Bat rescue.

[piller]

Today at work, I saw a tiny brown bat on the front wall of the building. It was about 10 inches above the sidewalk. Too low to fly away. I got inside, and was told it had been there since yesterday. While everyone else was discussing what to do, I called my Sister. She has done volunteer work at Batworld Sanctuary in Texas. It is near Mineral Wells. She called Batworld. They got someone to come to our location, and the bat was rescued. Turned out it was a juvenile Eastern Red bat. Too young to be on its own. It is healthy. The Vet there thinks it can be released in about 2 weeks.
It sort of blew the Pharmacist In Charge/Co Owner away that I had a contact and got it done while everyone else was discussing what to do.

The total number of insects that bat can eat in its lifetime is a great benefit for having done the right thing.

[Bill in Oregon]

Good for you Brian! These little guys are scary through no fault of their own, and do such wonderful work for us each and every night devouring mosquitos and other insect vermin.
I never thought much about them until I had a daughter, and we read her "Stellaluna," a children's book about a little bat. It was one of those "what was I thinking" moments. They are not rodents. They are mammals. Yes, they can contract rabies. So can dogs, foxes, skunks, bobcats ....

[piller]

I know little about bats, but I do know that they are important in keeping mosquito populations down. Without them, we would have too many of those bugs out there.

[gamekeeper]

Working in pest control I got calls about Bats quite often, I used to explain that they paid their rent by eating mosquitos and other unwanted bugs. When I rescued baby Bats I called in a lady Bat rescuer who surprised me one day by showing me a couple of baby Bats she kept inside her bra to keep warm

[GunnyMack]

Probably one of the most beneficial animals on the planet. Besides bee's!
Here the 'white nose' is a real problem for our bats. Years ago my Dad volunteered to fly a group of bat trackers around for a few evenings with the radio tracking equipment so they could pin point the location of the colony. Then folks on the ground could go in and get samples.

The only time bats can be a problem is evening dry fly fishing, they tend to grab your flies on your back cast!

[samsi]

My wife had a large hummingbird feeder on the back porch that kept getting drained every night. She couldn't figure it out until one night she was up and heard flapping and slurping noises, turned on the porch light to discover the feeder covered with bats! It kinda freaked her out.

Screenshot_20260618-200624.png

[marlinman93]

When our girls were young they were infatuated with bats, and we seemed to have a number of documentary videos about bats. Whenever we went camping they loved sitting outside in the evening and watching for bats. Others their age freaked out and screamed if a bat even flew through camp, and our girls thought that was hilarious.

[stretch]

When I rescued baby Bats I called in a lady Bat rescuer who surprised me one day by showing me a couple of baby Bats she kept inside her bra to keep warm

That's hilarious, that is!

-Stretch

[4t5]

Somebody call fauci , see if his “ gain of function lab” is missing any .

[Ysabel Kid]

Working in pest control I got calls about Bats quite often, I used to explain that they paid their rent by eating mosquitos and other unwanted bugs. When I rescued baby Bats I called in a lady Bat rescuer who surprised me one day by showing me a couple of baby Bats she kept inside her bra to keep warm

[geobru]

The only time bats can be a problem is evening dry fly fishing, they tend to grab your flies on your back cast!

One evening when it was too dark to see, I was flyfishing a beaver pond in the Cascade Mountains and there was a splash when I made the forward cast. I could feel something on my line and I assumed that it was some of the aquatic vegetation that grew around the open water in the pond. It was really too dark to fish, so I reeled my line in and held the end of the leader up to the sky and saw a shapeless blob on the fly. (In those days, I hadn't discovered how beneficial a flashlight could be after the sun goes down...) I reached up to remove the leaf from the fly and instead of a cold wet leaf, there was a warm and fuzzy bat. I almost dislocated my fingers when I let go of the bat!! How wide can a person really open their hand without causing injury??

Once the initial shock of touching a bat wore off, I reeled the bat up to the rod tip and made my way to my day pack where I cut my leader and tossed the fly and bat into the pack with the intent to save my fly and release the bat using the Jeep's headlights to see. I was fishing with a friend who was as nuts about flyfishing as I was. As we walked the trail back to the rig, I told him what had happened and we both got a good laugh out of it. So, he turned on the headlights, and I could see the outside of the pack very well, but the inside was a dark hole. I flipped the cover open and grabbed the edge of the pack to turn it toward the light so I could see.

Now keep in mind , the pack opening had a circumference of about 3 feet, and I grabbed it at a random spot that was closest to me. Well, I hope you can imagine my shock and dismay when I grabbed the edge of that pack and put my hand right on that bat - AGAIN! I almost dislocated my fingers again when I opened my hand. The bat with my fly fell to the ground and was crawling away and my buddy found a branch and knocked the bat and fly off into the darkness before I could say stop, but not before he said, "I hate bats!".

The next half hour I explained in as rational words as possible how, due to his actions, I lost the fly that I had tried to salvage after touching that bat TWICE! Plus he didn't have to kill that little bat!

KIDS!!

[Walt]

If you have any interest in bats, visit Carlsbad Caverns in southern NM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLufIO5fZ6o

[Bill in Oregon]

Less well known is the Snowy River cave network under and around Fort Stanton in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. Most of the 56 mapped miles are off limits because we have White Nose Syndrome killing the bats here as well.

https://www.blm.gov/visit/fort-stanton- ... r-cave-nca

[piller]

I hate mosquitos. In this case, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[Walt]

I've been in Snowy River (Fort Stanton Cave) many dozens of times. Many legends surround it.

[GunnyMack]

The only time bats can be a problem is evening dry fly fishing, they tend to grab your flies on your back cast!

One evening when it was too dark to see, I was flyfishing a beaver pond in the Cascade Mountains and there was a splash when I made the forward cast. I could feel something on my line and I assumed that it was some of the aquatic vegetation that grew around the open water in the pond. It was really too dark to fish, so I reeled my line in and held the end of the leader up to the sky and saw a shapeless blob on the fly. (In those days, I hadn't discovered how beneficial a flashlight could be after the sun goes down...) I reached up to remove the leaf from the fly and instead of a cold wet leaf, there was a warm and fuzzy bat. I almost dislocated my fingers when I let go of the bat!! How wide can a person really open their hand without causing injury??

Once the initial shock of touching a bat wore off, I reeled the bat up to the rod tip and made my way to my day pack where I cut my leader and tossed the fly and bat into the pack with the intent to save my fly and release the bat using the Jeep's headlights to see. I was fishing with a friend who was as nuts about flyfishing as I was. As we walked the trail back to the rig, I told him what had happened and we both got a good laugh out of it. So, he turned on the headlights, and I could see the outside of the pack very well, but the inside was a dark hole. I flipped the cover open and grabbed the edge of the pack to turn it toward the light so I could see.

Now keep in mind , the pack opening had a circumference of about 3 feet, and I grabbed it at a random spot that was closest to me. Well, I hope you can imagine my shock and dismay when I grabbed the edge of that pack and put my hand right on that bat - AGAIN! I almost dislocated my fingers again when I opened my hand. The bat with my fly fell to the ground and was crawling away and my buddy found a branch and knocked the bat and fly off into the darkness before I could say stop, but not before he said, "I hate bats!".

The next half hour I explained in as rational words as possible how, due to his actions, I lost the fly that I had tried to salvage after touching that bat TWICE! Plus he didn't have to kill that little bat!

KIDS!!

Yup, us kids just kept false casting until either our tippet broke or the poor bat was flogged to death. Looking back that was not the best things to do.
I had a battery florescent light that I kept in my vest. Your line would glow under that light making it very easy to re-tie in the dark! Of course the light brought in the bugs which brought more bats!

I also remember watching my old shooting coach try to shoot bats on the trap range under the lights, I swear a bat can fly around a shotgun pattern!

[Walt]

I have to take exception with their description of the Snowy River Cave being within the Sacramento Mountains. It is not. The northern end of the Sacramentos lies south of Hwy 70 whereas at least the mouth of the cave is well north of Hwy 70. The Capitan Mountains lie to the north and the Sierra Blanca is to the southwest.

[44shooter]

I don’t see how bats are threatened when I can see a few dozen come out of tiny gaps of the roofs of both my house and shop any given evening this time of year. I can hear them rustling around in the wall. Wouldn’t mind a fungus outbreak over here. I know what they eat but they ain’t paying rent

[jeepnik]

Bats are great. But not living where we do. The guano is not healthy for humans. I have lots of bats here. Not sure where they roost (is that the right word for sleeping bats?). But not in my house or shed.

Little story. A house over on the next block went unattended after the owner's death. The pool became a swampy mosquito breeding area. At night you could see the bats feasting. During the day some birds did the same.

Mysteriously, the pool was emptied and what little water that remained was treated with something to kill the remaining critters.