I'm going batty

[kayser]

We had quite an adventure at our house this morning. When my daughter got up to go to the bathroom, there was a bat in the toilet! I managed to stay calm and close the lid. (Later I regretted that I hadn't taken a picture :o) So, my husband had a job to do when he got home. He found the bat still alive!! He managed to get it out, and he DID take a picture.

You were probably wondering how this was related to PSE, well the picture isn't so great, is there anyway to make it better? I tried a few basic things but didn't see any improvement.

Here are two shots he took, any suggestions??

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4305/bat0mf.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bat0mf.jpg)


http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5148/bat18vx.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bat18vx.jpg)

[Wendy]

Kay ...

Aw he is so sweet ... I love bats :)

Every evening, in the warm weather, a colony of Pipistrelles swoop around in my backgarden ... its around dusk and they stay for maybe 15 minutes. Much too fast to photograph but amazing to watch ...

I really don't think that you will be able to do a lot with the images ...

Wendy

[Norm F]

Kay,

A bat in the toilet! Yikes. I think you did the right thing by not taking his picture in there. I mean, one would feel ridiculous enough being trapped in a toilet. Taking a photo would just be too much.

[Norm F]

Aw he is so sweet ... I love bats :)

Every evening, in the warm weather, a colony of Pipistrelles swoop around in my backgarden ... its around dusk and they stay for maybe 15 minutes. Much too fast to photograph but amazing to watch ...

I really don't think that you will be able to do a lot with the images ...

Wendy

Wendy,

Sweet? :confused: Those friggin' things are hideous! Nothing grosses me out more than a bat, but I do admire you for loving something that ugly :) .

[kayser]

I was SO not loving the bat this morning and can still picture him floating and moving his head!:eek: I will say this, though, he's quite a survivor, treading water all day:confused:

[ktnoon60]

Norm you must have your funny shirt on today, your cracking me up.
Kt

[mom to 4]

Can I ask a dumb question?? How did he get in??? Have you taken care to make sure none of his friends decide to drop by for a visit???

I hope you have more than one bathroom!!! I wouldn't be able to use that one for a month!!!!

Wendy....sorry but there is nothing cute about a bat!!!! They are rats with wings to me!!!

[kayser]

I don't know how he got in, and I don't know if he has friends. :( My husband was quite calm about it, while I was scrubbing the bathroom, looking suspiciously at every vent in the ceiling, jumping at noises... :eek:

[NMarti]

Kay
I'm afraid I would have gone totally "batty" and probably called animal control too. Ever since I saw the movie Arachnaphobia I can't go to the bathroom without lifting the seat first (we have big wolf spiders in our basement and they ocassionally venture upstairs) and now the idea of checking for bats too ....:eek:

[Red Sky]

Kay- I'm trained around here to keep the seat and lid down so that won't happen.:rolleyes: I agree with Wendy that bats are great. They can eat thousands of bugs a night and can put on a great display in flight. I had a bat house before I ever got a birdhouse. I used to go out at dusk with a big broom handle and twirl it around my head, I read that the vibration in the air attracted them, but I could never confirm if it worked or not. I gave it up when the neighbors started talking, and I could no longer carry a reflection in a mirror.

[kayser]

lol! My husband did a really good job with my daughter, explaining how bats are good b/c they eat bugs, etc. She'll probably forget about it. Me, on the other hand... If I had your imagination, I would be placing the bat in my next creation.:)

[Wendy]

Oh dear ...

... but I really do think that bats are lovely creatures. Here in the UK they are a protected species so if they set up home in your house well its not too easy to evict them :)

Wendy

[TonyW]

Had one in the bedroom at 3am last year - lots of fun - two people, two dogs and a bat flying around in circles. They're fast and they only just miss you - they have a great radar system. Took ages to steer it out through an open window. It just didn't want to leave.

When we lived in the UK we spent a year in a very old farmhouse. Wasn't getting very good TV reception so went up into the attic/loft to check on the TV antenna and found a whole lot of bats using it as a roost. As we weren't going to be living there long and the bats had obviously been there a long time we just lived with it and we never had a problem with bugs :) .

Tony

[Wendy]

Tony ...

Oh dear I would have loved to have seen that ... it would make an excellent comedy sketch :)

Wendy

[Jodi Frye]

Bats are adorable...mice with wings is all they are....with bigger teeth :) They keep your attic free of bugs and in the summer they reduce the mosquito population. Too bad he fell into the toilet.....what a dingbat :D

[kevq]

Kay,
I think bats are marvellous.
I don't know about the US of A but here in the UK, bats are protected animals.
If they set up a colony in your attic, you can't remove them. Also if you do catch one, one daft enough to be trapped like yours was, you're supposed to take him to the nearest Animal Rescue Center where he will be checked out and if fit will be brought back to where he was found and released.
Kev.

[virgo1]

Kay,
I have a bat story for you. The summer of 2000 after the house was resided. This one was in our bedroom at 2am. We got it out using a harmless, low tech method. I got a broom and the bbq tongs, we kept the door shut to keep the bat in and the cat out. It would not go out the window so we stunned it with the broom, picked it up with the tongs and let it free. It flew. Your recent experience reminded me of that.
Eva;)

[Netnut]

I don't know about the rest of the USA but in Iowa bats are protected. A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law had bats in her attic. She called the DNR (Department of Natural Resourses) and they told her that she could not kill them. That the best thing to do was to wait until dusk and then watch and see where they left the house and then go up there and plug the hole. That is what we did. There were many many many of them come out. Since we filled the hole, she has not had any problems. They also told her to put some bat houses in the grove but she didn't want them around.

[virgo1]

We have a bat house in the apple tree now and don't have many mosquitos.
Eva;)

[kayser]

Jodi- LOL, that needed a warning!
Eva- I got a great visual of you with the bbq tongs and the broom :D

My daughter was a little hesitant to go in the bathroom this morning, but her "brave" Mommy guided her in and showed her there was nothing in there. She told me tonight that he's back with his mommy and daddy and family and he had to take a bath b/c he was in the yucky toilet water.

I don't mind critters so much, I just like them to stay OUTSIDE! (I know, I'm encroaching on their habitat, but still...)

[Jodi Frye]

After seeing the bat here I got to thinking of the bat pic I took last summer...the kids spotted him and ran in to tell me about it. So of course I had to go look...then I had to run back in to get my camera...I'm surprised the pic even came out since I was trying to get as close as I could to him to get a good shot and yes I was a little intimidated by his 'hissing' at me....but I got the shot;

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1QB6eTDPHTCr8eAbwQNjDkSsfW2Cbn

Then I went and got a piece of plywood and leaned it up againts the house in front of him so that he could be covered from the sun. I assumed he was ill or perhaps he had flown direct into the house the night before and was still a little stunned...anyways the following day he was gone so hopefully he was OK.

[Lynn Dryer]

The Portland Zoo has a bat display and they are fascinating to watch. When we were there they were just hanging around but by the time we left they were getting much more active. It was so interesting that I didn't even think about taking pictures. It was a very low light level and would not have come out verty well. They are a wonderful and fun creature to watch.

[ktnoon60]

Jodi, great picture! It doesn't look like he was too friendly, I didn't realize their teeth looked so vicious.

Kt

[Wendy]

He was just scared :) :)

... I seem to remember we did a Challenge using this image :)


Wendy

[mayva]

Oh my Gosh!!!!!!.........I am soooooooooooooo glad that in my part of the country bats are few and far between. They are the ulgiest, scaryest things I have ever seen. I don't like them at all. Mice and Rats are also high on my stay in your area list. If I had seen what you ladies had seen I would be in a straight jacket by now. We had a mouse once and I went and stayed at a friends house until hubby caught it. I am getting the chills just talking about them............ugh!!!.....:eek:

You ladies are very brave...:)

Anna

[Scraptastickat]

yikes his teeth look a little menacing. Not sure I would have gotten that close...LOL Great shot Jodi!

[Jodi Frye]

Yup Wendy, you are right he was indeed included in one of Grant's challenges. Yes he was alot more scared of me than I was of him...poor little guy. Yes, he was 'little'...despite the way the image looks they are quite small. I did watch a show on Animal Planet about a woman that cares for bats...they were very tame around her...even kissing her ! Unfortunetly TV and fairytales give bad names to alot of innocent creatures.

[Jan Ruthig]

Jodi,

That is a really cool picture! I'll bet the Challenge was fun...

[Wendy]

Jodi ...

I watched a program on TV a while back about a women who has a bat sanctuary :) .If she has baby pipistrelle bats that need keeping warm ... she pops them into her bra :eek: :eek:

Wendy

[Jodi Frye]

Wendy, I think I may have seen that ! ...The bra thing certainly rings a bell :)

[bwolford]

I'm late to this, but I couldn't resist:

You must have been flush with excitment when you saw the bat in your toilet.

:D

[kayser]

Brice- it's never to late to share a funny with us!

Wow, Jodi, great picture. I'm sure my picture of that would have been blurry, with my hands shaking from fright!

[jazzfisher]

That reminded me --when we were kids, we found a small fruit bat (yes they only eat fruit) about the size of a large butterfly. We kept him in a big jar for several days (& fed him) & then let him go.
Every once in a while we have bats in the backyard here (CA.) too in the summertime. They do eat bugs, although we really don't get mosquitos or flies much here, maybe that's why there aren't many bats.

Brice you could have used some in your Halloween costume!!!

[Norm F]

Wendy,

After viewing Jodi's photo, I really must agree with you. Bats are so sweet!!! I love them now to. ;)

[kayser]

LOL, I think you meant:rolleyes:


And now everytime my daughter goes in the bathroom, she slowly opens the lid and peeks under there...and she also makes sure to block the bat's path to her bathroom. And, no, I didn't show her JOdi's picture.

[jazzfisher]

Kay,
Good idea--don't show her Jodi's pic---it looks more llike a vampire bat!!!

[CarolLHB]

Many years ago a there was an article in National Geographic about fruit bats, with their usual stunning photography. A friend of mine had three very young sons, one of which, age 5 or 6 was fascinated by the article. A few months later he was having a major fight with his older brother and got so angry and so frustrated he yelled, "That's it! I'm making the call!". He marched right over to the phone, picked it up and said, "Hello, Friut Bats?, Come get Mickey right now!"

We still laugh-he's about 35 now and a dad...:D