Midnight Baseball: Lacrosse With A Bat
August 3, 2006 on 9:50 pm | In Main, Pests |
Last month it was the tiniest of critters invading my home. Just the other night it was something considerably larger. But first, a little background. The power went out a couple of times in the last few days. Those in the Lakeville-Salisbury area know what I am talking about.
A storm came through early Saturday evening, breaking a large tree branch near the back entrance to the Wake Robin Inn on Wells Hill Road. The power finally came back on at 2 a.m. And that’s the good news. On Monday a rogue thunderstorm rumbled through the area and toppled a number of trees including two which fell across Woodland Drive, downing power lines and trapping residents in the 20 or so homes in that development. But it also cut power once again to my home, this time on what was surely the hottest night of the year.
OK, I can deal with this, I thought. So after the kids and my wife were firmly entrenched in their steamy beds, I poured myself a glass of warm red wine, hauled out the battery powered radio, sat down and listened to the L.A. Steele program on Q-103. Steele (a.k.a. Leo Nadeau) is a nice enough guy, but his politics and that of his co-host Leila are so far to the left (and they are so bitter about it) as to make the program unlistenable. But, hey, I tried.
On this evening they conducted a fawning interview with gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano. It was sort of like watching Sean Hannity interview Joe Lieberman — a love fest better suited for the candidate’s Web site than a serious journalistic forum. But I digress …
After Leo and Leila had finished their encomium on DeStefano, I decided it was time to try getting some shut-eye. So I trudged upstairs, where I knew it would be even hotter. What I didn’t expect was that in the gauze of candlelight I would see a bat flying around the guest bedroom. It was 10 p.m., so I couldn’t go down to Herrington’s and ask them what to do (that’s how helpless I am!). I couldn’t even turn on the lights to get a better look. My wife suggested shutting all the doors to the bedrooms and dealing with the creature later. I obeyed and lay down, concerned about what to do next.
At about midnight the power came back on. When I emerged from the bedroom, all was clear, so I went downstairs to investigate. Still no sign of him. So I booted up the computer and started the tedious process of resetting all those blinking digital clocks. Then I could hear my wife yelling and I knew my services were needed.
The bat was flying around the master bedroom, evidently looking for insects that were not be found (I am told brown bats eat their weight in bugs every night). He finally flew out the door and downstairs. I followed him determined to do … well, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but it had to be something.
There was no sign of him anywhere, so I sat down and checked my email. There was a message from Monique Lowitt, a weekender from Sharon who was sending me a draft of a column she had written about … an experience she had recently with … a BAT!
As you can imagine, I read it with great interest — literally on the edge of my seat not only to see what she had written but concerned that my bat might resurface at any time. It is a very amusing column and we’ve posted it on our Web site. Click here to read it. And click here to read a recent column in the LJ on bats by Tony Piel, who made a comment on this post below.
After I finished reading about her terrifiying experience I was primed to resume my encounter. And … there he was circling around the kitchen sink. Thinking quickly, I took some of the advice I had just read and opened the kitchen door leading into the garage. The bat took a couple of passes but hesitated to go through. Finally, I had had enough. I went into the garage and tried to retrieve my tennis racket, but it was nowhere to be found.
But there over in a toy bin was my son’s lacrosse stick. I grabbed it and when the bat flew toward me, I smote him. For the record, I regret having done this. Bats are an important piece of our ecology. Imagine the insect population if they weren’t here to gobble up all those mosquitoes and moths.
But there was no way I wanted to take a chance on having him bite anyone, so my protective instinct took over. They must be incredibly frail animals because I did not hit him hard but he still died instantly. If anyone has a better idea on how to deal with the winged creatures, I am open to suggestion. Just don’t send me a bat via e-mail again, OK Monique?
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This happens a few times a year in our home. My husband just opens a window and in just a couple of minutes the bat flys out. I’m usually on the other side of the door watching and he’s the brave one and remains inside the room.
Fran
Comment by Fran Chapell — August 3, 2006 #
Hi Terry, I have regular bat problems. I keep my tennis racket behind the kitchen door. I overhand the bat (it’s my best swing) and then I put on my nytrile gloves and pick up the bat in a towel and take him outside. My bats tend to play dead for a while and then fly away. I think that I kill about one in ten, so don’t feel too bad. Your guy may have made it…if not the next nine bats are safe. But you do want to keep track of your tennis racket. Martha Miller
Comment by Martha Miller — August 3, 2006 #
Terry:
No need to kill any bats. Every house should have the following items in it:
1) A large flat cooking sheet (or a plate)about 8 - 10 inches in diameter
2) A plastic cake cover..normally about 4 inches high and 6 -8 inches diameter
About 3 years ago at WKZE on Main Street in Sharon, Dick Hermans left the back door open. When Christine Zoro and I arrived the following morning, there were 24, count em, 24 bats circiling in the station!!!!!
Left over from the Stan and Ira era was a silver serving tray, and also a large plastic bowl.
One by one, over the course of that day, and that night, I managed to scoop up off walls, all of the critters except one! He did fly out an open door!!
You can get them off a wall this way, or even on the fly!!!
My place in Bat Heaven is assured.
By the way, the story is true…just ask Christine Zoro!! Also, one of my favorite albums…..
Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf!!
Marshall
Comment by Marshall Miles — August 4, 2006 #
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Hi Terry, I put a fairly lengthy article on BATS in The Lakeville Journal earlier this year. Please look it up. The fright people are exhibiting is unnecessary, and the steps some are taking are totally inappropriate. The simple solution in your case was to shut the bat in one room, and then open a window or door to the outside or garage, lighted (as explained in my article) and the bat will be gone in no time. Killing a bat brings VERY BAD LUCK. Tony
Comment by Tony Piel — August 5, 2006 #
Put me and my husband Fred in the category of inappropriate overreactors!! Years ago when we lived on the Miles Sanctuary (where indoor wildlife included flying squirrels and very frequent mice to the delight of our cat, who would decapitate them and leave them as gifts on our pillow) we had a bat fly around one night. Our daughter was about a year old at the time, and we weren’t sure if it had gotten in her room or not, but she had no bite on her. We did the usual routine with pillow cases, tennis rackets and pots and pans, managing to get the thing out somehow. (I don’t think it survived the ordeal.) We thought nothing more of it until a few weeks later, when Mike Dudeck, the sanctuary manager, showed us a pamphlet about bat rabies - once every few years, someone, usually a child, somewhere dies of it, without anyone ever having known they’d been bitten. So of course we began researching this phenomenon, and though it was literally one in a million, we felt that the penalty for being wrong - certain death of our beloved baby - was too much to risk, so we all signed up for a long and painful series of rabies shots. Every time we went to Sharon Hospital and got into a chat with folks in the waiting room (”so, why are YOU here?”) we’d get the oddest looks when we told our story. Everyone always has bats flying around, it seems, and nobody ever gets the shots! Except us, still city slickers at heart ourselves, I suppose!
Comment by Jenny — August 5, 2006 #
Terry - it must have been the week of bats in the bedroom.
I was peacefully reading in bed when a bat suddenly soared around the room. Monte, my cat, rose to the occasion, using the bed as a trampoline leaped up in best jai alai fashion, scoring two hits, batting the fledermaus to the ground. The bat rallied, and continued to fly. I tried a broom to guide it to another room, but failed. Then I turned out the lights and vacated the bedroom. At this moment my husband appeared, and we began to search for the bat. Not behind curtains, it had vanished. However, Monte was sitting on my dressingtable bench, chin in the air, pointing in through-bred hunting dog fashion to the top of the carved cinoiserie Chippendale mirror. There, clinging, to a dull gilt pagoda was the bat, almost invisbile. Fred fetched an empty yogurt carton and plate, and gently lifted the bat away to release it safely outdoors. Poor deluded Monte, not seeing the bat flutter away, continued to “point” for another hour, convinced that the bat was still there.
The next night at 8:45 we observed an entire colony of 35 bats emerging into the night, one by one, from an open shingle in the attic.
I bought the last bat house at the Audubon center - it accomodates 20 bats only. The bat house must be placed at least 20′ off the ground, facing south receiving at least four hours of sunlight daily. Now how can we be sure that all the bats are safely out of the attic space before we hammer down that shingle? We have been advised that it is illegal to move bat colonies between April and July when they breed. Also that they have a sort of velcro under their wings for collecting up to 1,000 insects to carry back to their young. I do want to keep them in the vicinity of the house, but not IN the house, for I have observed that we have significantly fewer insects than our neighbors.
Comment by Judith Schwerin — August 14, 2006 #
i like how you threw in an unneccessary shot at Nadeau. i dont see how bashing a local radio host had anything to do with your story
Comment by Joshua — April 27, 2007 #
Joshua,
This is a blog. The posts often feature random thoughts. Listening to Leo was just one more frustration during the course of a frustrating night.
Comment by Terry — April 27, 2007 #