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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Bloomington pests: true stories

Critter invasions on and off campus

Bats in the Basement Recent graduates Isaac Wilson and John Paunicka were in Collins three years ago when they saw a bat in the basement. Using a hamper, they were quickly able to catch it.

Naming it “The Fonz,” the boys took the bat to a girls’ floor to show off their captured creature.

“The general consensus was ‘That’s really cool’ and ‘Don’t they spread rabies or something?’” Wilson said in an email interview.

Per their RA’s advice, they released the bat into the Collins courtyard.


Rocky Raccoon IU students Laura Deig, Nathan Fisher and Sara Takacs shared a house together on the east side of campus last spring when they began hearing thumping noises coming from their attic. The noises “sounded almost as loud as a person walking around up there,” Deig said. The roommates were afraid to check on the source of the noise, but when Fisher and a few of his friends decided to go up to the attic and investigate, they discovered they had a hidden furry roommate.

“[Nathan] started yelling at me downstairs, yelling ‘Laura, Laura, bring me some raccoon food!’” Deig said, adding that she didn’t want to give him food because it would encourage the raccoon to stay in the attic. The raccoon had likely entered the house from a hole on the roof that Deig had believed to patched.

“I don’t think they ever successfully trapped it, but it went away for a while,” Deig said.

The following summer, Fisher began hearing the noises again, indicating that their fuzzy friend had returned. Fisher named the raccoon “Rocky” and, according to Deig, “didn’t mind him being there.” The roommates have since moved out of the house, but there’s no word on whether Rocky is still taking up residence as a hidden member of their former home.

 

When Sprickets Attack Senior Patrice Kwiecinski and her roommates were appalled one evening upon finding a large, unfamiliar bug on their living room wall.

“We had never even heard of these things before,” Kwiecinski said. “And then there was a giant creepy thing on our wall.”

During a second encounter in which a roommate attempted to kill one, they realized, terrified, that these bugs hopped toward their pursuers.

“We looked them up what they were, and found out they were called sprickets: big ugly creatures that hop towards you!”

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