trains / bats / heart attacks !!!

[Anonymous]

Hi gang !

well as the above alludes to ,,,,
was headed to the rail room [basement]
for a session this evening,
and was greated by a BAT flying at me
[coming up the stairs] as
soon as i opened the door !!!! ---- ----- ----
gettin' too old to have surprises like that !!!

it is an old 2 story house,
i have had bats before down there, but
has been awhile, and i figured i had all
entry possibilities taken care of., besides,
it's winter !!! ...... i tried opening the other door
to the outside with the previous one...
with no luck... i ended up getting lucky with a
net. have done some bat researching surfin' on the web,
but nothing for suggestions on eradication from
basements !!! i know they are a 'protected' species,
but NOT IN MY HOUSE !!!!!
sorry this is off topic, but until i get the damn thing
out, train service will be interrupted...,
Pal's , any advice at all ?
the basement ceiling is exposed floor joists,
[lots of places to hide]. thot i better differentiate
that it wasn't a 'finished' basement.....

driver8 on the BNSF mainline
IOWA, USA

[TurboOne]

Hi driver8. That would be very shocking, going to play trains, and instead having dracula come for a visit. I personally would do whatever it took to get rid of them, like a rat with wings. Here in San Diego, we have protected lizards, birds, bugs, and plants. Could clear the land for fire protection, it might make some thing homeles, like a bug, bird or lizard. Well last year you saw our HUGE fire. All them things are homeless and dead, and over 3000 homes are gone as well. Shoulda been able to clear the land.

Anyway my [2c], run em out with a net, spray or .....[}:)][}:)]

Tim

[eZAK]

Here are a couple of things you might want to try;

Look into one of them ultrasonic pest control devices.
I don't know about bats but they work on rodents.

Next you will have to find out how it's getting in.
I knew a guy who used one of those smoke bombs for pest in his basement.
It worked fine and had an added benefit. While outside he noticed two places were smoke was coming out. He made a mental note and sealed the areas later.

[wrmcclellan]

driver8,

Get some advice from Spankybird, or even better, invite him over with some of his trains. He will have the bat smoked out in no time! [:D]

Regards,
Roy

[FJ and G]

BB the beagle has volunteers to come over and sniff out the vampires. She said bat meat is yummy.

Driver8,

Better wear a leather collar so dracula can't suck the back of your neck when you're hunched over like the humpback of Notra Dame, operating your trains!

[jimhaleyscomet]

HVAC (Heating and A/C) places often have large smoke bombs for identifying leaks. I would seal off the known entry points (windows, doors, vents), put a fan or two in the window or door to preasurize the basement (be sure to seal cracks around the fan), set the bomb carefully and see where the some comes out.

Jim H

[FJ and G]

Jim H,

The upstairs dryer vent in my house (about 50 feet up), has a family of birds nesting there. They tore off the cheesy plastic vent and made themselves at home. I can't bring myself to evicting them.

When they flap around up there, BB the beagle looks hungrily up at them.

As to vampires, we don't have any but there probably are ghosts of Civil War soldiers as we are in the area of Bull Run and Manassas. I took a metal detector out to hunt for musket balls but only found rusty barbed wire so far and nails.

Dave V.

[jimhaleyscomet]

I ment I would "temporarily" seal of the basement while I did the test. The reason to seal it off is so you can see where the smoke will exit (I hope) where the bat is getting in.

Jim H

[Anonymous]

They aren't fond of the smell of naptha. You could try using hanging old stocking crammed with mothballs. Try to figure out how they got in and stop them. Any chance it fell down the chimney? Some homes have a chimney stack with multiple nested chambers for insulation/isolation puposes. Bat may have fallen asleep and fell down bewteen the liner and the real chimney stack.

[Anonymous]

Moth ball got rid of my bats!

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

I know my Pals on the forum would come through for me ,,
thanks for all the advice.. will give it a try,,,
yes, too bad my 'ol postwar 2037 doesn't smoke
like Spanky's MTH !!!!
again, it was not necessarily a forum topic,
but prevention from train operation in January in Iowa
is serious business !!!!

will keep you posted, it hasn't made an appearance
since last night...

complete regards
driver8
on the BNSF mainline,
IOWA, USA !!!

[3railguy]

A twelve gauge pump shotgun with bird shot should do the trick.

[Anonymous]

3railguy,

i do own the aforementioned weapon, and i do plan
on punching a couple of holes in the brick wall down
there to expand the line, however, that wasn't the tool i had in mind !!!!

anyway....
i'd probably end up blowin' a hole in the dang washing-
machine or somethin' !!!!!
.... or worse yet...... my layout !!!!!

i 'll stick to the trusty fishing net.....

driver8
on the BNSF mainline
IOWA, USA !!!!

[3railguy]

driver 8, a few years ago, when I was building a new staircase to finsh out my attic, I had the attic open to the main floor. My cat caught a bat up there in the middle of the night and layed it on the bed half dead. I woke up to the thing flopping, sqealing, and gnashing its teeth. Scared the livin *** out of me but actually I felt sorry for the poor fellow. Luckily, he(the cat) had rabie shots.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am deathly afraid of snakes after seeing one eye to eye (less than 6 inches) when I was a little boy. I hate them and I even hate those fake snakes, even the ones that do not look real.

Well, I made a cradboard tunnel for my Lionel out on the patio on a sunny week. (you should try installing a temporary loop out on the patio on a sunny weekend or during the Spring and Sumer.

Well, you can geuss what happened next. I ran the train thorugh, when it bouned of of somthing jiggly. I heard hising and thought it was the smoke unit, so I reached in the portal where the train should have exited and to my surise, I pulled out a water moccoson by the head.

I sreamed and ran around like a person who had just had his brains pulled out. I finally got up the courage to jump over it and run inside. I watched from the clear sliding glass door, and saw the train (to my utter disgust, run down the grade and chop the skae in half. It must have parralized it, because it didn't move anymore, but man, was the track and wheels bloody.

I was so digusted that I promptly sent it back to where I got it and had them ship me a brand new one. After this we put lime and moth balls evrery where, but when all we needed was to put them around the border of my yard, but the yard in completley moth balled in every square inch.

I think I will wait until later to bring the trains out, when I amsure it is safe.

Bert and Mary Poppins

[Anonymous]

wow ! bertandmary and 3rail....-

hope we don't have nightmares tonight !!!
put those in the category of life experiences !!!

snuck down with a flashlight and the net,
then had the mrs' turn the lights on,
no sightings tonight !!!!

thanks for continued suggestions....

driver8
on the BNSF mainline
Iowa, USA !!!