3 Mistakes to Avoid If There’s a Bat in the House 

Realizing there’s a bat in the house can be a terrifying experience; no one wants an unwelcome critter in their house that could potentially be dangerous. If you’ve discovered a bat in your home, be careful and avoid these three mistakes at all costs.

1. Making Physical Contact

Bats carry diseases that can be very harmful to both humans and pets. Bats are the number one transmitter of rabies in North America, making physical contact potentially fatal. If treated in a timely fashion, rabies can be counteracted with vaccination, but many people don’t realize they’ve been bitten or don’t realize that a bite from a bat can transmit rabies. Bat guano, or bat droppings, is also a carrier of disease. Histoplasmosis, an infection that targets the nervous system, can be found in the spores that grow on fungus found in bat guano. 

Avoiding physical contact includes not touching dead bats you find in your home. If you’ve found a dead bat, you should call a wildlife removal service to come and remove it from your home. If you need to remove the dead bat immediately and are unable to wait, it’s important to take certain precautions. Grab either a cardboard box or a Tupperware container and place it over the bat. Do not touch the bat! Slide the lid underneath so that the bat is fully contained and then wait for animal removal services.

2. Trying to Catch a Bat

The most common reason people come into physical contact with a bat is because they are attempting to personally remove the animal from their homes. This is unadvisable for many reasons. The first and most important reason is the potential for contagion outlined earlier. If there’s a bat in the house, it’s important to prioritize your health by not attempting to remove the bat on your own. 

Second, bats are not very easily removed; they move quickly and are easily scared. While there are many products on the market that suggest they can help remove bats, from ultrasonic technology to bat houses, few, if any, actually work. Most products that are marketed as surefire ways to remove bats are a waste of money and will do little to deter the bats living in your home. A much better investment is in professional wildlife removal services.

3. Making Sudden Movements

Bats can become distressed quite easily, especially if you make a lot of sudden, quick movements in their presence. When in distress, a bat will emit a high-pitched squeaking sound that should serve as a warning to vacate the immediate area. A bat in distress is dangerous because they are more likely to bite or scratch if they feel threatened, and as detailed earlier, bat bites can be very dangerous because of the potential for disease.

If there’s a bat in the house and you find yourself in a room with it and need to make an exit, do so slowly, backing away from the bat without making any sudden movements, while keeping your eye on the animal.

Call Professionals Immediately 

Any time there’s a bat in the house, whether alive or dead, you should call wildlife removal services. Bats are dangerous, easily prone to distress, and difficult to remove. Removal teams are equipped to deal with bats and have experience safely removing them from homes. Bats are also endangered, meaning if you kill a bat, you could potentially face a fine. Wildlife removal services deal with bats humanely and safely. They can also help determine how the bat got in the first place, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Do you need wildlife removal services? Request a quote today!