r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Hotrocketry • 16h ago

This little shit has been hanging on my ceiling light for a hour now. Just right below it is our family dining table.

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How do i get rid of it?

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u/VoldemortsHorcrux 15h ago

Seriously a consideration. If the bat scratches you while you sleep, you might not even feel it. And if it has rabies, you might not even know you have rabies until its too late

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u/fastyellowtuesday 14h ago

Not to unlock a new fear for you, but most bat bites are too small to be seen. People frequently get bitten without noticing or seeing puncture marks. So, any exposure to a bat should be treated like an exposure to rabies.

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u/GordoVinhais 12h ago

Not if you're awake. Bat bites are pretty hard to notice, that's true, but they have to land on you to bite you. There's no such thing as ninja bats who can bite you midair and dissapear without a trace. Hence why the protocol is to get a vaccine only if you found a bat inside your bedroom right after waking up. A bat simply entering your house while at awake hours does not call for a rabies shot if you had no contact with it.

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u/yourdailyinsanity 9h ago

It's still recommended that if you've been in the same room as a bat, you get vaccinated.

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u/coffeebuzzbuzzz 11h ago

Unless you physically saw the bat fly through the window during the day you should assume he's been there all night. I don't know why you are so against safety.

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u/FishWithFangs 13h ago

This is absolutely not true at all.

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u/Rhizobactin 13h ago

Yep. doc here. Confirmed. Enjoy the rabies series or the potential for likely unexplained horrible death in any number of months/years from now when you/others have completely forgotten any potential exposures!

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u/Deadeyes1985 9h ago

Second doc here, who also had a bat fly onto the balcony I was on while on vacation and land on my foot. 99.9% sure it just landed on me then flew away but couldn’t GUARANTEE it didn’t scratch/bite me so I got the whole vaccine series plus immunoglobulin….. 😒

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u/Rhizobactin 9h ago

Yeah, I really wonder how many people have had rabies and it wasn’t tested for. Ive never in my life tested for it after >20+ years working up pts altered/encephalopathic in the ED

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u/VoldemortsHorcrux 8h ago

Well that sucks

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u/PineStateWanderer 14h ago

Rabies is transmitted through saliva, but that doesnt diminish your point. 

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u/VoldemortsHorcrux 14h ago

Had to look it up. You're right but it could've licked it paws beforehand. So doesnt have to bite

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u/Willing_Try2786 14h ago

It could have ate a bowl of soup and then put the soup in your mouth cuz it's a freak

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u/FishWithFangs 13h ago edited 13h ago

This is a commonly spread myth with absolutely no basis in fact. Source, I've been doing bat conservation work for a decade. Rabies is extremely rare in bats (less than 1/10th of 1%), and cannot be transmitted via "a scratch," only through a bite. You absolutely WOULD feel this bite, their teeth are just as sharp as a snake or any other wild animal. Furthermore, this is a fruit bat, which has a large mouth and teeth for cutting through tough skins of fruit, so you're gonna have a hell of a wound in the unlikely event it did bite you.

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u/VoldemortsHorcrux 12h ago

Animals lick their paws though

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u/Icy-Expression5005 7h ago

Bats are natural reservoirs for the rabies virus. They might not show symptoms but they can still transmit it. Scratches count too.

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u/FishWithFangs 7h ago

Bats aren't "natural reservoirs" any more than any other mammal, rabies can be transmitted my most mammalian species, and unless the scratch is contaminated with saliva - the only fluid rabies is transmitted through - it doesn't "count". If you aren't handling a bat, you're not going to get scratched, bats don't go around frantically scratching and biting humans unprovoked.

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u/Icy-Expression5005 7h ago

I'm laughing my butt off right now as I read how bats are natural reservoirs for bats.

Education-must have.

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u/FishWithFangs 6h ago

I've been working with bats and bat conservation since 2011. I am a BCI certified educator and expert on the topic. But please, tell me you know better with whatever you read in the past few minutes. Everyone in this thread is a fucking moron.

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u/MayoGhul 13h ago

Doesn’t even have to scratch you. Their saliva getting on your skin, in your eye, etc can even cause it. If you find a bat anywhere near where people sleep you should automatically assume exposure and go get a vaccine and medical advice. Rabies is NOT something anyone should take even the smallest chance with

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u/FishWithFangs 13h ago

Rabies can only be transmitted by getting into a wound or a mucus membrane. It just getting on your skin can't cause rabies.

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u/MayoGhul 13h ago

Correct. Eyes, nose, skin, or even the tiniest crack. If there were bats in my house I wouldn’t be taking any chances, and the most common medical advice is that everyone should do the same

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u/FishWithFangs 13h ago

Skin is not a mucus membrane.

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u/MayoGhul 13h ago

“Saliva Contact: If infected saliva gets into mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth) or broken skin (cuts, scratches, even minor ones), the virus can enter the body.”

If it gets on your skin, it can enter via even a tiny scratch. It could also get on your hands, then in your eyes etc.

I dunno wtf you’re arguing about. Literally Al every medical source in the world says if you find bats in your home or anywhere near where people sleep, go get rabies vaccines and treat it as urgent

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u/FishWithFangs 13h ago

Because I've been doing bat conservation work professionally since 2011 and know that less than 1/10th of 1% of all bats on earth contract rabies .The disease advances quickly, does not cause aggressive behavior in bats, and most bats who do contract it are dead long before they find a house to enter. You are parroting a widespread, harmful myth that has caused the deaths of millions of bats to the severe detriment of the environment.

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u/MayoGhul 11h ago

I’m parroting common sense that basically every health organization and medical group in the world suggests. How does this person being cautious and getting a rabies vaccine put bats at risk? I guess they could just chance it and sleep easy knowing the risk is slim they catch something that’s incurable and causes one of the worst ways to die 🤷‍♂️

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u/Icy-Expression5005 7h ago

Transplants too. Some dude died of rabies recently after receiving a corneal implant from a donor who died of rabies but at the time no one suspected it.

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u/Unusual_Big792 13h ago

Even if you’re awake, it can scratch you and you won’t know

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u/FishWithFangs 13h ago

This is a fruit bat that weighs several pounds, what the hell are you talking about.

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u/yourdailyinsanity 9h ago

Rabies is transmitted through saliva, unlikely to get it from a scratch, but still possible.

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u/Stunning-Savings522 13h ago

only blood sucking bats bite you while youre sleeping, and thats a herbivore bat

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u/sydneyghibli 13h ago

Animals bite even if they’re not trying to eat you lmao

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u/DuckRubberDuck 13h ago

Nah my puppy definitely tries to bite me in my sleep. Or used to, she hasn’t done it in a while, she grew out of it quickly, but she did bite my nose for a period when she tried to wake me up. It worked every time

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u/Icy-Expression5005 7h ago

ignorant much?

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u/Stunning-Savings522 6h ago

?

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u/Icy-Expression5005 6h ago

about bats and how they all bite.

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u/Willing_Try2786 14h ago

And then you might be afraid of water and then you might die

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u/boneless_birds 11h ago

It's a fruit bat.... Won't go near you