9 ms·

I remember when I briefly lived in WV, we had a bat in our house and after knocking it down with a pillow, I needed to remove it, and i was WAY too much of a sc

I remember when I briefly lived in WV, we had a bat in our house and after knocking it down with a pillow, I needed to remove it, and i was WAY too much of a scaredy-cat to remotely touch it bare-handed. I came up with an elaborate procedure with an upside down bowl, took it outside and ran away as soon as I freed it. Glad to see my hilariously overweight instincts validated.

slibhb 2y ago
The problem here wasn't getting bit, it was not getting vaccinated. It took a month for symptoms to appear (which is typical) and at that point it's too late. Growing up, it wasn't too uncommon for a bat to get stuck in the house. Mostly you can just open a door and it will find its way out. If not, it will get tired and you can bring it outside while it's asleep. If you get bit, you need to get vaccinated.
- mingus88 2y ago
  I occasionally have birds fly into my garage and need help getting out. They will fixate on the large window and need some help finding their way out But, yeah, bats who echolocate don’t really need help, do they? Sad that the woman’s good faith efforts to peacefully move the animal was far more dangerous than she could have known
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > the woman’s good faith efforts to peacefully move the animal was far more dangerous than she could have known The bat and the bite weren’t dangerous, her decision not to seek medical attention after being bitten by a bat was.
    - margalabargala 2y ago
      The bite was in fact pretty clearly dangerous.
      - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
        [flagged]
      - kimixa 2y ago
        At some point the reduction of what is to "blame" becomes ridiculous. Getting stabbed wasn't dangerous. The blood loss was. The blood loss wasn't dangerous, cerebral hypoxia was.
    - Mordisquitos 2y ago
      To be fair, we do not know whether she actively decided not to get vaccinated for rabies after her encounter. She may have been ignorant of the need to do so.
      - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
        Fair enough, I changed the language to avoid that misreading.
- shaky-carrousel 2y ago
  I threw a towel to it and moved it outside. It got pretty stuck to the towel so I left it in the garden.
- elzbardico 2y ago
  My first instinct would be to shoot it with birdshot. But that would be stupid, as now there will be no way to know if the bat is sick.
zarzavat 2y ago
If this happens, do not free the bat after trapping it! Instead contact your relevant disease control authority so that the bat can be tested for rabies. Otherwise doctors will have to assume you've been infected and treat you regardless of whether you need it or not. A bite or scratch is not necessarily visible.
- foota 2y ago
  The above comment doesn't state this explicitly, but bat bites can go unfelt (e.g., if you're sleeping, for instance) so the recommendation if a bat is found inside the house is to keep the bat for rabies testing and see a doctor.
- jliptzin 2y ago
  I’ll never understand why the recommendation is for people with no training or experience in handling wild animals whatsoever is to expect them to catch a potentially rabid bat instead of just vaccinating them. Even if someone manages to catch the bat and it tests negative for rabies, then what? What if the test isn’t 100% accurate? Would you trust it? Considering how awful and deadly the virus is, I would not care what the test result is, I’d want the vaccine. I got it about 10 years ago, it was a series of 3 shots and was no big deal. We give rabies shots to dogs and cats constantly, why do humans have to jump through hoops to get it?
  - zarzavat 2y ago
    Whether or not to trap the bat requires some common sense specific to the situation, perhaps you can effectively trap it by closing a door for instance. However if like GP you've already trapped the bat then you should definitely not release it. The post-exposure treatment for rabies involves immunoglobulin[0], which is not always easily available especially in the kinds of places where rabies is most endemic. The vaccine alone, post-exposure, may not be sufficient. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound a cure, get vaccinated beforehand. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_immunoglobulin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_immunoglobulin
    - deleted 2y ago
plagiarist 2y ago
They recommend going to the ER if there is ever a bat in the room while you have been sleeping because the bites can be undetectable. Any contact at all and it could have nipped you without you realizing. You were right to be wary.
- cedws 2y ago
  Damn, there was a bat hiding out in my room for ages when I was a kid. Glad to say I never got rabies.
- adamredwoods 2y ago
  This happened to our friend's family. They all had to get shots and in the US, doctor's rarely carry the vaccine, so each time a shot is needed, they had to go to the ER, which took hours.
  - plagiarist 2y ago
    It's a ridiculous combination of needing to go to the ER but something that can be scheduled (especially beyond the initial shot).
madaxe_again 2y ago
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had bats in the house - hundreds. If it won’t leave of its own volition, all you need is a towel - just lob it into the little blighter’s flight path, and then lob the towel, bat and all out of the window. The bat will be fine, the towel will want laundering, and you will be fine. The only times I’ve had to handle bats have been where they’ve smacked into something and stunned themselves, and one of the cats is eyeing up a convenient snack - like any other wild critter, leather gloves are a good idea if you have them, but you can barehand it if you do a normal restraint hold, which is trivially easy - they can’t bend their necks downwards so just gently gripping their torso and hind limbs keeps both of you safe - like this: https://www.goerie.com/gcdn/presto/2022/04/20/NETN/8ec5edbc-0bbf-4846-8d15-f18e7d1c24a6-small_ft_teeth.jpeg?crop=1999,1125,x0,y142&width=660&height=371&format=pjpg&auto=webp https://www.goerie.com/gcdn/presto/2022/04/20/NETN/8ec5edbc-...

slibhb 2y ago

The problem here wasn't getting bit, it was not getting vaccinated. It took a month for symptoms to appear (which is typical) and at that point it's too late. Growing up, it wasn't too uncommon for a bat to get stuck in the house. Mostly you can just open a door and it will find its way out. If not, it will get tired and you can bring it outside while it's asleep. If you get bit, you need to get vaccinated.

mingus88 2y ago
I occasionally have birds fly into my garage and need help getting out. They will fixate on the large window and need some help finding their way out But, yeah, bats who echolocate don’t really need help, do they? Sad that the woman’s good faith efforts to peacefully move the animal was far more dangerous than she could have known
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > the woman’s good faith efforts to peacefully move the animal was far more dangerous than she could have known The bat and the bite weren’t dangerous, her decision not to seek medical attention after being bitten by a bat was.
  - margalabargala 2y ago
    The bite was in fact pretty clearly dangerous.
    - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - kimixa 2y ago
      At some point the reduction of what is to "blame" becomes ridiculous. Getting stabbed wasn't dangerous. The blood loss was. The blood loss wasn't dangerous, cerebral hypoxia was.
  - Mordisquitos 2y ago
    To be fair, we do not know whether she actively decided not to get vaccinated for rabies after her encounter. She may have been ignorant of the need to do so.
    - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
      Fair enough, I changed the language to avoid that misreading.
shaky-carrousel 2y ago
I threw a towel to it and moved it outside. It got pretty stuck to the towel so I left it in the garden.
elzbardico 2y ago
My first instinct would be to shoot it with birdshot. But that would be stupid, as now there will be no way to know if the bat is sick.

zarzavat 2y ago

If this happens, do not free the bat after trapping it! Instead contact your relevant disease control authority so that the bat can be tested for rabies. Otherwise doctors will have to assume you've been infected and treat you regardless of whether you need it or not. A bite or scratch is not necessarily visible.

foota 2y ago
The above comment doesn't state this explicitly, but bat bites can go unfelt (e.g., if you're sleeping, for instance) so the recommendation if a bat is found inside the house is to keep the bat for rabies testing and see a doctor.
jliptzin 2y ago
I’ll never understand why the recommendation is for people with no training or experience in handling wild animals whatsoever is to expect them to catch a potentially rabid bat instead of just vaccinating them. Even if someone manages to catch the bat and it tests negative for rabies, then what? What if the test isn’t 100% accurate? Would you trust it? Considering how awful and deadly the virus is, I would not care what the test result is, I’d want the vaccine. I got it about 10 years ago, it was a series of 3 shots and was no big deal. We give rabies shots to dogs and cats constantly, why do humans have to jump through hoops to get it?
- zarzavat 2y ago
  Whether or not to trap the bat requires some common sense specific to the situation, perhaps you can effectively trap it by closing a door for instance. However if like GP you've already trapped the bat then you should definitely not release it. The post-exposure treatment for rabies involves immunoglobulin[0], which is not always easily available especially in the kinds of places where rabies is most endemic. The vaccine alone, post-exposure, may not be sufficient. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound a cure, get vaccinated beforehand. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_immunoglobulin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_immunoglobulin
  - deleted 2y ago

plagiarist 2y ago

They recommend going to the ER if there is ever a bat in the room while you have been sleeping because the bites can be undetectable. Any contact at all and it could have nipped you without you realizing. You were right to be wary.

cedws 2y ago
Damn, there was a bat hiding out in my room for ages when I was a kid. Glad to say I never got rabies.
adamredwoods 2y ago
This happened to our friend's family. They all had to get shots and in the US, doctor's rarely carry the vaccine, so each time a shot is needed, they had to go to the ER, which took hours.
- plagiarist 2y ago
  It's a ridiculous combination of needing to go to the ER but something that can be scheduled (especially beyond the initial shot).

madaxe_again 2y ago

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had bats in the house - hundreds. If it won’t leave of its own volition, all you need is a towel - just lob it into the little blighter’s flight path, and then lob the towel, bat and all out of the window. The bat will be fine, the towel will want laundering, and you will be fine. The only times I’ve had to handle bats have been where they’ve smacked into something and stunned themselves, and one of the cats is eyeing up a convenient snack - like any other wild critter, leather gloves are a good idea if you have them, but you can barehand it if you do a normal restraint hold, which is trivially easy - they can’t bend their necks downwards so just gently gripping their torso and hind limbs keeps both of you safe - like this: https://www.goerie.com/gcdn/presto/2022/04/20/NETN/8ec5edbc-0bbf-4846-8d15-f18e7d1c24a6-small_ft_teeth.jpeg?crop=1999,1125,x0,y142&width=660&height=371&format=pjpg&auto=webp https://www.goerie.com/gcdn/presto/2022/04/20/NETN/8ec5edbc-...