# Bats in the House! AAAAGH! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866 "2006-08-23T09:23:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/1 "2006-08-23T09:23:25Z")
We’ve caught two bats in our building this week. Both pretty lively. Both times we got it into a bucket without touching it. No direct contact. Yeah, I’m rabies-phobic. Do I have to worry about that? My husband has told me to relax, chill out, put they hypodermic down and back away, I don’t need shots. I’d be crawling the walls and ceilings over this, if I wasn’t afraid of bat cooties. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/2 "2006-08-23T09:45:52Z")
If you didn’t get any of their bodily fluids in contact with your own, I think you’re perfectly safe. Even if one did bite you, or you gargled with bat spit, you’d still have a fairly low chance of catching rabies. You need to get your hubby to quickly construct a belfry, and chase any future bats in there. Having bats in your belfry would be _cooool_. Lots more info [here at the CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/bats_&_rabies/bats&.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/3 "2006-08-23T10:57:37Z")
I had a [recent experience](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=373796) with a bat in my house. I hired a guy to bat-proof the house, and during that process, some of the bats who were living in my attic found their way into our living area. The guy assures me that they are all gone now, and that no more can get in. On the subject of rabies: in Ohio, any physical contact is considered rabies exposure. Since I more or less got kissed by the damned thing, I got the shots. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/4 "2006-08-23T11:08:26Z")
Oh, fuck - guess I should talk to a doctor, then. Um… how was getting the shots? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/5 "2006-08-23T11:28:45Z")
I hear the shots are no big deal these days. I’m rabie-phobic, too. Thing is, you WILL die if you get rabies and aren’t treated promptly, so in my opinion, if you MIGHT have been exposed, get the treatment. Why take the chance? It’s a gamble I’m not willing to take, considering what a horrible death it is. I mean, these days they put you in a coma so you don’t actually have to endure the \*full \* horror, but still…you always wake up dead. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/6 "2006-08-23T13:51:51Z")
IIRC in some of my caving books, it mentions that there have been cases of cavers who came down with rabies without any direct exposure to bats _that they knew of_, just by being in the same cave. Wikipedia FWIW backs that up: > [@](#): > > Transmission has occurred via an aerosol through mucous membranes; transmission in this form may have happened in people exploring caves populated by rabid bats. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/7 "2006-08-23T15:15:52Z")
[sub] am i the first one to yell “i have had it with these mothafuckin’ bats in this mothafuckin’ house?”[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/8 "2006-08-23T19:39:18Z")
We get bats in the museum in which I work all the time. I’m the designated bat-catcher because I’m the only one who’s not freaked out by them. (What? They’re just little flying mousies!) My bat catching technique: knock the bat to the floor as gently as possible with a towel or broom. (Bats don’t have knees-- they can’t get up off the floor until they crawl to a vertical surface.) Put the towel over the bat, pick him up carefully, take him outdoors and put him on a bush. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/9 "2006-08-23T20:14:40Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > We get bats in the museum in which I work all the time. I’m the designated bat-catcher because I’m the only one who’s not freaked out by them. (What? They’re just little flying mousies!) > > My bat catching technique: knock the bat to the floor as gently as possible with a towel or broom. (Bats don’t have knees-- they can’t get up off the floor until they crawl to a vertical surface.) Put the towel over the bat, pick him up carefully, take him outdoors and put him on a bush. I hope the bush is in flames when you do that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/10 "2006-08-23T21:26:56Z")
If you’re really rabies-phobic, you can use \*\*Lissa’\*\*s method (a badminton racquet works wonderfully!) but use more than a gentle tap. Put the bat in a baggie, and put the baggie in the freezer. Next day, take your batsicle to the county health department, and they can test it for rabies. The downside of this, of course, is that the news you hope you get (no rabies in the bat) means you’ve just killed a bat unnecessarily. ☹ I reserve this for when I can’t say for sure if anyone has had contact with the bat (e.g., wake up in the middle of the night with the bat flying around the bedroom, as opposed to one that comes into the living room while we’re all sitting around.) The worst was when I couldn’t figure out what the cats were so darned interested in on the dining room floor. Yup. That one went to the health department. Results: “Not enough cranial matter to test.” So, the cats caught the bat and then ate its head! :eek: (A good lesson in why you should keep your indoor cats’ rabies shots up to date!) ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/11 "2006-08-23T21:32:49Z")
Apparently you can’t feel a bat bite you, so if you have a bat in your house you should assume you’ve been bitten. From [this](http://www.metrokc.gov/health/prevcont/bats.htm) site: Rabies is transmitted when an infected bat bites or scratches a person’s skin. Bat bites may not be noticed because bat teeth are very tiny and razor sharp. Examining a person for evidence of a bat bite is unreliable, because a bat bite can be no bigger than a needle prick. Therefore, any direct contact with a bat should be considered a possible rabies exposure. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/12 "2006-08-24T01:11:31Z")
Yes, but what if you _don’t know_ if you’ve had “direct contact”? Such as you woke up and it was already in the house and you don’t know which rooms it might have been in or not? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/13 "2006-08-24T01:33:12Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > We get bats in the museum in which I work all the time. I’m the designated bat-catcher because I’m the only one who’s not freaked out by them. (What? They’re just little flying mousies!) > > My bat catching technique: knock the bat to the floor as gently as possible with a towel or broom. (Bats don’t have knees-- they can’t get up off the floor until they crawl to a vertical surface.) Put the towel over the bat, pick him up carefully, take him outdoors and put him on a bush. I guess it could be worse. You don’t use a Shop-Vac to suck them up, like asian beetles? Bats are one of those animals that get blamed for the few rabie cases is see in the papers. I wonder what the rabies source breakdown looks like. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/14 "2006-08-24T01:47:22Z")
I catch two or three bats in my house every summer. I put a pair of gloves on and chase it through the house 'til I catch it, then release it outside. If the cat gets it first it’s usually mauled pretty bad and gets fed to the snake. The ones I catch are actively flying around. If I found one that looked sick I might get it tested or something. There was a big uproar around here a few years ago when a lady reported that her dog had found a bat. Dept. of Health (or whoever) came out, took the bat AND THE DOG! Just to quarrantine the dog mind you. Except by “quarrantine” they meant immediately kill it and autopsy it’s brain. “Oh, you didn’t WANT us to kill your beloved family pet? Must of been some kind of mix up. So sorry.” Tests were negative. I tried to google up a link to the story but couldn’t find one. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/15 "2006-08-24T03:03:33Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Yes, but what if you _don’t know_ if you’ve had “direct contact”? Such as you woke up and it was already in the house and you don’t know which rooms it might have been in or not? With respect, if you think there’s a chance you could have been explosed, then get the shots. It’s not the “21 in the stomach” any more, it’s a short series of arm shots. No more painful than flu shots. Whereas, if you do get rabies and it incubates, _you will almost certainly die_. You will have close to a 100% chance of dying, knowing as you die that you could have prevented it. Let me share with you an anecdote from Wiki: > [@](#): > > In many cases, victims are not even aware of having been bitten by a bat, assuming that a small puncture wound found after the fact was the bite of an insect or spider; in some cases, no wound at all can be found, leading to the hypothesis that in some cases the virus can be contracted via inhaling airborne aerosols from the vicinity of a bat or bats. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on May 9, 1997, that a woman who died in October, 1996 in Cumberland County, Kentucky and a man who died in December, 1996 in Missoula County, Montana were both infected with a rabies strain found in silver-haired bats; **although bats were found living in the chimney of the woman’s home and near the man’s place of employment, neither victim could remember having had any contact with them.** Good grief, get the shots. I would. You’ll sleep a lot better. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/16 "2006-08-24T06:19:33Z")
> [@Una Persson](#): > > With respect, if you think there’s a chance you could have been explosed, then get the shots. > Good grief, get the shots. I would. You’ll sleep a lot better. What’s your solution for finding a single bat in your dining room? Call the cops? With equal respect, I disagree. These are American “Little Brown Bats” we’re discussing? They want nothing more than to escape your godforsaken prison (read:house). Even if it _is_ rabid, what are they odds that it _bit you without your knowledge in your sleep?_ Next to zero. Furthermore, when/if you “shoo” it from the house, you should get a good idea whether or not it’s acting “strangely for a bat”, which would generally include “dying”, acting “tame” and/or “not terrified the fuck for its life by being handled by people”. That said, I think if I found a bat in my house, I would try to shoo it out the door first (the thing’s “radar” would probably make the door the first choice anyway), catch it in a towel second, and then, if it bit me, I would only then seek the shots. Getting shots based on seeing one in your living room or whatever, versus knowing damn well one _bit_ you… It’s a huge difference. IIRC, ALL bats in the US eat insects and/fruit. It would take a severly rabid bat to attack a human for no reason, and the odds are that you would then _know_, and could then take the proper avenue. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/17 "2006-08-24T06:28:49Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] Let me share with you an anecdote from Wiki: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > In many cases, victims are not even aware of having been bitten by a bat, assuming that a small puncture wound found after the fact was the bite of an insect or spider; in some cases, no wound at all can be found, leading to the hypothesis that in some cases the virus can be contracted via inhaling airborne aerosols from the vicinity of a bat or bats. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on May 9, 1997, that a woman who died in October, 1996 in Cumberland County, Kentucky and a man who died in December, 1996 in Missoula County, Montana were both infected with a rabies strain found in silver-haired bats; although bats were found living in the chimney of the woman’s home and near the man’s place of employment, neither victim could remember having had any contact with them. While I’m not necessarily asking for a better cite than WikipediaThen their pets got it. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/18 "2006-08-24T06:35:10Z")
:smack: > [@Eleusis](#): > > > [@Una Persson](#): > > > > Let me share with you an anecdote from Wiki: > > While I’m not necessarily asking for a better cite than Wikipedia, It’s much more likely that their pets got it first. That’s what I mean to say… actually I meant to delete the whole idea. Meh. I wasn’t going to post on this, but since it’s out there… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/19 "2006-08-24T11:13:47Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > These are American “Little Brown Bats” we’re discussing? They would seem to be the “Indiana Bat” - and not just because we live in Indiana - [_myotis sodalis_](http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/mammals/ind_bat.html) which is apparently endangered everywhere but the building I live in. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866/20 "2006-08-24T11:18:31Z")
Sorry to reply so late to your question about my experience getting the shots. As others have said, it is not bad, as long as you are not a needlephobe. I received six shots the first day, two in each arm, buttock and thigh. Then there were four additional shots administered one at a time about a week apart. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bats-in-the-house-aaaagh/369866.md?page=2)