My Batty Room Mate

I had a batty room mate the other night.  It snuck in some small opening, probably along the edge of my sliding screen door.  It was greeted by my cat, and the chase and flapping of wings woke me up.  I flipped on the light switch and met my roommate for the night: a Big Brown Bat!

After hustling the cat out of the room and closing the door to confine it to my bedroom, I snuck out to get a long pole, namely a skylight crank pole.  I opened the balcony door and lowered the upper sash of the double hung window to give him two escape routes.  I turned on the balcony light, hoping to attract moths to lure the bat out.

But my bedroom ceiling peaks at 10 feet high, and the bat just wouldn't fly low enough to fly out the window or door.  Every time I nudged him with the pole, he just flew a few circles around the high ceiling and would land and hang upside down at the peak of the ceiling.

It was 4:00 in the morning and we were not making any progress, so he decided to just stay the night, hanging high at the ceiling peak.  We left the door and window wide open just in case he wanted an early check-out.

Big Brown after his check-out

But in the morning, he was still perched in the same place.  We tried a new tack: we put a towel on the end of the pole and when we put it near him, he clutched onto the towel.  We quickly stuck the pole outside the door, and the bat took off and landed on the balcony rail.  After a quick photo, he was gone, hopefully returning to his bat house on the front of the garage.

 

Three bats in there - I hope one is my room mate.
(We'll clean the wasp nest out after they've left for the season)

Don't worry - the cat is okay and we're okay, albeit a little tired from some lost sleep due to our uninvited house guest.

 

Comments

[The Zen Birdfeeder]

Debbie, I hadn't heard that about bats being good luck. I'll take it!

[Debbie Miller @HooootOwl]

Happy all is well and all are okay. I've heard it is considered good luck to you and your family when a bat visits the home :)

[The Zen Birdfeeder]

Kara, glad you like it!

[kara]

A great story with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing!

[The Zen Birdfeeder]

Larry, I've never seen one perched anywhere than inside the box...until that night! I believe that anything we can do to help out the bats, we should do!
Barbara, those high ceilings make it really hard to capture a bat that has ventured inside. We certainly want to help them! Thanks for your nice comment.

[Barbara]

Most of the little brown bats that used to live in my attic and were evicted to live in my drive shed have become infected with white nose syndrome and disappeared...though I did see one flying around a week ago in the early evening, thank goodness. You are lucky to have your three big brown bats - I spent many an evening doing what you did - trying to move them out of the church, and finally leaving a window open in an otherwise closed bedroom and hoping they'd leave if I couldn't catch them... bats are such valuable little critters. Great post - love it Nancy.

[Larry]

Interesting-I see bats flying around but have never found one perched near my yard. Bats are becoming endangerred in Connecticut. Good to hear you are watching out for them.