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Talkback: Bats
Happened to me once staying in a friend's house near Dover, woke to feel a draught every few minutes on my face. Stupidly what I did was open the bedroom door, so it flew through there and then had the whole house to play with! Getting a bit of help from the others staying there, we eventually cornered it in the toilet and I picked it up, still remember the feel of its tiny claws clutching my fingers. And yes, I know I shouldn't have done but I wasn't up in bat protection in those days.
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One warm evening last summer, just after we'd moved into this house and garden, I lay on the lawn for about an hour, with bats swooping just above me - it was amazing watching them
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
There aes ome old buildings near us and we often see bats in the evenings. I have put out bat boxes in the hope they might like to live with us, but so far they are - probably wisely - happier where they are.
We had bats in the attic! No - really: the extension part of the house has a separate loft, and they took up residence. Quite something to be out in the garden at dusk and see them emerge and fly over the garden.
That said, the downside was that they would creep through gaps in the brickwork into the main part of the attic, and leave their calling cards all over he place!
I also recall taking kids down the end of the garden, and showing them how to attract bats: throw up into the air, as high as you can, a small handful of dry soil - the bats think there are insects there, and will swoop down. Super, thought I. Until one of the cherubs decided to chuck a stone into the air. At an angle. And it came down in the GH. Crack!!! One broken pane of glass. (Oh, well, he learnt the lesson, as did I
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The best way to get a bat out of the room is to open the window wide and turn off the light.
Why would anybody want to attract bats by throwing soil in the air? Sorry, I just don't get it.
Bat poo in the house is harmless. As they eat insects it is dry and inoffensive, but make sure your water tank is covered.
Actually it's not that innoffensive - we had huge numbers of large bats in the roof of our house in Zambia, and their droppings were anything but innoffensive!! However, I guess that particular species, and the sheer numbers, are not likly to occur here!
We've got bats living under the fascias (or are they soffits?) in our roof. They do sometimes get into the loft, but their poos are so dry and dusty you'd never noticce if yu weren't actively looking for them. I sometimes sit on a bench under my kitchen window after dark (alright, I'm smoking, not just sitting there. Sometimes there's wine too
) and I once had a noctule bat (we think) come too close while presumably after something that had been attracted to the light above my head, and the bat got tangled up in my hair!!!! GNEEEE! I went. GNEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Y'know, in that horrified but trying not to wake the children kind of way you do. Then I had a word with myself, VERY carefully disentangled him/her, and it sat in my hand for a few minutes until it had got over its own even bigger (though admirably silent) GNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, whereupon it flew off. It felt moleskinny, very very fragile, and it had the scratchiest feet in the world ever. All in all a weird but fascinating experience from my point of view. Probably just weird from the bat's. I've had a sparrowhawk in my front room, on the windowsill, after flying under the pergola and through the french doors. OH had to deal with that one - its beak and its feet looked just a wee bit pointy for me to get involved with. I once punted a hedgehog off the patio too. By accident, honestly
. It was dark, I didn't see it, and evidently I drag my feet a bit when walking in slippers. The whole thing was more than a little Johnny Wilkinson (and not a soul to see!). It definitely 'caught some air'. The hedgehog seemed unharmed, as was I. Still hoping for a nudge from a badger one day, but nothing doing so far. OH says its just as well - apparently they'll have your arm off as soon as look a you. I think he's got them confused with BEARS myself. Ho hum.
Hello Auntie Betty, I always thought it was an old wives tale about bats getting tangles in your hair. I hope my sister-in-law doesn't hear about your experience as she was always terrified that this would happen to her.
I think any encounter with wildlife makes your day.