ARRGH!

[pegkerr]

The bat that got into our house night before last is not going to be a repeat offender because despite Rob's care, it seemed to have died of shock; it was still sitting in the juice container on top of the garbage can yesterday.

However . . .

I went to bed last night at 10:15--and woke up at 10:37 because a bat was flying over my head.

THESE BATS ARE TOTALLY UNAUTHORIZED!!!

Rob heard the screams more quickly this time and got rid of this one, too (fortunately, Delia did not wake for all the excitement). He walked it about a block and a half away as it swore at him, and he told it to live long and catch lots of mosquitoes but to NOT COME BACK.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When we had a bat, one of my helpful friendlist people told us to get a bat house for the backyard, so the bats would go into it and not into our house. We didn't, so I don't know how it would work, but I thought it was worth a mention.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Actually that's a good idea, they're happy in bat houses. And then you can observe them from a distance without worrying. They're really quite nifty little creatures, when they're not flying around in a dark bedroom scaring the bejeesus out of you.

[thewordoffred.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you need a NO SOLICITING OR BATS sign.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Peg, take that bat to the vet now. It may well have rabies, and you all need (ugh) to get vaccinated. It doesn't matter whether you think you were bitten; people have died of rabies from bats while sure the bat never touched them.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

Yes. Take the bat to the vet. While I (being a complete Gawthick Cliché) would be amused by a bat flying around my house, I would still worry about rabies.

There are are bat houses for sale here if you don't feel like making one yourself. I would get one for my yard, but we don't seem to have any bats.

[naomikritzer]

Peg, DO NOT THROW THE DEAD BAT AWAY. Take it into the Health Department for rabies testing.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

The other thing is that you, or Rob, or someone (maybe an exterminator?) needs to find out HOW the bats are getting into your house, in order to get (and keep) them out of there! Are they in your attic, or somewhere in your yard? Specifically, how are they getting into your bedroom?

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

What she said. We had a nest of bats in the parental chimney once when I was young. Poor Dad had to take care of it while we children huddled under the covers with my mom.

We used to get bats two or three times a year, but it was a really old house. So you might want to call a pro to see how they are getting in and if that entry can be plugged up.

Good luck!

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Taking it to be tested probably isn't a bad idea, since it died. But don't panic. The CDC site is good for facts:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/bats_&_rabies/bats&.htm

They seem to accept the possibility that a heavily sleeping person could get an undetected bite, but that clearly wasn't the case in your house!

Others reject that possibility:

"researchers gathered at the 29th North American Symposium on Bat Research find no credible support for the hypothesis that undetected bites by bats are a significant factor in transmitting rabies to humans, as implied by the January 16, 1998 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report."

http://www.batcon.org/discover/rabies.html

That site also says that "Bat rabies accounts for approximately one human death per year in the United States," and another site says that "The British medical journal, 'The Lancet', reported less than two cases of human rabies (of all types) per year in the United States between 1980 and 1996." That "less than two" includes all kinds of rabies, not just bat rabies.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Given these numbers, wasting your time to get the bat tested for rabies is a bad idea.

K. [just sayin', but you know how we are]

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You relieve my mind.

Rob's going to take the bat to be tested and we will see.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

According to the Pro-MED mailing list archives, there have been 38 cases of human rabies in the US that were contracted in the US (an additional 9 were acquired outside the US). Almost all of these cases were bat-strain (there was one raccoon-strain case in Virginia in 2003, and there may have been others I haven't read about). 8 cases occurred in 2004, which is the highest number of cases in the US since 1956. (This number was unfortunately increased by a group of patients who developed rabies after receiving organ transplants.)

I know that several of the case studies I've read have included statements like the following:

"The patient's family reported that he had killed a bat in his house on 10
March [2002], although he had denied having any direct contact."

(Interestingly, it's usually men who contract rabies by animal exposure in the US, and they almost always deny having any animal contact or mysterious wounds.)

The thing about getting prophylaxis is that it vaccinates you -- you'd have to find out how long the vaccine is good for, but you wouldn't have to worry about it again any time soon (certainly, IIRC, there was a 40- or 50-something liver transplant patient in Germany earlier this year who was grateful to have received rabies prophylaxis as a child, because it appears to have saved his/her life when all the other transplant receipients died). So if any more bats were to find their way into your house, all you'd have to worry about would be getting the bats out.

Certainly, the first step is getting the dead bat tested. If it's positive, you and Rob should certainly have the shots, and the Health Dept might suggest the same for the girls.

[/infectious disease geek]

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Ack. 38 cases since 1990.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

HC, you're good.

I would never have even thought about this if I had a bat in the house--which I certainly hope I never do, for my sake and the bat's. Now I'll know to just go and get the vaccination. I'm a fan of preventative medicine and not having to /wonder/.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Bat Conservation International has some how-to-evict-bats information:
http://www.batcon.org/binb/doityourself.html

Unauthorized Bats!

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

Okay, am I a monster for saying that this made me laugh at work on a day when it was much needed? Couldn't help but think somebody had neglected to complete a critical form in triplicate--AIB2005-KH, Authorization for Indoor Bats, Kerr Household. But seriously, I hope you get to the bottom of this bat issue quickly. And here's another vote for getting the shot!

Re: Unauthorized Bats!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Rabies vaccinations are lengthy and painful enough that you don't want to get them unless you have to. A friend of mine had bat exposure in her house: she had to get five doses of vaccine spaced over a month.

[fireflowerlass.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh, another bat? You may want to call your exterminator!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

We've done that in the past, and it is such a racket. "That'll be ____ hundred dollars for us to put down the chemicals. And we don't get up on a ladder and stuff steel wool into every single crack bigger than a 1/4" wide--you do."

We had bat-proofed the house years ago, and got rid of them after an epic struggle.

And then we had the house re-roofed. Which, of course, opened up all sorts of cracks again. Yeesh.

[fireflowerlass.livejournal.com]

aww no fun. Sorry about all that. So what are you going to do?