So Cool, I Saw A Roosting Bat Hanging Out Today

[Fla Gal]

This little guy was hanging out on the brick wall of the loading dock all day today. The constant slamming of the back door didn't faze him a bit. He was still hanging on the bricks over the back door when I left work at 4:00pm.

I'd love to see the little guy take up residence but seriously doubt it will. Too bad. Bat's are the most environmentally friendly insect control. Little buggers can eat up as much as it's body weight of insects in one night. I've got bats in my neighborhood (and sometimes wonder about my belfry ) and love to watch them catching their dinner. Bye, bye skeeters!

It was a small brown roosting bat. I did a quick google search and learned not all bats are cave dwellers and not all of them hang upside down when they sleep. Here's a picture of the fuzzy little cutie.
http://home.ripway.com/2004-1/54682/bat.jpg

Here's a little information on Florida bats:
Bats are the only flying mammal. That alone makes them unique, but it may not elicit admiration from everyone, especially those who don't know what bats are really like.

There's a good reason to appreciate bats. In Florida, we can enjoy one thing in particular they do for us: eat insects. Seventy percent of all the bats in the world eat insects. Bats are the most important controller of night-flying insects, including many crop pests. One little brown bat can eat 600 too 1,200 mosquito-sized insects every hour! Most insect-eating bats eat their body weight in insects each night.
http://www.ecofloridamag.com/archived/florida_bats.htm

[soaring]

Fla Gal,
If you want him to stick around, and possibly invite his friends, put some bat houses up. They're not complicated to make. I have a pattern stashed somewhere "safe" , but you probably don't even need one once you see it. If you do want a pattern, I'm sure you can find one on the web or in the library.

I'm with you... bats are cool! Guano is an excellent, expensive fertilizer, too!

[Fla Gal]

soaring,

I'm still kicking myself in the butt for giving a bat house to a friend as a gift instead of keeping it to put up at my house. Yes guano is excellent fertilizer. A lot of money has been made in that field.

Unfortunately, I can't put up a bat house at work but can do so at my house. I found patterns on the web, but didn't check the library for plans for a bat house. I learned they aren't very difficult to construct.

One of my co-workers that lives about three city blocks away from me said, in one of the buildings (an apartment complex) there's is a perfect place for bats to hide and about 200 of them flock out at night. I see them flitting about my place after dusk.

I ought to build a bat house and lure some of them from his place before his landlord erradicates them. There's a fairly large pond between my co-workers place and mine and the mosquitos are pretty much controlled by the bats.

This little guy was so small (all of 3" high) and cuddly I wanted to hold him in my hands and pet him. But, Alas, as we know... not too practical.

Oh boy, not only do I have to get the rabbit cages set up, now I'm going to be hot on the trail of adopted bats.

[OD]

There's a tiny little bat that hangs in our barn almost every day. He's been there for 3 years off & on. DH has an old inner tube tied to a cross tie that he uses to tie colts to & Bat likes to hang under it. I always worry if he isn't there when I look for him.

[Fla Gal]

OD, I can understand your worry. Beneficial animals are sorely missed when they aren't there. I told only two people about the bat so some freaky person wouldn't take a stick and try to chase it off, call animal control or try to kill it. Grrr...

Fortunately, most of the people at work found the little guy a great source of amusement and wonder and pointed him out to others that enjoyed seeing him.

It's great that you've had your little buddy around for so long. I hope to attract some to my place soon.

[Little Quacker in OR]

Bats are certainly nifty little creatures and I enjoy watching them a lot. While bat houses are easy to build, it's not so easy to find a good place to put them up. That's the tricky part and it takes study and patience.

We found out here in the NW that the little guys like to winter under that rippled fiberglass stuff we use for roofing sometimes so I've started putting pieces of that here and there on the trees.

My son, knowing my liking for bats sent me some wonderful photos of a huge flock of flying foxes around Sydney, Australia. Very cool! LOL

LQ

[bubbba]

I think bats are indeed very cool. Outside that is. A bat inside is one thing that is guarenteed to turn big,hairy and o so mean bub into a screaming girly-man
Not sure why I guess its the way they fly around so weird they just give me the willies

[kathy H]

I used to hate bats! Came from girl scout camp when they were every were and had visions of them getting stuck in my hair. About ten years ago we lived in a house in town that had a peach tree. In the evening I would go out to check the rabbits and this sparrow would be flying around. One night dawned on me its not a sparrow its a BAT . Started watching it, then after a few days I put my hand up and wiggled my fingers and he would fly around my hand. He was cool. After about a month he dissapeared. Every summer right when the peachs would rippen he [ and the next year two bat friends ] would show up again. And every evening we would play the finger game[ looked like he was tied to my hand by a string].It was one of those times when you feel in tune to nature.Showed some friends the trick one night, they were tripped out. We moved after three years AND i STILL REMEMBER MY BAT FRIEND.

[Ravenlost]

How cool to see him up close! My hubby and I like to sit at the pond in the front yard in the evenings and watch the bats swooping over it after the bugs. I assume they roost in hollow trees down in our woods as that's were they come from at dusk.

[stirfamily]

Fla Gal, we have bats around here too. One night last summer I came up to the front door to play a trick on hubby by ringing the door bell and then running. Went up to the door and all of a sudden heard this squeaking noise and sound of wings and a bat comes flying out of our front porch light! Needless to say I was creeped out!

Karen in NE Indiana

[Fla Gal]

Update on the little brown bat. He was in the same spot this morning when my co-worker got in at 6:00am. He had to use a stick to move the little guy so the women that work there wouldn't insist on calling animal control. We believe he was there all night because of the bright light next to where he was. Ed put him in the shade next to the wall, close to the loading dock.

I was afraid the little guy would get killed there so I loaded him up on a pile of leaves in a front corner of my truck bed out of the sun. At lunchtime I touched him with a small twig to make sure he was ok and he truned his head toward me with his mouth open in a defensive reaction.

I'm hoping it was the light that kept him from leaving. He's all curled up in an almost fetal position. He's scrunched up to about an inch and a half long. I hope he isn't sick. We'll find out either after dark or in the morning.

[Fla Gal]

YeeHaw!!!

It's dark here now and I just checked on the bat. He's flown the truck bed (coop).

Maybe he'll take up residence with the others in the area. Bats are so cool. I enjoyed all your responses. Finger training a bat, a bat coming out of a porch light and a bat turning a guy into screaming girly-man. Don't feel bad bubbba, I've seen a three inch tree frog do the same thing to a guy I knew. I thought only women were afraid of frogs.

LQ, thanks for the rippled fiberglass stuff tip. Are you using the white or green stuff? Ravenlost, yes it was so cool to see the little guy up close and personal. I love to see them flying around catching the insects. I once saw a slow motion film on the discovery channel that showed them catching insects. They curve their body in a manner that makes the insects collide with their stomach and are eaten in flight.

By the way, I didn't pick the bat up with my hands. I used two thin pieces of card board and gently scooted him onto the one piece. If it means anything, he urinated on the cardboard when I was carrying him to the truck but was sleeping like a rock... never opened his eyes or mouth. Don't know if it was fear, or if he just had to go or sleeps really deep in the daylight.

Too cool.

[bubbba]

That does sound pretty cool about him not waking up when you carried him,maybe he just didnt open his eyes because of the light?? I dont know. The bat trained to fly around the fingers sounded pretty neat.

[sidepasser]

I had 8 bats living in my barn in the feed room. While they are really cool to watch, during the summer they stink, literally, due to the massive amount of urine and guano they produce for such little critters. Made my whole barn smell and then it wafted right over the connecting wall into the house.

They flew away this week, probably for warmer climes down your way in Florida. Little tiny small brown bats. I started the spring with one, then along came another, then a baby bat, then another, and at the end I had 8 hanging upside down in the feed room right over the (y'all gone love this...) unused exercise bicycle/instrument of torture. Couldn't think of a better place for them to hang! Ha!

Next year I will strongly encourage the little troupe to hang outside in the bat houses that I am putting up for them. But they are tremendously good bug catchers and I didn't want to eradicate them, just wanted them to roost elsewhere. BTW - mine seem to come back every year around end of March. This is the third year, but now it seems that the original bat is inviting his friends and relatives...I get a few more every year!

Sidepasser