread had me thinking about them last night when I went to bed, I was laying there listening to the scratching thinking fuck imagine they all came into the house.,,😱

It wouldn’t have stopped us buying the house if we had known, but do think it was shitty of the previous owners not to declare it, the first night you spend in the house it’s immediately obvious something is crawling in the walls and attic at night.

And not being able to have your windows open at night is annoying. I get really anal about it, and a bit panicked if a window is open after dusk.🙁

They are amazing creatures, we see a lot of bats, south coast.

Could you attach a screen to your windows Bluntness?

We have loads. They were circling right next to me yesterday when I was looking out watching the ISS

@Bluntness100 Flat cats do white or black mesh window panels that stop cats jumping out of windows but you could use them to stop bats coming in too.

There’s a wildlife cafe near us where the owner puts up bat boxes with cameras, he says it never takes long for them to be occupied.

We saw one swooping around the street light last year catching all the insects.

You can buy bat boxes for houses but our house is south facing at the back and I’d worry about vandalism if I put it round the front.

The bungalow at the back of us had them coming out of the loft so we would see them emerging and doing a flypast.

They seem to if moved on but saw one last night so they are roosting still

We have bats and very seldom any midges (in Scotland) which I put that down to.

Like a PP we have a bat colony in our row of farm houses.
I have an odd love/hate relationship with them.

I love them flying about at dusk outside and I can happily sit and have them flying overhead. I love watching them flit about from the living room window.

But I have a huuuge (maybe irrational) fear of anything flying around me indoors. (Moths are my most hated creature on this planet).

We often have baby bats in the house, we had the crazy David Bellamy type Bat Man round once to do a study on them and collect a few baby ones that had fallen down the chimney.

He said they usually come looking for water when a mother hasn't come back from her wanderings for food.

When we hear that there is one in the house , the latest one under my bed when we were in it, i have to leave the room until we find out if its a baby or not. If its too young to fly I am back in there and happy to help it.

But if it flies.... , I rather pathetically hide in another room and let my husband and kids get it out. I've even had to call on a neighbour before to get a flying one out of the house! I just freeze. But that's the same with birds inside. I just hate anything flying around me in an enclosed space.

Once I went upstairs without putting the light on and one swooped out of my son's bedroom and over my head. I nearly fell down the stairs running away. Causes no end of hilarity for my kids recited that story to all and sundry. i may or may not have screamed

But, having said all that, I am fond of my bat colony and as long as they don't fly around the room I'm in we live together pretty well.

bluntness i hear you on the windows open after dusk thing.
Not advisable here either or we would have them all over the house

I wassitting on the back doorstep and one flew into me a couple of years ago....I'm petrified now

@LolaDarkdestroyer when I was a kid I went to Spain with my parents. We were walking by the pool one night and there were bats everywhere swooping around us. My Dad's words were 'Don't worry! They have sonar, they can't hit you'
Two minutes later I was whacked around the face by a bat. Hence my phobia.

I am a little better since I've lived here, I love to watch them but only from a place I know they can't touch me. My eldest was full of bravado when he visited and proclaimed I was being a bit daft. He stood by the pond watching and suddenly found himself in the middle of a dozen, swooping little bodies. His retreat to the safety of the covered porch was spectacular 😂

hate them,hate them,hate them.Our family home in rural North Carolina seems to be bloody infested with them at dusk and they roost, upside bleedin down, in one of our barns. Smelly shit, too. you may call it guano, but to me it's shit.Smelly shit. As kids, any itchy spot,etc., we called Bat Kack Sickness.

We have a tiny pipistrelle that swoops over our garden in the evening. I am always thrilled to see it.

I’ve felt his draught a few times when letting the dogs out for their bedtime ablutions, always makes me smile once I’ve recovered from the shock!

Seen them in our London garden this year for the first time in ages. I love them too.
@Soubriquet what is a bee pool please? Sounds adorable 🐝 💛

Yes, we too are watching them every evening. Lovely.

It’s a small bowl of water with stones in it to stop evaporation and to stop bees drowning

I fill it up every day

And another thing....at home it's reckoned that 1 in 10(I think) carry rabies so the BatKack's number is on speed dial.I was there once when one got in and I saw him in action. He comes in full protective gear and a fishing net type thing at the end of an extending pole. Once he's got it, he takes it outside and releases it. So that it can come in again, like. Well, it keeps him in a job

Love bats.

Derry... just in case you haven't seen it!

My cat once caught a bat. Quite a feat was I imagine.

Oh I love "Catch him Derry!" 😂

We have pipistrelles flitting about every night and had one hanging upside down in the dining room curtains once! It got confused when I turned the light on and flew round and round at high speed until I turned the light off again and opened the door, it found it's way out into the dusk after about 10 minutes of frantic circling.
I don't mind bats flying around me but like a pp, cannot bear moths (or butterflies).

Not quite as entusiastic with bats as op. Our backyard is bordering on a wood, so we get a lot of wildlife and adore it. But especially in early summer the bats are very active, don't know if they are searching for new places to live.

One summer we had a couple circling our livingroom. Luckily I wasn't at home (I would have panicked), but poor dd had to make them leave. Even though our livingroom is big, it is scary having panicking bats circling. Now we have a screen door, just to be able to open and get some air.

Btw beware of touching them, even dead one, they are carriers of rabies.