In Ohio, one in 20 bats is believed to carry rabies. The one in my kid’s house didn’t have it. I feel a little bad about sending that bat to his death (testing requires euthanasia). He was really cute and I know bats are beneficial in eating mosquitoes. But the bat had been in my son’s house for over a week and the health department said testing was the prudent course.
In the early 1990s it was discovered that there was one species of bat in Northern Ireland that exclusively inhabited the roofs of Catholic churches, and another that exclusively inhabited the roofs of Protestant churches. This was not because the bats had acquired the sectarian prejudices of their human neighbours. Rather, the Catholic and Protestant churches are different architecturally, and one species of bats prefers the kind of spaces that exist in the Catholic churches while the other prefers the kind of spaces that exist in the Protestant churches.
At that time, the biological theory of species evolution held that this occurs in one of two ways: sympatric speciation and allopatric speciation. This prompted me to wonder whether the evolution of bats in Ireland was a case of SaintPatrick speciation.
My bat story is I killed a bat by crushing it against a corner of a chimney with a racquetball racquet and it was a deeply disturbing experience, felt very sorry for the bat when all was said and done.
Now I like to say I’m pro- bat, spider and snakes. They are our true allies against being overwhelmed by vermin.
P.S. technically I should also be pro-wasp, there’s apparently a subspecies of every wasp that prays on every insect … but that’s just a bridge too far.
P.P.S My uncle took me out to spray a wasps nest when I was a 4-5 years old (the 80s were a different time) and he accidentally stepped on it and I got stung head to toe, when of my oldest memories. Then there was the time a wasp crawled up my jeans on the playground and was biting me but I couldn’t take off my pants bc then everyone would see my underwear. Another formative experience.
Jesse, I wonder why the staff in the school weren't feeling well? I imagine something about piles of guano up in the crawlspaces putting out some toxic fumes or dust?
There’s at least one fungal disease their guano can carry. Histoplasmosis. A friend of mine had it, though she believes she caught it while gardening. She was very sick indeed, in part because she’s on immunosuppressant drugs.
In Chicago in the 70s, on our leafy street, my dad saw bats among the street trees and us kids couldn't see them. He showed us that he could tie a small rock inside a rag, throw the thing in the air underhand, and bats would dive after it. Amazing. Decades later I showed my husband the same thing in Washington State and gained a lot of rugged-nature-lover points. When I was in grade school, I would have felt like I'd won the lottery if our school got bat-infested.
Bats are scary! But they also do cause hilarious behavior in humans - my friends called me and my ex-husband in the middle of the night once because they discovered a bat in their apartment. My ex tended to walk the line between bravery and stupidity, and was always game to catch and release bats. We showed up at their apartment and they’d closed themselves in a closet with their cat (to protect it? seems like it could have been conscripted to do some bat hunting given that it was the only family member vaccinated against rabies) and they had both put on oven mitts. I will always cherish the memory of finding them huddled in that closet with their oven mitts.
I would definitely not be feeling good about sending my kids to that school and I have absolutely no judgement for Jesse’s dad…I would’ve run away too!
I was born in Venezuela in the 1950s. Bats were a fact of life at the coast. I was told that I was the bat repellent as a baby. When I'd have screaming meltdowns, my nanny would take me onto the terrace where the bats hung upside down from the underside of the roof tiles and I'd clear the space of those winged rodents. After I outgrew that phase, aloe plants were hung roots-up here and there near ceiling. I don't remember any bats after that.
Jesse Singal is covered in bats
Bats are cool, but it's not wrong to avoid getting near them. They're a major rabies vector.
In Ohio, one in 20 bats is believed to carry rabies. The one in my kid’s house didn’t have it. I feel a little bad about sending that bat to his death (testing requires euthanasia). He was really cute and I know bats are beneficial in eating mosquitoes. But the bat had been in my son’s house for over a week and the health department said testing was the prudent course.
In the early 1990s it was discovered that there was one species of bat in Northern Ireland that exclusively inhabited the roofs of Catholic churches, and another that exclusively inhabited the roofs of Protestant churches. This was not because the bats had acquired the sectarian prejudices of their human neighbours. Rather, the Catholic and Protestant churches are different architecturally, and one species of bats prefers the kind of spaces that exist in the Catholic churches while the other prefers the kind of spaces that exist in the Protestant churches.
At that time, the biological theory of species evolution held that this occurs in one of two ways: sympatric speciation and allopatric speciation. This prompted me to wonder whether the evolution of bats in Ireland was a case of SaintPatrick speciation.
My bat story is I killed a bat by crushing it against a corner of a chimney with a racquetball racquet and it was a deeply disturbing experience, felt very sorry for the bat when all was said and done.
Now I like to say I’m pro- bat, spider and snakes. They are our true allies against being overwhelmed by vermin.
P.S. technically I should also be pro-wasp, there’s apparently a subspecies of every wasp that prays on every insect … but that’s just a bridge too far.
P.P.S My uncle took me out to spray a wasps nest when I was a 4-5 years old (the 80s were a different time) and he accidentally stepped on it and I got stung head to toe, when of my oldest memories. Then there was the time a wasp crawled up my jeans on the playground and was biting me but I couldn’t take off my pants bc then everyone would see my underwear. Another formative experience.
Jesse, I wonder why the staff in the school weren't feeling well? I imagine something about piles of guano up in the crawlspaces putting out some toxic fumes or dust?
There’s at least one fungal disease their guano can carry. Histoplasmosis. A friend of mine had it, though she believes she caught it while gardening. She was very sick indeed, in part because she’s on immunosuppressant drugs.
Yikes! I hope she recovered well.
In Chicago in the 70s, on our leafy street, my dad saw bats among the street trees and us kids couldn't see them. He showed us that he could tie a small rock inside a rag, throw the thing in the air underhand, and bats would dive after it. Amazing. Decades later I showed my husband the same thing in Washington State and gained a lot of rugged-nature-lover points. When I was in grade school, I would have felt like I'd won the lottery if our school got bat-infested.
The problem the school has, as many institutions have, is not the (winged) residents per se, but the accumulated guano they leave…
I went to school on the outskirts of Perth Western Australia. There was definitely an attitude of what doesn’t kill you lets you graduate grade 7.
In Queensland we’re not allowed to kill anything anyway as it’s against the law - guess that’s why we’re all tough as nails 😉
Bats are scary! But they also do cause hilarious behavior in humans - my friends called me and my ex-husband in the middle of the night once because they discovered a bat in their apartment. My ex tended to walk the line between bravery and stupidity, and was always game to catch and release bats. We showed up at their apartment and they’d closed themselves in a closet with their cat (to protect it? seems like it could have been conscripted to do some bat hunting given that it was the only family member vaccinated against rabies) and they had both put on oven mitts. I will always cherish the memory of finding them huddled in that closet with their oven mitts.
I would definitely not be feeling good about sending my kids to that school and I have absolutely no judgement for Jesse’s dad…I would’ve run away too!
We had more than one bat in our house before we closed all the holes they were getting in through.
I was shocked at privileges bats have, because they are a protected species. In NC, you cannot get them out of your house in May, June, July.
Thus if you find them living in your house, they get to live, rent-free, for 3 months!
Hat tip for "Batlanta."
Just here to say how much I love bats. Which is a lot.
Rabies! Rabies! Rabies! A real danger! Not a joke.
My mother’s house was infested and she dismissed my concerns but there were 2 rabies cases caused by bats in her county.
https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/prevention/bats.html
I was born in Venezuela in the 1950s. Bats were a fact of life at the coast. I was told that I was the bat repellent as a baby. When I'd have screaming meltdowns, my nanny would take me onto the terrace where the bats hung upside down from the underside of the roof tiles and I'd clear the space of those winged rodents. After I outgrew that phase, aloe plants were hung roots-up here and there near ceiling. I don't remember any bats after that.
I wonder if any of the students or staff at the school has a last name of "Wayne".
Time these kids gave the criminals of this world a taste of their dread.
You missed the Calvin and Hobbes media empire synergistic co-marketing campaign opportunity by just *this* much
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/11/03