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HELP! Bat in bedroom!!

50 replies

paperandpaint · 19/07/2017 23:34

We're in a holiday cottage in Herefordshire and there's a bat in our bedroom!!! Help! It's going craz. How can we get it out - anybody???

OP posts:
paperandpaint · 20/07/2017 00:14

Thsnks UtterlyBatty.🙂 That sounds like a really interesting job and so great to have your advice. We have just done a check of the room and all clear.

The video is hilarious but I am appalled at how feeble I sound!

OP posts:
UtterlyBatty · 20/07/2017 00:14

I grew up in Herefordshire, too. This is the perfect thread for me. Grin Would you like some sightseeing tips as well as bat advice? Grin

UtterlyBatty · 20/07/2017 00:16

piece only if you have a roost, really - one bat on its own certainly doesn't. Mind you Soprano Pipistrelles are known as Stinky Sopranos...

UtterlyBatty · 20/07/2017 00:17

Ah g'wan... Show us the video... Grin

Seeingadistance · 20/07/2017 00:23

Video, please....

UtterlyBatty · 20/07/2017 00:24

PinkLady how can you be scared of a bat on a curtain rail... no curtain rail is complete without a bat on it...

HELP! Bat in bedroom!!
user1498328475 · 20/07/2017 06:04

Open all windows, close door, go outside and throw something repeatedly in the air near the window.bat will pick up on movement and hopefully be drawn to the window. Someone showed me this once on hols, you know that time if the evening when the start to swoop around, he chucked his jumper in the air and they swoop towards it attracted by the movement.

Supersoaryflappypigeon · 20/07/2017 07:02

Yeah, I'm going to need to see that video op...Grin

ChameleonCircuit · 20/07/2017 08:08

Am I the only one now singing along to the new UB40 remix of "There's A Bat In Me Bedroom"? Grin

I would have completely freaked, I hate fluttery things.

UtterlyBatty · 20/07/2017 11:32

Whilst we're waiting for paper's video, here's a video of two brown long-eared bats (Boris and Beryl) flying round my living room. They are 'gleaners' - often taking insects from leaves - so they are quite slow flyers and can hover like a humming bird. They are amazing creatures (and the only mammal that can fly). Smile

maggie222 · 20/07/2017 13:19

UtterlyBatty - we moved into new area with moorland at the back and we are high up at the frobt so get the bats flying past our lounge window, they then make their way to the back garden and fly in circles for ages like your video.

Just wondering what bats they could be as I originally thought they were birds and look the same as boris.

My partner thinks I am mad as I wait for them every night 😁

Oldraver · 20/07/2017 13:28

There have been loads of babies leavign the house at the back of us and they certainly come a lot closer than the bigger ones.

I hadn't twigged their echo location wasn't as developed...just had to keep ducking...well we were standing on the trampoline to watch them

UtterlyBatty · 21/07/2017 10:55

maggie long eared bats are associated with woodland, due to their 'gleaning' hunting style, and their flight is adapted to being near trees - so slower, more hovering. Most bats seen in garden will tend to be pipistrelles, which are a little smaller, quite a bit faster and have quite a butterfly-like flight style. Here are two pipistrelles flight training in my living room...

UtterlyBatty · 21/07/2017 11:00

Here's a (not very good quality, sorry) pipistrelles visiting the garden. I'm trying to find a chart of flight patterns for you.

UtterlyBatty · 21/07/2017 11:03

OldRaver it's not so much that it's not as developed, more that they are still learning to use it and fly accurately. Bit like gangly teenagers being a bit clumsy. Grin

It always amazes me when I'm flying two together how deftly they avoid each other (and us!). DP just sits there on his phone while they whizz round his head. Grin

UtterlyBatty · 21/07/2017 11:12

Couple of links for identifying bats in flight...

www.discoverwildlife.com/british-wildlife/how-identify-british-bats-flight

www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=2117

maggie222 · 21/07/2017 11:29

Thanks UtterlyBatty - I got my DP to take a look last night. They are bigger than pipistrelles an do the wing flutter like boris. We have lots of trees and back onto farm/moorland. They like to fly in circles for ages between the trees.

I have asked my DP to put some bat boxes in the trees for them.

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 · 21/07/2017 11:57

Bats use radar
Subs use sonar

UtterlyBatty · 21/07/2017 15:55

They do sound like BLEs then, maggie. Smile You could contact your local bat group and they might like to come and do a survey - they can identify the bat by the frequency of the calls. Having said that, BLEs and GLEs (grey long-eared) have very quiet calls that aren't always picked up by a bat detector - they have evolved quieter echolocation (and bigger ears to pick up the echo) because certain moths and insects have evolved to recognise the sound of a bat echolocating so that they can take evasive action. Those huge ears are part of nature's arms race. Grin

HELP! Bat in bedroom!!
UtterlyBatty · 21/07/2017 16:03

Bats don't use radar, NotSuch. They use echolocation, which is more akin to sonar...

www.bats.org.uk/pages/echolocation.html

sticklebrix · 21/07/2017 16:12

OP you have my sympathy!! Well played though.

To the bat experts: how concerned should a person be about rabies after a bat encounter? I have no idea how prevalent it is in the bat population and don't want to google as we have bats in the garden and come across them all the time

UtterlyBatty · 22/07/2017 11:18

The short answer is... not very prevalent in UK bats at all, stickle, and you are at no risk whatsoever unless one bites you. Smile

The longer answer is here, and explains all the figures (and will reassure rather than scare you!) ... www.bats.org.uk/pages/-bats_and_rabies-1099.html

Something like 75% of all bat sightings are of pipistrelles, and EBLV (the rabies-family virus that some bats can carry) has never been found in a pipistrelle in the UK, nor in long-eared bats, which are the second most likely ones to come across. We have 18 types of bat in the UK, and the only bats that have been found in the UK carrying the live virus are Daubentons bats, which you are fairly unlikely to come into contact with, as they hunt over water (having said that, I found one huddled on a windowsill on Burford high street, so you never know!). The testing scheme found 14 bats, out of over 15,000 tested) that were carrying the virus, all Daubentons, and a further 3 carrying antibodies that indicated past exposure - those were a Serotine and two Natterers bats.

For the virus to be transmitted, you would have to be bitten, and the only way that would happen is if you're handling a bat. For that reason, people are advised to always wear gloves or use a cloth when handling a bat. All bat workers have to have rabies vaccinations, since a Scottish bat worker contracted rabies and died a few years ago. He had been working in Europe, though, so is far more likely to have been infected there, where it's more prevalent. The risk to you from the bats foraging over your garden is non-existent. Smile

UtterlyBatty · 22/07/2017 11:19

I'm very far from being a bat expert, btw - I've been a bat carer for less than a year!

sticklebrix · 22/07/2017 23:07

Thank you so much UtterlyBatterly! That is very reassuring.

OhGodWhatTheHellNow · 23/07/2017 17:29

I've had bats flying into my bedroom when I've been sat up reading, circling the room and then leaving politely. I love them. We have them roosting in the outbuildings.

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