Our first home was on St. Claire Street in Sheboygan. It was a two story, wood frame structure purchased in 1968 for $17,000. I don’t know what the square footage of the house was but I would guess around 3,000 square feet. The house had high ceilings, beautiful woodwork and a stunning red brick fireplace.
After the first couple of years we were visited by some bats. Thats right! Little mice with wings. They are nocturnal and considered a mammal. When they spread their wings, they suddenly appear larger and are kind of intimidating. Somehow bats were getting into the house. The most logical suspect location was the fireplace but we had it inspected and that was not the source. Baffling! Just baffling!
I killed several bats one morning as they clung to the “picture molding” that circumvented the living room. I found a broom and “wham”! I hoped that was the end of it.
A friend of ours said that we should not kill the bats. They do not attack people and they eat their weight in mosquitos every day. That didn’t change my mind. They are creepy little bastards.
My exposure to bats was through movies where Bella Lagosi plays a vampire and after he has sucked the blood from his victims, he turns into a bat and flies into the night. Eerie.
Then I watched documentaries about vampire bats that inhabit the caves in Mexico and they actually attack and eat full size cattle and people. So much for being harmless.
One night around 11:00 PM, the whole family was tucked in their bed. Debs would have been 10, Kelly 9 and Christopher 6. I was awakened by a clinking sound. As I listened, it was coming from the closet in our bedroom. It sounded like metal clothes hangers “clanking” together. Then I heard a flapping sound and I said to your mom, “there is another bat in the house”. I was hoping she would jump out of bed, turn on the light and kill the little critter. Yeah, right. I think she pulled the covers over her head. Soon we could hear the bat flying in the hall.
Suddenly the bedroom door at the end of the hall opened. Christopher was about to walk down the hall to the bathroom and we could envision the horror if he saw the bat flying over his head. Mom told him to get back in his bedroom and close the door. Good thinking!. Suddenly, Chris screamed and said there was something in his bedroom. He had returned to his bedroom and so had the bat. He opened the door and the bat flew out. We had been told that the police department would remove the pest because bats were potentially rabid. The police came and walked the house. As the policeman was coming down the back stairs, the bat started up the stairway. The policeman swatted it to the ground with his hand and stepped on the bat. Squish! Crisis over. You could tell the policeman didn’t like this encounter either.
It took several weeks to find how the bats were entering the house. There was a slight crack where the roof had warped away from the house. I mean a “slight” crack. You couldn’t believe that the bat would fit into such a small opening, but they did. We sealed the crack and our bat problem was solved.
The perception of bats is worse than the reality. Apparently they are good for the environment. Hopefully they bless your abode and not mine.
By the way, Christopher survived the ordeal!
Love,
Dad