Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog

Bats!

By: Nancy | June 12, 2008 | Category: Home and Family

flying bat

I’ve had so many bats in my house over the years, friends call me Batgirl. They’ve been everywhere:

One was sound asleep on a wash cloth the morning I turned 34. Glad I switched on the light before putting it under the faucet to wet it down and soap it up. Happy birthday to me!

When my neighbor Wally tried to help me rescue one that was scratching around inside my furnace, the little brown blur bolted out and Wally dove for the floor, hugging my ankles and screaming like a girl.

Another once completed a perfectly synchronized, Blue Angels-style overhead maneuver with my pet cockatiel. The bird then hid in the bathroom while the bat played dead on the guest room curtains. Attempting to pull it down, I slipped off the bed, tangling myself and the bat in yards of green dotted swiss. We both screamed.

And last week, I awoke to the sound of rustling on the floor and turned the light on to find a bat flying counterclockwise around my clockwise-rotating ceiling fan. I don't know which one of us was dizzier.

Bats squeeze inside this time of the year through cracks and holes less than a half inch in diameter. Since my first winged intruder, I've been hunting down and sealing gaps in the attic and around basement pipes and windows in my World War II-era house. After last week's bat, I filled a gap in my floor molding, where I’m guessing it got in.

A bat will usually get out if you isolate it in a room and leave a window open. But if you need to catch one, wear long sleeves and heavy gloves and wait for it to land. Slide your visitor off whatever it's hanging onto and into a lidded box so you can carry it outside safely for release.

If you've been bitten or scratched and the bat can be caught, contact your local health department or animal control center to have the bat tested for rabies. If it tests positive, you'll need to get rabies shots. Only a very small percentage of bats carry rabies, so don't panic when one gets inside, but do play it safe.

Here's some more info on bat myths, other ways to get them out of your house and ways to batproof your home to prevent future visits.

Swap stories with me. Have you ever had a bat in your home?