La Cage aux Folles

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

So today I spent half my lunch break chasing a wayward sparrow around the breakroom.

How was your day?

[Sheldonrs]

Sort of the same. I gave some guy the bird in the lunch room.

[bainsidhe]

Better than a bat. *shudder*

[Ghel]

I suggest getting a long-handled fishing net (or borrowing one from your sporting goods section). I hear it works especially well for bats.

My husband became rather proficient at catching bats with a fishing net at a former job. Being the softie he is, he wouldn't let anybody kill the bats that got into the building. He would catch them in the net and release them outside the building. He even snagged one bat out of the air as it was flying back & forth down a long hallway. They always found their way back in, of course.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Better than a bat. *shudder*

We had one of those too. In the backroom. Good thing I wasn't working that night. I'd have shit my pants and died.

We had another one in the coatroom, but it was just about dead and then somebody stepped on it.

I suggest getting a long-handled fishing net (or borrowing one from your sporting goods section). I hear it works especially well for bats.

We used to have a pretty one that worked really well. Then it disappeared for some reason.

[blas]

I'll never forget the morning that a mouse had gotten in and was roaming the hallways and production areas.

Every woman on first shift was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs, or trying to climb onto a table.

[KiaKat]

...

Am I the only woman who isn't afraid of bats, mice, reptiles, or bugs?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Nope.

As long as roaches stay off that list, I'm good.

I had to catch a bird in the local microbrewery downtown one evening. Had to use my sweater as a net. Fortunately, it's an ancient building and the walls are thick. So when it went for the window, it was trapped in the windowsill and I was able to get it without harming it.

[wagegoth]

I don't have a problem with critters either. The one time I got freaked over bats was because it was twilight and nearly dark, we were camping nearby and the area wasn't known to me, and suddenly a swooooooosh of bats came flying out of an old building, right over our heads. I ducked and covered my head and tried not to scream (too loud). I'm so embarrassed.

[blondemarmot]

Had to kill a mouse once in high school. All the boys at work were tormenting the poor thing as it was stuck to a glue trap. I took it away from them, saw the thing was half dead anyway and told them if they wouldn't have any mercy, I would. For some reason I couldn't find a neck to snap so I had to whip it against a brick wall. I felt bad because I killed it, but I felt that, that was a better way to go than being paraded around the back room and used as a football.

[MoonCat]

...

Am I the only woman who isn't afraid of bats, mice, reptiles, or bugs?

Nope. I'm not afraid of mice, not afraid of bats (though I stay away from them due to the rabies threat around here), I LOVE snakes and most bugs don't bother me. Spiders I can live without, but I'll still try to catch them in a jar and take them outside.

Fleas, however, WILL DIE if they come into my house.

[K'Z'K]

If you need to catch a sparrow or other diurnal bird indoors, turn out the lights. It'll perch, and then you can easily pick it up (gently wrap your hand(s) around its body) and carry it outside.

Critters don't scare me. When I was 10, I was alone in the house when a bat somehow got in and flew around the room, unable to find its way back out. I calmly left the room, closed the door, and waited for my parents to get home and deal with it. My mom still marvels over how casual I was about it.

I have a healthy respect for the critters than can kill or seriously maim me, and find many bugs creepy, but that's about it. And I think mice and other small rodents and rodent-size creatures are adorable.

[Architectus Assistantus]

During the summers I constantly get wasps into my office.
All work of course stops untill I can get them out, and that is not always easy. I try to avoid killing them.
Last summer I got 24 of them into my office.

[blas]

I don't care for mice, but I'm not the typical scream and run away woman. I just scream until the stupid cats kill the damn thing.

Although the one day I was helping them by chasing it around with a barbeque poker, and tried to impale it when it went under the hutches.

I hate spiders. I don't know how I deal with them alone in this apartment, but the last time I dealt with one, it was living in my car and would pop out of the dash and onto the windshield to say hello while I was driving! I'd start screaming and couldn't even drive.

And I could NOT kill the bastard to save my own life. He'd always duck back down into the dash or the vents. And he was BRIGHT yellow.

One rainy day last September, he poked out and started coming at me right as I got to my parents' house. I ran out of the car and into the house screaming for dad to go kill it, but warned him that the bastard was tough to kill.

Dad came back in with a tissue containing his squashed remains.

And then there was the time there was a silverfish in the washing machine. I have never seen my dad run so fast down the stairs, and I don't think I have ever screamed so loud. I think Dad thought I was bleeding to death or something, because he came running!

[tollbaby]

Meh. Last summer, I had a bat fly into my apartment. Took me two nights to catch the little bugger, but catch him I did, and outside he went. He was really cute! Small brown bat, for those who know some of the more common species.