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• earlyagain Posts: 7,928 Senior Member

  August 2018 #2

  Good practice for fly season.

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• Gila Posts: 1,968 Senior Member

  August 2018 #3

  Poor little guy.  He was just after a moth...
  

  No good deed goes unpunished...
  

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• Spk Posts: 4,832 Senior Member

  August 2018 #4

  I bet he was a two pounder!
  
  
  
  
  

  Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience -- Mark Twain
  How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
  
  

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• Fisheadgib Posts: 5,797 Senior Member

  August 2018 #5

  Sounds like a typical small town Wisconsin weekend.

  snake284 wrote: »

  For my point of view, cpj is a lot like me

  .

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• Big Al1 Posts: 8,812 Senior Member

  August 2018 #6

  Got another one tonight! First pass with the fishing net! Don't know how they heck they are getting in??

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• Big Chief Posts: 32,995 Senior Member

  August 2018 #7

  Fireplace?
  

  It's only true if it's on this forum where opinions are facts and facts are opinions
  Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
  I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!

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• Big Al1 Posts: 8,812 Senior Member

  August 2018 #8

  The house is built into a hillside so the upstairs is actually at ground level. They are  getting in the lower floor area where there is no attic access. The chimney is stainless with mesh on top. I'll have to look around outside and see if I can find an entry.

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• bullsi1911 Posts: 12,423 Senior Member

  August 2018 #9

  The problem with Wambli’s plan is that (depending on the breed of bat), they will probably have pups in the roost.  You wall off the adults, and you may end up with a stinky problem in a few days.
  
  See if you can identify the breed from the ones you whacked, and check with a local master naturalist to see if the breed would have pups in a nursery colony at this time.
  
  You can also find local ‘rescue’ organizations here:
  https://batworld.org/what-to-do-if-you-found_a_bat/
  
  bats are cool and eat bugs, and have some challenges that are facing them right now (white nose).  Try to save them if you can.

  To make something simple is a thousand times more difficult than to make something complex.
  -Mikhail Kalashnikov

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• earlyagain Posts: 7,928 Senior Member

  August 2018 #10

  My dad built a bat box on the upper back wall of the garage to give them alternative quarters and keep them from nesting in the porch supports of the house. He said it worked.

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• bullsi1911 Posts: 12,423 Senior Member

  August 2018 #11

  Bats and purple martins will both make a huge dent in the bug population.  

  To make something simple is a thousand times more difficult than to make something complex.
  -Mikhail Kalashnikov

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• Antonio Posts: 2,986 Senior Member

  August 2018 #12

  Quite an uncommon pest here; SIL had only one living in a rented house and she and my wife named it "Bruce" (Get the irony?); every sundown it went inside through the chimney, fly through the stairs up to the 2nd. floor, catch any insect flying around any lamp (Specially the big one in the TV room) and exit through the always opened main window.
  
  I imagine they are enough a varmint problem there to just whack them (I'd do the same thing with the doves or the cats here but the wife won't let me) but regarding the idea of "bat houses" to allow them to rest in a place where they won't become a nuisance....how the droppings issue is managed in that case? Always heard that such thing is apparently a SERIOUS problem with these little animals when they settle down to rest even in small groups.
  

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• Spk Posts: 4,832 Senior Member

  August 2018 #13

  bullsi1911 said:

  Bats and purple martins will both make a huge dent in the bug population.  

  True, but I don't want them in my house. They belong in the cave of kyre banorg!
  
  These flying rodents are always cute and fuzzy until someone gets bit. They go straight for the throat. Then it's off to the doctors to get treated for rabies.
  
  
  
  

  Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience -- Mark Twain
  How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
  
  

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• jbp-ohio Posts: 10,934 Senior Member

  August 2018 #14

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIvnOHwJBho
  
  

  "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson

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• Gene L Posts: 12,816 Senior Member

  August 2018 #15

  Fledermaus.  One got in our house.  There were three women visiting and they all believed that a bat would get in their hair (and these were educated women) so they got on their knees and crawled out.  Meanwhile, our cat sat on the couch arm and slapped it out of the air with one try.  Caught it under a bucket while it was stunned.  My wife took it outside to set it free...it was squeeching and when she let it out a fox came up and took it while it was still on the ground, ignoring my wife.
  

  Concealed carry is for protection, open carry is for attention.
  

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• rberglof Posts: 2,998 Senior Member

  August 2018 #16

  Last week had a bat in the house, caught it and released it. A couple days later there were two flying around the living room then they went upstairs. Got leather gloves went upstairs found one flying around, slapped it out of the air took it outside and disposed of it. Two days later the other one flew into the living room and landed on the curtain, I caught it and disposed of it also.

  I had an window air conditioner upstairs and noticed there was a small gap that they most likely used to get in.
  

  
  

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• jbp-ohio Posts: 10,934 Senior Member

  August 2018 edited August 2018 #17

  Make sure to keep bats out of the attic. There was a house over by the new high school that had bats for years and years. When someone finally went into the attic, the guano was 1/2' deep. They condemned the house and tore it down.

  "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson

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• coolgunguy Posts: 6,637 Senior Member

  August 2018 #18

  jbp-ohio said:

  Make sure to keep bats out of the attic. There was a house over by the new high school that had bats for years and years. When someone finally went into the attic, the guano was 1/2' deep. They condemned the house and tore it down.

  Wife's school has had them for quite a while.  I pointed out to the superintendent YEARS ago that there are too many holes to count that are allowing them in.  Mentioned it to the maintenance guy too.  Neither seemed to give much of a crap, so I didn't either.  Not my building, if they don't care, I will happily put my giveashitz in a different basket.  
  
  That was before I heard about histoplasmosis.  
  
  As it turns out, one of her fellow teachers (strangely enough, the one whose classroom sits DIRECTLY below the massive guano pile) got sick last year.  Not just sick, but SICK.  Near death kind of sick.  Out of work for MONTHS kind of sick.  Now, to be fair, she has pre-existing conditions that are borderline serious all on their own... but, it didn't escape my notice that they're cleaning out the "attic" and sealing the entry points this year. 
  
  I don't think I'll put any money on "coincidence".
  
  
  

  "Bipartisan" usually means that a bigger than normal deception is happening.
  George Carlin

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• zorba Posts: 25,280 Senior Member

  August 2018 #19

  Put up some bat houses. Properly built bat houses will attract the bats and locate them where YOU want them, not where you don't. Plus you help bats which is  a good thing all around!
  

  -Zorba, "The Veiled Male"
  
  

  "If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."

  )O(
  

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• coolgunguy Posts: 6,637 Senior Member

  August 2018 #20

  I should mention she was not diagnosed with histoplasmosis.  
  
  I should also mention that the superintendent and the maintenance guy will be doing the cleaning/sealing themselves, rather than shell out the clams required to hire people who know what they're doing.  

  "Bipartisan" usually means that a bigger than normal deception is happening.
  George Carlin

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• 10canyon53 Posts: 2,122 Senior Member

  August 2018 edited August 2018 #21

  Gene L said:

  Meanwhile, our cat sat on the couch arm and slapped it out of the air with one try. 
  

  My mother used to tell stories of a cat she used to have that would catch bats on a regular basis.  She would watch a bat until she figured out the pattern it was flying and then find a high point along the lowest point of the bats flight path to ambush it.  She would jump and slap it right out of the air.  The same cat had an interesting way of teaching her kittens how to hunt.  First she would bring in dead prey for them to eat.  Then it would be barely alive.  The prey she brought home would be progressively less injured until she was bringing in completely unharmed prey to turn loose in the middle of her litter of kittens.
  

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• tennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member

  August 2018 #22

  Only had one bat that I can remember that got into the house. It came in through the chimney. A badminton racquet made its demise rapid and final.
  Also had a Muscovy duck come down the same chimney. Neighbor had some of those ugly nasty critters and they roamed around the whole neighborhood. This one would fly up on the top of the chimney and take a nap from time to time. I guess it woke up, lost its balance, and fell down the chimney. Had to  open the draft to let it fall the rest of the way through. Kicked its butt outside, and made a stainless steel hood for the top of the chimney that the stupid duck couldn't land on (Vee roof chimney cap with stainless steel screws every 1/2" sticking up on the ridge of the cap. Duck found another place to nap. The Muscovy ducks disappeared about the same time the first coyotes showed up in the area.
  

    “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
  ― Douglas Adams
  

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• zorba Posts: 25,280 Senior Member

  August 2018 #23

  That reminds me, I need to get a sheet metal guy out here to permanently cap off the fireplace chimney.
  

  -Zorba, "The Veiled Male"
  
  

  "If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."

  )O(
  

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