Bats!

[sashwap]

ugh. had a bat in the bedroom at 3:30am. cats going crazy, girlfriend screaming. we opened a couple windows and i thought it flew out, but then our cat was trying to get behind the bookcase so i think it might have settled there. i never saw it fly out, i just assumed it did when i didn't see it flying anymore. now we have a guy ("the bat man!") coming over to try and trap it for us.

anyway, i'm 99% sure we didn't get bitten, but i'm worried about rabies after looking up stuff online. anyone deal with this kind of thing before? apparently we either need to catch the bat and get it tested, or we need expensive vaccines.

also:

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

Bats!

[clare]

I didn't hate bats until the lyssavirus outbreaks here in the mid 90s.

[Greg Nog]

Bats are awesome!

In theory, yeah, the cat is the biggest worry here in terms of did-it-bite-something, so you may want to have the bat killed and tested just in case.  But I was a dorm-father-thing to a bunch of high-schoolers one summer where we always had bats, and we never went through that hassle for humans (who, unlike cats, don't actually try to tussle with bats in a way that could make the little guys want to bite) -- I would just catch the bats and release them outside, and that was that.  The dorm had a little bat-cave up in its ceiling that had its egress blocked, so about twice a week, the bats would try to escape through the dorm itself.  So every few days, I would get a terrified-looking sixteen-year-old knocking on my door at 3 AM, all, "UH SOMETHING IS FLAPPING, I HEARD YOU CAN CATCH THEM, DO YOU HAVE THAT POWER"

Can you see beind the bookcase at all?  Maybe move it out of the way and/or shine a flashlight back there?  If the bat's still there, it should look like a little tiny mouse or half-kiwi; Little Brown Bats are super-tiny when they settle into place with their wings wrapped tight.

To catch them, I always just used the same method my dad used whenever a bat got into my grandmother's house (which happened about once a year or so).  Grab a bedsheet, and cover the bat when it's motionless in the corner, then kinda scoop it up, progressively bunching more and more of the sheet around it as you get ready to scoop, giving you multiple-fabric-layers between you and the bat. 

If it's flying, you can use the same sheet as a big net, stretched out between your extended hands and sailed through the air at the bat, then closing around it.  This'll likely take you a few tries, though, as they're really good at echolocating the big white sheet coming at them and will try to veer away from it.  Ideally, you want the room's door to be closed, so that it can't get away; it'll just keep sailing round and round in circles.  I don't think it's ever taken me more than about ten minutes to catch 'em that way, it's just a bit of trial-and-error.

Once you do get it in the sheet, make sure to use as much of the bunched-up sheet as padding around the bat as possible.  Their wings are really delicate, and you don't want to harm them, particularly if your end-goal is to let it back outside (though even if you want it to be destroyed to test for rabies, it shouldn't have to suffer with a broken wing for the last few hours of its life). 

The padding is also good as protection for you, since a scared bat will usually try to bite.  They're not good at it -- like, they can't twist their heads arond and give a good snap like a cat or dog can -- but they do do a little pac-man thing with their non-moving heads.  Bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, teeth impotently closing in the air, hoping they manage to nip you by sheer luck.  You should be fine as long as you have enough sheet bunched around it, but you can always wear gloves, too; their bites aren't strong enough to get through a few thick layers of fabric.

Good luck!  Bats are hella adorable.

[dumbfish]

What Greg said. For what it's worth, it's really really unlikely to be rabid. Like, if you wanna worry about bat rabies, you should also worry about chipmunk plague.

[elpollodiablo]

Greg that is one fine take on bat-catching.

[milesofsparks]

Greg that is one fine take on bat-catching.

yes, you should make a handbook, with drawings.

[jm]

Greg that is one fine take on bat-catching.

yes, you should make a handbook, with drawings.

Thirded

[peacocks]

I wouldn't worry about being bitten or having rabies. I hope you don't destroy the bat

[Ignatius]

We would use a lacrosse stick or shooing when one bat among the hundreds evicted would try to return to my house and post up on a curtain. Woulda been nice to have the Greg Files on Bat Capture then.

[sashwap]

I wouldn't worry about being bitten or having rabies. I hope you don't destroy the bat

nope, bat made it out safe and sound. the bat guy came over and said we don't have a nest or colony in the attic. i think all is well.

[peacocks]

Good!!!!!

[FreddyKnuckles]

Hey Greg, sometimes I get a big, dusty moth in my apartment and it takes me like a half hour to kill the fucker. Any pointers?

[Ignatius]

I got one: Stop drinking.