removing a bat from my wall

[Court Jester]

i have a bat in my wall. i have a vented gas fire place. the chimney is open for venting of corse. well i was sitting there about a month ago and the cat starts going nuts at the fire place. i mean ape shit. i sat there thinking "what a stupid freaken creature" then a freaken wing came out of the bottom of the door for the controles. that really set the cat on a freaken rampage. well i let the bat out, caught it, and threw it out the door.
well now i have this squeeking sound in the wall by the front door. i took the cover off the light switches and the electrical housing box things are there so it's not opened up. the hope was that ig i open it, the bat would come out and i'd sick the kitty cat on him. just kill his ass and be done with it. well no luck with the box there.
so how else do i kill a freaken bat inside my wall???
oh, and merry christmas

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

See, that's the problem.  At this point the bat's probably laid eggs in the wall, and they'll be hatching faster than you can kill them....

[Super Dave]

It's a rodent.  Try puttin' some mothballs in there.  Smell might drive them out.

[spyderchick]

And don't let your cat catch the bat, or you may be taking your cat to the vet for rabies.

Call a professional, because that's what they do, and they can tell you how to bat proof your house as well.

[Jeff]

I'm in a full-fledged war with mice right now...  I was wondering why there weren't any in my garage... well, DUH, because they're all in my kitchen...

So I managed to kill one in a sink full of water.  Pretty morbid & gross.
then last night, I emptied out a drawer and put a trap in it and one on the counter.
2:00am, I'm up on a conference call (ugh) and I hear SNAP!  Oh yeah baby, game on...

Well, I go and open the drawer and the trap is tripped but no mouse in it.  instead, the trap just 'winged' the bastard, so now I have a crippled, mouse that is PISSED and dripping blood all over my cabinet drawer.

I grab the bastard with a pair of tongs and do my best to break his neck while he does his best to get away and shoot blood all over my house on the way out.  4 mins later and he's freezing on the lawn and I'm mopping up blood, somewhat grossed out at the fact that I'll be flipping steaks with those same tongs.

I clean everything up and reset it all.  4 hours pass and I've got 2 more fat mice...  One in the drawer, one on the counter...

Toss them in the back yard, reset & head to work...  We'll see what we get tonight...

[tstruyk]

my dad's been a mole hunter since they moved into their house 9 yrs ago.  he and a neighbor have a contest each year to see who can kill the most (must be confirmed kills).  He likes to go out in the morning, stomp down the tracks.  Then go inside and make a cup of coffee and grab "spine splitter".  Spine splitter is an Iron rod with a wedge welded to the tip.  It was left at our old home by the original owner, we assume it was used to break through ice... its now used to kill moles.

He sits in wait in the front lawn on patio furniture, hot cup a joe in one hand, spine splitter in the other.  Upon seeing movement he gently sets the coffee down and approaches the tracks... spine splitter raised and ready.

He tells me its most satisfying to here the "crunch" as he drives the iron wedge into the track.  This thing probably weighs 20lbs and definately gets enough "penetration" to do the deed.  He then digs up the mole for confirmation, and throws it into the woods in the back yard. he makes sure to clear the pet fence as on more than occasion  one of the brittany's will bring it back to the porch (typically missing the head) and "show it off".

Jeff, what are you using in the traps?  Folks have had luck with peanut butter...

Bats... I'd call a pro for that one.   buy/build a bat house and put it next to the vent.  (similar to a bird house) my folks have one... say it REALLY helps with the insects.  Maybe give em a place to stay and they'll stay outta your chimney.

[Court Jester]

A bat house??? so what are the specs on a bat house. i'd do that.

[tstruyk]

http://www.batcon.org/bhra/economyhouse.html

http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/pest/factsheets/265-95.htm

and here's a page with a picture up the bottom of an occupied bat house...

http://batroost.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=200

[Jeff]

Most of the time I leave mouse traps empty.  Just arm them and butt the pedal edge to a wall.  Mice can't see well, so they run along wall edges using their whiskers as guides.  They will run right over an unbaited trap.

If I'm baiting (like I am now inside the house), I use walnuts.  You have to bend the trap 'food catch' a bit, but then you can wedge a piece under it.  From there, again, butt it to a wall or edge.  That forces the mouse to stand on the trap to get at the food.

Or, run 3-4" of water into a sink and take a milk-cap and put a walnut (just the meat, not the shell - duh) into it and float it.  Mice will dive in and drown in a few hours.

[tstruyk]

your evil!!! lol

[funsizeracing]

See, that's the problem.  At this point the bat's probably laid eggs in the wall, and they'll be hatching faster than you can kill them....

Bat's are mammals, they don't lay eggs.

[Jeff]

your evil!!! lol

noooooo...  Glue traps.  those are evil.  Especially when you toss them in a fire or leave them in the hot sun when you're done with them.

Or worse was the one time I had a live trap.  The mice would run through an opening and it would scoop them into a chamber where they happily existed until I released them into my neighbor's truck (but that's another story).  There was one day when I wound it up too tight and the first poor mouse to come through got splattered on the back wall.  Then there was the time I forgot about the trap for a few weeks.  I wondered what that awful smell was.  It was the few remaining mice, going all 'donner' on the dead ones, eating them up... 

I threw the trap away at that point as it almost made me puke, and it was, just plain evil...

[Court Jester]

http://www.batcon.org/bhra/economyhouse.html

http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/pest/factsheets/265-95.htm

and here's a page with a picture up the bottom of an occupied bat house...

http://batroost.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=200

Well i know what Nicholas will be doing for Boy Scouts now. that's cool as hell. thanks

[Court Jester]

noooooo...  Glue traps.  those are evil.  Especially when you toss them in a fire or leave them in the hot sun when you're done with them.

Or worse was the one time I had a live trap.  The mice would run through an opening and it would scoop them into a chamber where they happily existed until I released them into my neighbor's truck (but that's another story).  There was one day when I wound it up too tight and the first poor mouse to come through got splattered on the back wall.  Then there was the time I forgot about the trap for a few weeks.  I wondered what that awful smell was.  It was the few remaining mice, going all 'donner' on the dead ones, eating them up... 

I threw the trap away at that point as it almost made me puke, and it was, just plain evil...

and you have way too much fun killing mice man.
and penutbutter works great on mouse traps

[Jeff]

when I was a kid, we would hunt bats with tennis racquets...

Take a nylon and fill it with sand, cut some small holes in it and hang it from a tree around dusk.  As the sand trickles out, the bats think it's bugs, so they come flying.  PONG, ya whack 'em.

[spyderchick]

Take these cats. They are handsome and full grown (no kitten hijinx). Mouse problem solved, happy kids, and no more chewed up valuables.

[funsizeracing]

Don't let Jeff get' em.  He'll bludgen them to death with a tennis racquet and then send the fur off to make sweaters. 

Poor kitties.  Makes me sad. 

[Jeff]

Damn it Becka!  You beat me to it!! 

[Court Jester]

well one made it's way out. i scooped it up and slung it outside. temps in the upper 20's so i don't think it'll make it too far.

[Court Jester]

and i swear my floor is clean. it does look dirty as hell in the picture though doesn't it

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

I'm in a full-fledged war with mice right now...  I was wondering why there weren't any in my garage... well, DUH, because they're all in my kitchen...

So I managed to kill one in a sink full of water.  Pretty morbid & gross.
then last night, I emptied out a drawer and put a trap in it and one on the counter.
2:00am, I'm up on a conference call (ugh) and I hear SNAP!  Oh yeah baby, game on...

Well I worked at Orkin for 2 yrs. Loved dealing with mice.

BTW Mice can swim just for future reference.

Best way to stop it, is find out how they are getting in and seal the hole they are using. Mice can squeeze through holes small as 1/4" if they HAD to, but much like people, they'll take the easy route. Get a blacklight, turn off all lights and then look for anything that sticks out. Mice pretty much piss all the time and leave trails of urine. Anytime handling a mouce, wear gloves if possible or use pliers. Mice can carry Hentavirus which can be fatal. Personally I liked using the Tin Kats with a glueboard inside it. The glue board made it easy to clean out (dead mice can weld themselves to the metal bottomes after a month or so). I've opened them up with live mice in them, seen them going Jeffery Dahmer on eachother, once opened one up and a female mouse had her pups while stuck in the glue. Not a pretty site to see, but that was my job. If the place I was working on didnt have pets or young children, I;d just use poison baits.


As for bats, those are one of the few animals I will run screaming from. Glad they werent part of Orkins service. I had a list of places I could suggest to people that asked about certain nuisance pest. SNakes I would handle myself even though its not part of Orkins service. I carried a collapsable tong and a hook in the truck. When we had a company inspection from HQ the guy inspecting the truck for proper equipment and correct storing (ie chemicals in teh toolboxes in teh beds. not supposed to keep any in the cabs) asked what those were. Kinda shocked him when I told him I removed snakes from a few customers homes. The other techs were pussies. Brought one back to the office after dropping the truck off (was gonna release it at an area that was better suited for the snake than the customers home) and had it wrapped around my arm. Very pretty fox snake. (have been bitten by one also) Damn the one tech screamed like a little girl when he seen it.

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Bat's are mammals, they don't lay eggs.

Hence the little laughing dude at the end of the sentance....

[funsizeracing]

Just checking. 

That little laughing man at the end seemed innocent enough but it could have been the "muahaha" evil laughter brought on by the thought of bat eggs incubating inside the walls of your home.

Ya never know for sure.

[spyderchick]

Hence the little laughing dude at the end of the sentance....

I'm glad you have an editor in real life...

[aberg12012]

Bats I know nothing about... but mice?  I got a solution for that.  Click the link.  (Warning, not for Ophidiophobes.)

http://www.pbase.com/alanjames/image/51757925

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Sometimes you do things like that, and the world doesn't get the private joke.  See, Kankakee is kind of a redneck, illiterate town.  We have a "Speak out" section in the local paper, and they print whatever the populace sends in.  So there was this one lady who wrote in that they should spray for bats, because the bats are always swooping down, and they lay their eggs in your hair.
Well, my wife saw this, and she was literally in tears laughing about it.  She just had to share it with me.  I too was more than a little amused, especially when darling Laura read the letter to me in her best trailer park drawl.
So now whenever bats are brought up, Neither Laura or I can resist the mention of bat eggs.  Yew see ah may be dumb, but I ain't literate....

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

I'm glad you have an editor in real life...

Still worrying about the statute of limitations....

[dylanfan53]

That's a cute bat. 

For  mice, McGuyver says run a piece of wire through a spool and string the wire across the top of a 5 gal. bucket.  Coat the spool with peanut butter and put water in the bottom of the bucket.  They spin the spool and fall in.

[Jeff]

And yes, mice can swim, but not more than a few hours...

As for finding the entrance?  Well, it's a house...  1/4" openings are pretty common...  My guess is that they come in through the garage which has a goofy door that doesn't always close tight.

[Court Jester]

get a cat or two. you'd be amazed at what an outside cat or two can accomplish

[spyderchick]

get a cat or two. you'd be amazed at what an outside cat or two can accomplish

I've told Jeff this at least 1/2 dozen times. Jeff hates cats. That's why I keep telling him to get a cat. Amazing how well you like an animal when it does what it's supposed to do!

We have a ton of stuff in a barn in agricultural Racine where we store all spare bikes, parts, and Roger's car. Yeah. they have 3 cats. We have no mice. No mouse droppings, no mouse pawprints, no mousie chew marks, no nests of mice, no wrecked electrical wiring. We have seen cat prints on the car and found one pile of cat poo on the floor. I'll take that for peace of mind. No mouse traps, no mouse bait, no mouse poison.


Hey Jeff, get a cat!   

[Jeff]

1.  I hate cats
2.  Wife is allergic to cats
3.  1 dog is deathly afraid of cats
4.  Other dog simply wants to eat cats


The list went on and on but the rest all fell under category 1...

And don't get me wrong.  I don't mind that other people have cats, in fact, I'll probably pet them when they come over.  I just don't want any myself...

[funsizeracing]

3.  1 dog is deathly afraid of cats

How big is your dog?

[spyderchick]

1.  I hate cats

get over yourself

2.  Wife is allergic to cats

have Jen get over herself

3.  1 dog is deathly afraid of cats

Your dog is a pussy, tell it to get over itself.

4.  Other dog simply wants to eat cats

Send this dog to sensitivity training.


Just kidding.   

Hope you get rid of the meeces. <:3 )~~~~  <:3 )~~~~  <:3 )~~~~

[Jeff]

See, and all that is why I hate cats...  Because I refuse to be subservient to an animal...  They're arrogant creatures, and well, that doesn't go well with my arrogance...

[Court Jester]

but they handle themself so well when you're gone three days for a race.

[Jeff]

How big is your dog?

3.5' long, 12" tall, 65lbs...  basset hound...

Yeah, cats are cool that they can survive without daily interaction, but the downsides just aren't worth it for me.

[spyderchick]

...that doesn't go well with my arrogance...

[Burt Munro]

Solution to the bat problem......

1. Cut a hole in the wall above where you think the bat is hiding.

2. Pour gasoline on the wall below the hole.

3. Set the gasoline on fire.

4. When the bat comes out of the hole stab him to death with an ice pick!

Haven't ever tried this myself but I think the results would be similar to the solution a friend from college came up with when he had a case of crabs (only difference was he used a razor on 1/2 of the affected area)!!   8)

[dylanfan53]

Once again with the old "I had a friend" line...as in "Uh Doc, I have a friend who has this problem with crabs..."


Sound advice on the bat removal technique though.

[Court Jester]

HAHAHA
awesome. i'll try that.
though i'll be off line till i get a new house and get hooked back up on the internet. i'll let you know how it works out, or i guess you could just check the local paper. you guys are the best