There's a What in My Attic?

The children were all nestled in their beds

with visions of swimming pools dancing in their heads,

when what did my husband and I hear??

Something making noise in the attic, not a squirrel, oh dear.

Brave husband of mine,

opened the attic door to aim his flashlight's shine

on a poor little brown bat,

he was just stuck in the stair slat.

Well MacGyver being the man of the hour

grabbed a towel to protect himself from the bat's flying power.

After securing the little lost thing

freed him into the night air so the bat could sing,

the praises of the man who saved him from the scary place,

and fly into the dark with all his sonar grace.

Bad poetry aside, this was an unusual distraction one night that I just had to share with you all. I wasn't sure what to do with the fuzzy little scared bat we discovered. I just knew I wanted to save it because bats are my soulmates when it comes to mosquito death and destruction. I believe all mosquitoes should be eliminated and they do their best to oblige! Thankfully being married to MacGyver has it privileges. He knew exactly what to do and I thought I'd pass it one to you.

Bats are the largest consumers of insects including: moths and beetles, mosquitoes, termites, flying ants, some will even eat scorpions and centipedes. Cave bats will eat about 3,000 mosquitoes per night. If you ever spot a bat, be sure to tell your kids how wonderful these animals really are. If you are lucky enough to get one in your house, be gentle and careful. They are very shy creatures and will bite to protect themselves. Wrap them in a large bath towel and set the towel down outside carefully unwrapping them. The bat will take off like a shot. At dusk you can spot them by their erratic flying patterns as they zoom around eating insects.

You can even build a bat house to attract these beneficial creatures to your house. See here for instructions on how to create your bat house. We have one up in our yard. We always get asked about our unusual "bird house".

If you'd like to see masses of bats in action, Alabama is a great place and close by. Check out this website for cave recommendations. It's incredible to see so many bats coming out of the cave at dusk. Your kids will love it! We went to the Blowing Wind cave one time and it was an amazing site. Like I said, anything that can take out 600 mosquitoes an hour is on my good list!