BATS IN MY HOUSE

BATS ARE VENTUROUS creatures, don’t you think? They get loose in the night coming from some place that I don’t know where and fly in a circular-like pattern and emits a shrill sound every now and then. They love to fly in circles around a manzanita tree and a water-apple tree found near my house.

Of course, they forage for food and do this while in flight which are quite acrobatic if you could see it in slow motion. Both the National Geographic and the Discovery channels have documented bats and other creatures quite well which is very educational as well as very entertaining.

Sometimes, they intrude into places where humans inhabit. I have noticed one small bat who had made a safe refuge of my house when it is in a feeding mode. It had used the unfinished ceiling of the second level of my house – just below the roof – for sometime since, maybe in 2003. The bat enters the open spaces between roof and upper wall and dines.

I have no qualms whatsoever of wildlife making my abode a sort of a halfway house. I welcome all creatures, I even compel some, as long as they don’t threaten members of my household else they would be evicted. Varmints are not welcome though and them feet-less scaly ones.

That particular bat I mentioned is a regular visitor. It brings in different fruits – according to the season – and some leaves and dines under the roof of my house. The bat leave behind small seeds and the juices that dries and hardens on the marine plywood floor where it stains the wood.

My wife have been complaining about the bat and shoos it away when she notices it coming or hanging but the winged creature is unperturbed. It returns to its favorite spot at the third steel purlin near the stairwell. She is occupied at chasing the bat out or placing old newspapers at the place where these droppings presumably fall.

The bat when startled just leaves the house unnoticed or it may fly about at the upper floor and, sometimes, flying down into the stairwell and into the living room, dining room and kitchen found downstairs. My grandsons, Jarod and Gabriel shrieks and runs when the bat goes on its evasion flight down the house and they won’t go upstairs either when they notice the bat hanging under the roof.

Lately, my wife had become more forceful and more noisy about the bat. It had to do with the floor stains occurring at another part of the house. She have had enough of my being very kind to the bat which I treat like an unrestrained pet. I begin to wonder why the bat had to eat on two different places and I also find it annoying to step on droppings everywhere.

The answer to that question came on the night of July 25, 2012 when my youngest son, Cherokee, called me upstairs while I was watching TV. Before me, are two bats playing catch against each other while in flight. It’s the first time I saw two bats inside the house as uninvited guests. Later on, the bats settled on the new place above where those mysterious droppings are found.

Not only that, the newer bat seems to have an addiction to a fruit which has a bigger seed, the name of which I have not had the time to identify. It announces its presence by the sound of the seed dropping on the wooden floor. Yes, I heard the drop of the seed before Cherokee called my attention.

I believe the recent visitor is a male and I also believe that I have been harboring a female bat for some time now and I feel happy about my bat finding a mate. She is not lonely anymore and, pretty soon, she will have her offspring with which idea would not be quite compatible to my wife. I would love to have my house bat-free (who wouldn’t) but it works against my untamed spirit.

Anyway, I enjoy this spectacle of two bats playing at close quarters. They seem to be happy and disregard our presence by going on their business of hanging upside down. I can’t do nothing against bats inside my house but I can take advantage of this occurrence by writing about it. It is one event that I could agree with those animal people belonging to PETA¹ and PAWS².

Document done in LibreOffice 3.3

1People with Ethical Treatment to Animals.

2Philippine Animal Welfare Society.