Safely, Quickly and Humanely
Bats in the house are a common problem, especially in the summer and in older homes or those near a river. Bats are helpful little creatures; a bat will eat her entire weight in insects each evening. Obviously, this is great news for the prevention of West Nile, malaria and other insect-born pathogens. Bats are a great natural pesticide, also: Fewer insects = less need for harmful sprays and foggers.
However, a bat in the yard is much different than a bat in the house. Bats are wild creatures. They will bite if they feel threatened. Although humans are in more danger of contracting rabies from a dog than from a bat, bats are carriers of rabies. Bats pose a threat to your pets when cornered or trapped. Cats are especially intrigued by bats, and being superb hunters, cats can pull a flying bat out of mid-air. Bat dung or guano is also highly toxic. To remove a bat safely and humanely from your home, you need to follow these steps.
- Stay calm. Don't panic.
- Close all doors to corral the bat in one room and keep him from flying around the house.
- Put your pets in a different room and close the door.
- Turn on an overhead light. This will disorient the bat for a few moments because he will think it is daytime.
- Wait for the bat to roost. Bats roost in the daytime. He will fly to the nearest object, often a curtain. He will cling on and hang upside down quietly.
- Get a hand or dish towel and rubber gloves (optional).
- Enter the room quietly and close the door behind you.
- Carefully place the towel over the bat. Wrap it around his body and pull him gently off from your curtain.
- Talk softly to him. He is frightened and will make buzzing noises. This is his echolocation.
- Take him outdoors.
- Open the towel and wait for him to fly off. You can just open the towel and put it on the ground, also.
- The bat will not 'turn on you' or attack in any way. He is just glad to be free.
Lastly, don't worry. Bats do not indicate that you are not clean. They are just looking for a safe, warm place to raise their pups. And with bats nearby, you'll have a lot fewer insects in the yard. We live in an old home that has some resident bats; we live on the Grand River. But we have caulked off all their entrances into the house and now we can enjoy the bats' services and have almost bug-free evenings all summer long.
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Comments
I think 1.a. should be: "Turn off all ceiling fans." :-( Thank you for a great article and for starting with "Don't panic." Most other sites started with "Put bat into box," which was quite unhelpful!
Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. Just today we found a bat in our home -- still no clue how -- and I googled "bat out of home" to find you article as FIRST choice. Well, it certainly was a winner article in my book. In under 25 minutes, the bat is safely outside on its merry way and all is calm (and stayed that way through the whole thing). I used a T-shirt for steps 6-8 and the only reason it took as long it did was waiting and watching step 5 (roost). We have miniblinds and no fabric on the walls, so the bat flew around quite some time. Because of your article, watching this was fun and intriguing instead of frightening and upsetting. Thank you again.
This morning I found a bat hanging on my kitchen curtain. I kept calm and found this info. on the internet. I did get a small towel,but it took me about 10 minutes to get up the nerve to try. Finally I said a short prayer and thought to myself I had to do it. It was really quite easy. The bat didn't even make a noise! I talked very quietly to it and took it outside. It stayed on the towel for a few minutes then flew away. Thank you so much for posting the how to.I found it Most helpful and kept me calm.
This evening a bat showed up on our ceiling this evening and I got your article- thanks so much. Unfortunately, it ended up on our vaulted ceiling instead of the curtains, but we opened all the doors and got all the pets in the other room, then my wife banged on the ceiling with a broom handle; the vibrations caused him to let go and fly out the door after about 4 taps on the ceiling. No injury to the bat, no contact with pets or people! Thanks!
