I sincerely hope you bat lovers are aware of the extreme danger from rabies that bats pose to humans and other mammals--_Homo sapiens_, or not. The battery of shots used to prevent the development of rabies in a human who has had the misfortune of being bitten by a rabid animal may not be as horrid an ordeal as in decades past; but the regimen is certainly not a walk in the park.

Oh Dale that's a beauty! I too just got my first hallii, I'm amazed by how large and thick the leaves are. Mine has an offset too which I've potted up separately. It was orange from being below the soil line and is now greening up. Wonderful, wonderful plant!

hey kristy, thanks for the advice. actually, there's kind of only one spot on our house where i can hang it, where it's flat with no obstructions-- but-- 30 feet up?? wow, that's pretty tall!!-- the tallest point on our house is maybe 15!, and it doesn't get morning sun, and it gets less than 6 hrs of it. but it's so darn hot here for about 10 months out of the year, i wonder if it will work anyway? also, about the soap- a guy who worked at the wild birds unlimited store where i got the bat house told me to do that, so- i hope he's not giving out wrong information to all the customers. i was wondering about that, b/c i know bats have a very refined sense of smell. i can get some guano at the garden store, but thank you for the offer ;)! OK, i just found this link to a video that describes all about how to build a bat house, how to put it up, plus the site has links for where to buy, etc... http://www.batcatalog.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=193

The issue with bats in a bedroom with sleeping people is that it is possible that the bat may have landed on the people while they were asleep and there might have been some contact between the bat's saliva through the skin (or in through a mucous membrane like the conjunctiva around the eye) as the bat flies off. A sleeping, or half-asleep, person might also have batted at the bat thinking it was a bug or mosquito and sustained a tiny scratch or bite with saliva transfer. Of course, normal, healthy bats wouldn't seek contact with a sleeping human, which is the point. That's why when a bat is discovered in a bedroom where people have been sleeping, it's important to not let it escape as one might do if you discovered it in, say, your mud room. Having the bat means it can be euthanized and tested to rule in, or out, any disease risk. It usually takes about 48 hours to get the test done, so at most you get a gamma globulin shot and one of the four 4 rabies shots. This is doubly important if the sleeping person was a young child, or a non-verbal infant or adult. Of the people (young and old) who have died in the US from rabies, many had no recollection of contact with a potentially rabid animal at all. Which speaks well of the efficicacy of the post-exposure shots, but highlights the risk of unknown exposure through extremely transient and casual contact. Here is the treat/no treat decision chart devloped by New York State Health Department: http://www.health.ny.gov/publications/3028.pdf Note that in instances where a bat bite exposure can not be ruled out, footnote #4: this includes a room where a bat is found in a room with a sleeping person, the recommendation is to immediately begin treating on days number "0" (incident day), and day 3 and onward, so time is of the essence here. The description of the treatment regimen is here: http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/zoonoses/rabies/docs/nys_rabies_treatment_guidelines.pdf BTW, in former days the rabies shots were given in the stomach, nowadays they are given in large muscles, instead. Gibby, even if you believe you haven't been exposed, I would still check with your health department people. They will know what the correct guidelines are for your area. This is one area where better safe than sorry is very important. L.