Post-Thanksgiving Recipes: What's Everyone Making?

[DebPC]

What recipes is everyone making at shows after Thanksgiving?Are you doing a holiday one or no?

 

[jlevernier]

BatsBats are my panic button. The heart starts pounding, mouth starts gulping, . . .

So I come home tonight, 7:30 and there is a bat on the wall in the kitchen!!!!!! I'd been flipping lights on and it didn't move so I hadn't noticed it! What's up with that?

--Jenny L

 

[Admin Greg]

ahhhhhhh! howd it get there? did u get it out?

 

[jlevernier]

This house has a history with bats. I think they live in the attic or something. I've plugged all known holes. I've lived here 20 years and have had one every 3 or 4 years, in August, which makes me think they are migrating and I just got lucky. Usually in the middle of the night. (Yuck!)

My knowledge of bats says, when they act out of character, something is wrong with them. My concern is that it is too early in the evening for one to show up, and it is the wrong time of year, they should be hibernating!

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

ahhhhhhh! howd it get there? did u get it out?

Experience, and panic!! I called the neighbor guy, who I know is a little wimpy. He could hear the panic in my voice. (He's never had to deal with one before.) He came over, put a basket on top of it, slid a sheet of metal underneath it to seal it inside.

NOW, this has the bat moving and chattering, so the heart is REALLY pounding!! He went out the back door and threw it into the yard.

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

I had one in my house August 1st. I remember it because that is the day the 35W bridge collapsed. I had come home, talked to family around the country, then gone upstairs for bed only to find a bad. It's like 12:30 am by this time. To make a long story short, I was outside panicing when some guy walks by on the street, I dragged him in to get it out for me. Never did ask his name, . . . (or if he was married, haha.)

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

So, back to the bat, . . . What I thought was weird, this one stayed on the wall and didn't move when I turned the light on. Not normal. Then, when we threw it outside, it kept talking (chattering) like it was stuck or didn't know it could fly away. That also is not normal.

Does this mean I might need to get an exterminator next spring?

Will I get any more this winter before spring arrives?

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

I AM getting as good as Carissidy at talking to myself!

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

Oh, yeah, now the cats are spotting the wall. You know, watching it. Makes me think they know where the bat got into the house. If they are correct, it is a bedroom window if from outside, or a electrical outlet if they came in through the walls. ICK!

--Jenny L

 

[friday]

So, back to the bat, . . . What I thought was weird, this one stayed on the wall and didn't move when I turned the light on. Not normal. Then, when we threw it outside, it kept talking (chattering) like it was stuck or didn't know it could fly away. That also is not normal.

Does this mean I might need to get an exterminator next spring?

Will I get any more this winter before spring arrives?

--Jenny L

That means that it was probably not a fully mature bat. Bats stay with their mothers well into their adolesence before they are able to fly properly. He probably snuck into the house through a tiny hole somewhere and couldnt figure out how to get out, or he flew in through an open door by mistake. It is actually pretty normal for them to be very still and sort of hope you go away when they are discovered.

I had a maternal colony in the trim beside the nursery window this summer. I was sleeping in the babies room on a particularily bad night for him when I heard them. There was a window A/C unit so I was pretty freaked that they might find a way (or maybe had already found a way) into the house through IT. So I whipped open the curtains and scared the crap out of myself because one of the little critters was staring me right in the eye!! The neighbour behind us had built a bat house but hadn't been able to get any bats into it, so he baited it with scent, I pried up the trim so that spot wasnt so nice anymore, and they relocated- to the bat house. Everyone is happy. They keep the mosquito population down too- so that is nice here.

 

[friday]

So, back to the bat, . . . What I thought was weird, this one stayed on the wall and didn't move when I turned the light on. Not normal. Then, when we threw it outside, it kept talking (chattering) like it was stuck or didn't know it could fly away. That also is not normal.

Does this mean I might need to get an exterminator next spring?

Will I get any more this winter before spring arrives?

--Jenny L

DO NOT wait until spring. Seal the potential entrances NOW. If there are no holes for them to inhabit, they will go find somewhere else to roost. But it is hard to say how EARLY in the Spring they will come, so seal things up now. They will be heading back to their wintering/hibernation colonies now.

 

[friday]

Oh, yeah, now the cats are spotting the wall. You know, watching it. Makes me think they know where the bat got into the house. If they are correct, it is a bedroom window if from outside, or a electrical outlet if they came in through the walls. ICK!

--Jenny L

Well, if the cats are watching it- keep an eye on it too. If you spot them going in, then you know where to seal things off. Try to wait until they are gone for the season, but if they are not leaving- you know where to point the exterminator. BTW- some bats are endangered- even here in Canada and the US, and are actually protected- so exterminating them might not be a legal option. You may have to just relocate them. There are ways to do this.

 

[jlevernier]

friday, you sound very experienced! I talked to an exterminator a few years ago. They said there are these one way bat houses that can be put on the eaves where the bats can fly out, but not in. What has to happen is someone needs to get on a ladder and plug up any holes a 100+ year old house might have and figure out what they are using for their "door". Then they can humanely (for any protected species, which I think Minnesota has some) be removed.

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

Well, if the cats are watching it- keep an eye on it too. If you spot them going in, then you know where to seal things off. Try to wait until they are gone for the season, but if they are not leaving- you know where to point the exterminator. BTW- some bats are endangered- even here in Canada and the US, and are actually protected- so exterminating them might not be a legal option. You may have to just relocate them. There are ways to do this.

I had some electrical work done last fall where they cut into the plaster walls to make a hole. The one in August came in through that. I hadn't realized that the plaster around it had cracked and there were small holes around the outlet. I plugged those at that time.

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

DO NOT wait until spring. Seal the potential entrances NOW. If there are no holes for them to inhabit, they will go find somewhere else to roost. But it is hard to say how EARLY in the Spring they will come, so seal things up now. They will be heading back to their wintering/hibernation colonies now.

See, I'm pretty convinced they are living in my attic. I had a roof put on in January a few years ago with a complete tear off. The roofers said they had seen some bats. When I had insulation blown into the house one fall, those guys told me they saw bats.

Part of the problem is having no one to do the work. Time vs. money. I have no tools or ladders, so would have to buy them to do the work myself. Not sure I want to be two stories up on a ladder. Don't really have the money to pay someone else to do it, so have lived with it since it only happens every four years or so.

Now I need to re-think that strategy.

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

That means that it was probably not a fully mature bat. Bats stay with their mothers well into their adolesence before they are able to fly properly. He probably snuck into the house through a tiny hole somewhere and couldnt figure out how to get out, or he flew in through an open door by mistake. It is actually pretty normal for them to be very still and sort of hope you go away when they are discovered.

I had a maternal colony in the trim beside the nursery window this summer. I was sleeping in the babies room on a particularily bad night for him when I heard them. There was a window A/C unit so I was pretty freaked that they might find a way (or maybe had already found a way) into the house through IT. So I whipped open the curtains and scared the crap out of myself because one of the little critters was staring me right in the eye!! The neighbour behind us had built a bat house but hadn't been able to get any bats into it, so he baited it with scent, I pried up the trim so that spot wasnt so nice anymore, and they relocated- to the bat house. Everyone is happy. They keep the mosquito population down too- so that is nice here.

I hadn't thought of it being a baby bat. Don't they have babies in Spring? I wouldn't mind having a bat house, would put it out by the garage. I agree that the insects they feed on is a tremendous benefit, especially mosquitos.

I would have FREAKED if I came eyeball to eyeball with one! Even through a window.

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

Can you tell this is a hot button issue for me? Have you seen me talk so much about anything else on this forum? Anyone want to take a field trip to Minnesota to help me with this problem?

PLEASE, . . . .

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

I had a maternal colony in the trim beside the nursery window this summer. I was sleeping in the babies room on a particularily bad night for him when I heard them.

friday, what is a maternal colony? I understand maternal being mother, but are there paternal colonies?

--Jenny L