Around Oakley: Things that go flap in the night can be unnerving

By Roni Gehlke
For the Contra Costa Times


SOMETHING bouncing off the walls and noises that sounded suspiciously like wings flapping after dark in my attic began giving me the creepy crawlies a couple of weeks ago. Although I'm a fan of paranormal novels, I don't really believe that I have a poltergeist living in my attic. Actually, one really couldn't move around up there much less walk around making the boards creek.


Feeling that there must be some other answer, other than a bad Saturday night at the movies, my husband began heading up to the dark shadowy trenches of the attic in search of the culprit. Of course, what first came to mind is that a rat had gotten stuck up there somehow. Talk about creepy crawlies. I envisioned all kinds of little babies being born up there and that thought was not the thrill that some get when they take those little varmints as pets.


After a couple of trips up the ladder with no sign of what was making the noise, we took the first course of action and put some traps up there. After dark we immediately heard what we were sure was a trap snapping shut, but what turned out to be just another bang on the wall. Whatever was up there wasn't remotely interested in our trap offerings.


After several days we still hadn't seen the critter making the noise, but with so many shadowy areas that were not accessible to humans, that was understandable. Still hearing a strange noise of something flapping we started wondering if what we were dealing with wasn't a rat at all but something else.


Living in East County for so long one begins to hear stories about all the critters that can get into the house. We've had a few issues over the years. Both my husband and I have been stung by scorpions. My sister, who also lives in Oakley, found a tarantula nest, with a mama and several babies in a woodpile in her backyard. My personal favorite were these two cute little raccoons that would come galloping around our roof every night for a couple of months last summer.


Then there were bats. There are lots of horror stories about bats around East County. One of my personal favorites was the story about a family who went to Disneyland during spring break and came back to find a bat hanging from its ceiling fan. A while back at Oakley Raley's, the store found a bat in its back storage area.


Thinking about that flapping noise it suddenly hit me. The noises only happening after dark, the flapping of wings sound and the sound of something hitting the walls. After some online research there were some other signs as well. Strange looking droppings that didn't quite look like they belonged to a rat. The clincher was some staining found on the ceiling that looked like the possibility of a roof leak, but wasn't.


After some research I found that our area has 14 varieties of bat species. More than likely this guy is small like a mouse with wings, but after seeing some You Tube videos of some larger bats, I was having nightmares about 2-foot bodies with 4-foot wing spans. Unfortunately, since we don't have an open floor plan in our attic and there are no real standing rooms, it will be hard for us or anyone to net the bat, which is what most recommend.


The best course of action is to find where it is coming in from and then wait and listen for it to leave the attic for its nightly trip outside. While it is outside plug up the hole with steel wool until it can be closed off correctly.


Some say we should just leave it alone. Bats are very good for the environment. They eat bugs and unless they feel threatened, they stay away from people. They do bite, however, so it is best to stay away from them. Some places consider bat droppings or "guano" as prized fertilizer and sell it by the bag. In one's home, however, the accumulation of bat "guano" is, let's just say, undesirable.


So while we haven't seen the little critter yet — and frankly I hope it just goes away before we do — I guess he'll just stay up there.


Roni Gehlke is an Oakley resident. Reach her at ourbackyard@comcast.net.