@ItsMeLucy it’s definitely ok to include observations in Never Home Alone where the organism doesn’t seem to “live” indoors. We’re looking for any organisms that were found inside human structures that weren’t deliberately brought inside by people (i.e., pets), so “visitors” are just fine. In fact, lady beetles are one of the most common taxa in our project, which seem to come inside seasonally (i.e. they aren’t permanent residents).
Essentially, we’re interested in all “wild life” of the indoors, and we’d definitely still interested in gathering more data! I went ahead and added some of the observations you linked to. But please add any others you have!
The house I grew up in had the usual mice and bugs. Once or twice I think a chipmunk or a wren got into the house when the door was open and left just as quickly. We also had an attic with many holes in it, so bats and flying squirrels lived up there. Both on occasion got loose in the house, which happened enough that we started keeping a net on the porch in case we needed to catch something and release it outside.
@phma We don’t have a hard and fast rule about screens/storm doors since I feel like the degree to which those enclose or don’t enclose indoor space largely depends on how frequently they are open. I.e. if you keep your window open frequently but keep the screen closed, then I think it makes sense to consider anything on the inside of the screen “inside.” If it “feels” inside to you then I think we would probably agree too. The cases you outline above make sense to me.
Omg, that’s just adorable! Predictably, I don’t get creeped out by bats. I’ve rescued three of them so far. Perhaps, when I have a little more time to type, I’ll tell the story of the first one, as it was kind of epic.
This particular church building had a lot of bats, as it was basically impossible to prevent them from getting in. (No really, the professionals came out and were like, “nope, can’t do it”.) Practically everyone was super creeped out by them, but I just thought they were cute, possibly because I did not grow up with them so I had no preconceived notions.
One time I stood up to speak and started to realize that people were looking at something way up above my head, but before it registered that maybe I should see what they were looking at, the bat that had crawled out from some crevice started to fly. It swooped back and forth across the whole huge space, on one end coming so close to my face that I could have reached out and caught it in my hand. (…except that bats don’t do that.)
There was absolutely nothing to be done, so I just kept speaking until it finally got tired and went back to its perch and fell asleep. Everyone was tremendously impressed at how calmly I handled it, but, like, what else was I going to do? Scream and hide behind the pulpit???
To this day, I’m not sure if this shows I’m a good public speaker (I calmed the bat!) or a really boring one (it feel asleep!). But I guarantee you they are still telling this story there.
My best observation has been a Square-headed Wasp - Pison koreense - an import from Eastern Asia. I found it inside our front door when I was getting the morning paper. It was the first observation of the species on iNaturalist and is still the only Canadian observation.
As I live in the country, I share my home with a great many small and smallish creatures, including spiders and scorpions, nothing unusual there. But I was amazed to come down one morning to find the conclusion of an epic battle between a Pholcus phalangioides spider and a pretty good sized Euscorpius scorpion. I’d never have put my money on the flimsy looking spider, but it was in fact the winner.
