So I was riding really fast downhill between high hedgerows around dusk this evening and there were a few bats flitting about. And I thought "What if I hit a bat – ugh" And I had a brief flashback to the time I rode over an adder and thought it was going to flip up and wrap around my neck. And then I rationalised and thought "No way – those bats have ultrasonic radar – they will just flit out of the way."

So I rode a few hundred yards further, out from between the hedges and onto a more open bit of road, and I didn't see any more bats. And I was wearing a helmet mounted light, and I glanced down. And there was a bat clinging onto the top of my brake lever!!!!

So I slowed down and stopped and he stopped clinging on and stretched out a bit and then flew off.

You don't see that every day.

Anyone know if bats have a homing instinct?

they have somesort of sonic radar thing going on dont they… lol thats a funny story…. that i can relate to :
a bat flew in my bedroom one nite threw the window and my hubby shot out of bed at 90 mile an hour whilst i was under the duvet screaminf as this bat flew round in circles for a couple of hours…mu hubby was standing at the otherside of the door saying is it still in the room…. **** yes i was screaming and kept hearing it flapping about an inch above the duvet round and round it flew for hours….. **** fellas -usless…eventually this bat must have got tired and flew onto a picture and clinged to that… i quickly got the bed sheet and threw it over the bat and flung it out the window…… lol i,ll never forget that nite in a hurry…

that's extremely pathetic.

bats are so cool.

..prays to god hotlinking somethingawful doesn't backfire…

I took my bike off the roof rack of my car once to find it adorned with a lovely (but lifeless) bat shaped headtube badge

Getting bats out of a bedroom is kind of tricky They're quite a bit faster than us. We stayed in a bat-infested house once, and went upstairs to find 2 hurtling around the bedroom. No bother, we thought, chase them out by flapping towels at them. No. OK, use the duvet. No. OK, pinion action with 3 of us, towels and duvets finally got the things to flap out the window, so I ran over to close it, bumped the curtains and the place went MENTAL, there were about 30 of them roosting on the heavy curtains and they all took off and started orbiting.

So we slept in another room.

Cat bought in a bat once, still alive. Managed to get it off her and once it had done laps of the room for 5 mins, it hung upside down on a picture for a while.

Tried to catch it several times and failed. Eventually I thought the only thing that might work would be a kitchen sieve (I figured it might not be able to detect it as easily) and it worked. It could tell something was approaching it, but not what it was.
Got it in a box, released it and off it flew…..

elaine anne – that really is a bit feeble, why would you even admit to that on in public conversation?!

Cat bought in a bat once, still alive. Managed to get it off her and once it had done laps of the room for 5 mins, it hung upside down on a picture for a while.

You can buy bats!? 😀

abit feeble >? ok you sleep in aroom with a bat swirling an inch above your head like 90 mile an hour with its wings flapping…they have a long wing span, it hard to get away from the critters. they are incredibly fast !… im not into bats thankyou ! so you can bat off ! 😕 dont fancy being bit by one either do you ?

Bats can find their way pretty well. They swap roosts pretty regularly and travel fair distances happily enough.

They usually follow linear features – hedgerows, watercourses, paths etc. so it would most likely know exactly where it was.

As for catching and getting rid of bats, if you stick them in a box or whatever for transport, remember that they can get through a 15mm gap 😆

The only time a bat will bite you is if you're handling it. They don't randomly attack people. If you do get bit, it's time to go to hospital and ask for a rabies jab, no ifs, no buts.