# How to get rid of a bat in the auditorium



## chieftfac (Mar 2, 2013)

I'm putting this here because it's more of a sound question than anything else. So, tonight after the show a bat got into the theater. The cast was visiting with friends and cleared out quickly. (amazing how people don't like bats) I was thinking that I could use sound to "blind" the bat while it is flying. My hope is that it would drop to the ground and with gloves on I can move it outside. Any thoughts would be helpful. We are in a very small area and animal control doesn't work on the week-ends. Even if they did, they would use my "final solution" and I'd only use that as a last resort.

Edit: Call is 6:30 tomorrow night.


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## MNicolai (Mar 2, 2013)

We wear heavy clothing and use a net.


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## chieftfac (Mar 2, 2013)

I should have added we seat 335, and have 20ft ceilings... you must use a big net!! I've never seen this discussed anywhere and I can handle one in my house. I just don't know what to do in such a big space. I wasn't sure if the theory of using sound made sense.


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## MNicolai (Mar 2, 2013)

We're 1300 seats with a balcony and a 60' grid height.

It's not guaranteed at any moment you can walk into the room and catch the bats, but they tend to hang out along the concrete walls of the stagehouse at about 20' up. Once they're settled in on the wall for awhile, it's easy enough to sneak up on them with a ladder and a net.


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## chieftfac (Mar 2, 2013)

Right now he's trapped in the house with the main rag down and lobby doors closed... I'm thinking that might have been a bad idea... going to sleep on it... I really don't want to use the two two final solution. Doing that in a theater is about as dangerous as doing it inside a plane.


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## MNicolai (Mar 2, 2013)

We've had bats in the theatre during performances. It's not ideal, but usually they keep to themselves. Only once have I seen one fly across the stage during a show and if you didn't know it was a bat, you wouldn't have known it was a bat.

If you don't catch it in time, you don't catch it. It's not going to dive bomb at your audience members for entertainment.

When they're in the theatre, they spend most of their time clinging to the walls and keeping to themselves.


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## Les (Mar 2, 2013)

+1 about not stressing too much over the bat. Maybe leave the doors open during a work call. Surely once he gets hungry, he'll leave the same way he came in.


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## LavaASU (Mar 2, 2013)

chieftfac said:


> I really don't want to use the two two final solution. Doing that in a theater is about as dangerous as doing it inside a plane.



That sounds like a good way to possibly kill someone, end up with holes all over the theatre, and not get the bat. I mean, at least unless you have the aim of a special forces sniper. A roughly 8 square inch probably rapidly flying target?


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## DrPinto (Mar 2, 2013)

I'm surprised this is so common!

I had a bat fly in to our auditorium during a show. The outside doors were open because it was a hot night. I first knew about the bat when the stage manager screamed into the clear-com. Loudly. This thing buzzed my followspot position in the balcony twice, buzzed the audience once, then disappeared into the ornate ceiling. Never did find out what happened to it.

There are videos on YouTube on bat removal and some good information here: Bat Conservation International, Inc.. Personally, I would hire someone and pay whatever they wanted to get rid of a bat.


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## JLNorthGA (Mar 2, 2013)

You are in Western NC (as am I) - we share a similar problem. Guess what - bats happen to be a protected species. We had bats nesting in our theatre. They didn't leave until things became unpleasant for them. Bats have sensitive hearing and REALLY don't like noise. Ours left when our roofing was being repaired (lots of banging and chiseling to get up the roof membrane).

So - might I suggest playing something over the sound system (start softly and ramp it up) - maybe some heavy metal?


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## derekleffew (Mar 2, 2013)

JLNorthGA said:


> ... So - might I suggest playing something over the sound system (start softly and ramp it up) - maybe some heavy metal?


Nah man. It gots to be Black Sabbath.



From Ozzy Osbourne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :

> On 20 January 1982, Osbourne bit the head off a bat he thought was rubber while performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. Rolling Stone magazine in 2004 ranked this incident number two on its list of "Rock's Wildest Myths". While the Rolling Stone article stated the bat was alive, the teen who threw it onto the stage said it was brought to the show dead. According to Osbourne in the booklet to the 2002 edition of Diary of a Madman, the bat was not only alive but managed to bite him, resulting in Osbourne being treated for rabies.


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## chieftfac (Mar 2, 2013)

I was thinking of ringing out the system while it's flying. Or running a 20k tone at around 100 decibels. This has to be done quickly as the local community theater is doing its last two show and some actors will not step in the space until its gone. Not to mention my bosses who are freaking out over the situation.


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## len (Mar 2, 2013)

So you're planning on using the bat signal?


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## chieftfac (Mar 2, 2013)

That's the thought... I guess I will try it and report findings back here tonight....


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## jhochb (Mar 2, 2013)

Hi I'm a zoo keeper and my dad asked me to chim in. I agree with Mike Nicolai. The bat Will most likely keep to itself. But if you really want it gone you probably might want to consider Jimm Brink's idea. keep the doors open and "blast" high pitch music for a little while. That should either stun the bat OR annoy the bat enough to make it want to leave.
Sicne the show is at 6pm, and insectivore bats are typically crepuscular/nocturnal, and if theres a possible hole in the building that it origianlly came in through. The bats might even just leave on its own to feed.


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## Les (Mar 2, 2013)

chieftfac said:


> ...some actors will not step in the space until its gone.



Until you're sure the bat is gone, neither confirm nor deny the bat still exists in the building. Honestly, they are probably more likely to get attacked by a rabid squirrel on their way to the venue than they are to have any issues with this single bat.

Of course, I am also well aware of how difficult it can be to reason with certain people...


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## DrPinto (Mar 2, 2013)

chieftfac said:


> ...some actors will not step in the space until its gone.



They're just afraid of getting upstaged by the bat.


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## chieftfac (Mar 2, 2013)

DrPinto said:


> They're just afraid of getting upstaged by the bat.



... And in this show that is a real possibility!! 

I will not go into the poor performance... I got to work at 1pm and spent three hours looking for "The Bat". Never did find it... @Les didn't tell anyone anything and made a point not to be too available for questions. Though earlier I did let the FOH system ring and drove it hard for 2-3 seconds. Did this several times (with ear protection on... still hurt) Watched the directors cut of Das Boot on the loud side. still nothing. into the show run right now, and still good. If it happens again I really am going to try the ring out while The Bat flies just to see. but until then, thanks everyone for the input.


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## bishopthomas (Mar 3, 2013)

Cool, good job. I agree that I don't see what the big deal is about bats? I know grown men who are terrified. We do a show every year on a stage at an amusement park in the woods. There's a bat that's lived there for years and every time we go we are visited by him. Seeing a grown man dive for cover is kind of pathetic. The worst thing about it, in my opinion, is cleaning out the guano from the lighting fixtures.


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## Aman121 (Mar 3, 2013)

chieftfac said:


> ... And in this show that is a real possibility!!
> 
> I will not go into the poor performance... I got to work at 1pm and spent three hours looking for "The Bat". Never did find it... @Les didn't tell anyone anything and made a point not to be too available for questions. Though earlier I did let the FOH system ring and drove it hard for 2-3 seconds. Did this several times (with ear protection on... still hurt) Watched the directors cut of Das Boot on the loud side. still nothing. into the show run right now, and still good. If it happens again I really am going to try the ring out while The Bat flies just to see. but until then, thanks everyone for the input.




Glad to hear that it seems to have vacated the premises for now. But if it comes back, or if you have a bat problem again, try playing this:


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## techieman33 (Mar 3, 2013)

You could probably blast away on a dog whistle too. It's more in the range of a bats prime hearing range, and you don't have deal with hearing the noise yourself.


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## TimmyP1955 (Mar 4, 2013)

The trouble with a dog whistle is: How do you know if it works?


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## techieman33 (Mar 4, 2013)

You test it on a dog or a cat first. Or better yet go to the local zoo and check out the bat exhibit.


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## rsmentele (Mar 4, 2013)

I used to work at a theater that was a very old building, and bats were a common sight... They loved to make their presence known during shows by flying around the catwalks, and swooping the stage... during scenes... with some very frightened actors trying to not break character.... we named it Bruce Wayne, then one day it found a buddy bat... of course we named that one Robin the Boy Wonder... we caught them multiple times but they always found their way back in... Remember kids, its illegal to kill bats (at least in Wisconsin). They certainly keep us on our toes, and provided hours of entertainment!


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## MarshallPope (Mar 5, 2013)

I've had to catch bats in theatres... and have had the rabies shots to prove it. Last year, we had a pretty bad bat problem in one of our spaces on campus. It's not easy to catch bats in a 1500-seat theatre. They would fly around and swoop the stage during rehearsals and shows. A couple of them visited the stage during the finale of our pageant. That was an entertaining one. Here's a video of them swooping during a concert: 

IIRC, we counted 5 or 6 in the air on that particular night. Eventually, we went up into the ceiling, climbed across a beam, and found a cluster of somewhere between 150 and 200 of the little guys inside a spot where the roof flashing had come loose. We had a sonic bat repeller that we left on during the nights, but it didn't seem to do that much good. If you can get them into a smaller space, though, they aren't that hard to catch. We were able to drive one from the stage into a hallway thanks to some color guard girls and their flags, and then I was pretty easily able to catch him in a sheet.

I also had one show up at my summerstock gig, unannounced - he dropped from the ceiling onto the drummer's knee. I took him outside wrapped in a paper towel. That is, at least, until he got tired of the paper towel and crawled out, and tried to nibble at my finger. I don't think he ever broke skin, but better safe than sorry - Rabies shots! Yay! /sarcasm


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## DJZS (Mar 5, 2013)

At my theatres we usually just chase it and eventually catch it with a net. Quite amusing actually.


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## Chris Chapman (Mar 7, 2013)

We had a bat in our house and we got rid of it this way.

1.) When sent high frequency feedback into the house mains, when the bat flew onstage, we dropped the main.
2.) We opened our loading doors to the outside world.
3.) Repeated the feedback onstage with monitors. 
4.) Bat took off very very fast.

I was surprised how easy it was, since we didn't have chase the critter down, and swing at it, etc.


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## StNic54 (Mar 7, 2013)

A friend of mine was helping a stuck bat with a broom once recently and got airborne rabies for her troubles. Just a word of caution, in addition to the whole bat-poop thing too.


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## FMEng (Mar 7, 2013)

StNic54 said:


> A friend of mine was helping a stuck bat with a broom once recently and got airborne rabies for her troubles. Just a word of caution, in addition to the whole bat-poop thing too.



Let's not go off the deep end here and spread myths. Airborne rabies is extremely rare and is only documented to have happened a couple of times in caves with high concentrations of bats. Rabies is spread by being bitten or having infected saliva come in contact with open wounds.

Rabies transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Understanding Rabies : The Humane Society of the United States


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## Kelite (Mar 7, 2013)

I say drop a bat gobo into your favorite moving light or swiveling ellipsoidal, fly it around the room while playing a love song. Or maybe 

Bats, Bats, Bats - YouTube


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## derekleffew (Mar 7, 2013)

I fear *Kelite* needs to inspect his belfry.


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## Techman411 (Mar 11, 2013)

I worked in a 130 year old theatre that had a bat living in the fly loft. Everyone considered it good luck when he appeared during a show....they named him Bart. He'd dive down, fly into the house, do a few loops, then go back up in the loft again. They're pretty harmless.


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## Sayen (Mar 13, 2013)

This is pretty funny - for all that I've worked in a variety of old theaters in bat country, for whatever reason I've never encountered this in my career. I love CB.

Now crickets on the other hand...who do disturb performances...if I had a good solution to those things...


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## jwolfkill (Mar 14, 2013)

When I worked in television, we did many tapings with bats in the studio. They didn't like the bright lights on the sets and tended to stay in the darkness above the grid. We didn't mention to the talent that they were there - the ninny factor seemed to be very high among that bunch.


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## StNic54 (Mar 19, 2013)

FMEng said:


> Let's not go off the deep end here and spread myths. Airborne rabies is extremely rare and is only documented to have happened a couple of times in caves with high concentrations of bats. Rabies is spread by being bitten or having infected saliva come in contact with open wounds.
> 
> Rabies transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> Understanding Rabies : The Humane Society of the United States



Ok. I'll pass this along to my friend who had to have a series of shots in her butt. After she was diagnosed with airborne rabies.


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