Bat in the house: an emergency, or can I let it be for the night?
Asked by
marmoset (
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)
September 17th, 2017
I’m staying for a few weeks in an isolated house. There’s only one other person close by, a caretaker in another house. I don’t want to bother him in the middle of the night if it’s not an emergency. There’s a bat in the house. It only flies around once every half hour or so. I tried leaving the (large) double door open for a while and it didn’t fly out. I don’t know where the bat is (I only see it when it’s briefly flying from room to room in the house) and I don’t have any gloves or other hand protection. I really don’t care about a bat being in the house – should I? Googling tells me that an estimated 5% to 10% of the bats in my area have rabies. Can I wait until midday tomorrow to deal with this bat?
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10 Answers
Just a thought but try switching everything electrical off in case it is affecting the bat’s echo location.
Thanks, do you mean turn off everything electrical while door is open? So it can fly out?
Open a window or door and sooner or later it will fly out. Not a problem unless it bites someone or an animal.
If you cannot get it out, then isolate it as best you can.
The last thing you want is to be bitten. Another jelly on fluther was bitten a few years back, and had to go through the anti rabies protocol. It is not at all fun.
^And whether that had anything to do with his eventual illness and death, we will never know. But do what you can to get rid of it.
Thanks for your answers. I’ll get help from the caretaker, but I haven’t seen the bat for hours – either it has a way to get in and out, OR it spends at least an hour still, then flies around for like 30 seconds, then spends at least an hour still…
It definitely has a way to leave and enter the house on its own – maybe it’s living in the attic. But at any rate, I don’t feel in danger from it and I can’t find it…
There is a possibility that there is more than one bat. If the dwelling isn’t occupied normally, there could easily be a bat population living in the there.
Bats frequency live in areas where people don’t expect them. Many live in the siding of houses, or attics.
Wherever it sleeps, it will poop. If you find some poop, it’s probably sleeping above that spot.
If I was staying somewhere temporarily, I wouldn’t care much about it.
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