I woke up this morning before dawn and was sitting up in bed when I noticed my dogs looking around the room- very odd, as it’s quiet here. I live in a one-story house in the country in Texas.
Then I saw something swoop around the room- it was a bird or a bat. Wingspan of about 3-3.5". I had a bat in the house one time years ago, but that was when I used to leave the back door standing open for the dogs to go in and out. Anyway, the windows have been shut for months. I don’t know how it got in, but that is not my first concern.
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How can I lure it out of hiding so I can get it out of the house? **
One time many years ago in another house, my late H and I had a bird come down the chimney (rental house, chimney not capped), and we darkened the room and opened the front door. The bird flew toward the light and out.
I’m guessing a bat won’t fly toward the light?
When I had the bat the other time, it came to rest on the ceiling, and we used a spatula to put it in a box and then released it outside.
Yes, I know bats can carry rabies. I also don’t plan to kill whatever creature this is, except as a last desperate resort. I don’t have anyone I can call, so I’ll probably have to deal with this myself.
Bats will fly toward a light, sort of. To get them out of the house at night, we turn off all the interior lights and turn on the outside lights and open the door. They’ve gone right out, much like your bird incident. Our bats were larger though, probably 8" wingspan.
At night, a bat wants to be outside and so will fly towards areas where there is more light. (During the day they will seek out darker places.) So I agree that you should darken the room where you think the bat is, open the windows or door, and turn on any outside lights.
As you note, the best way to get a bird out of the house is to darken the interior and provide access to an exit where they can see light.
with a bird you need to have no lights except the exit path, even light through shades or curtains will distract. if you have a large windows that is impossible to darken; then while the bird is banging itself against the window you might capture it in a fishing net or large piece of light weight cloth.
a bat at night they will seek an exit where there is some light beyond, it doesn’t have to be bright. this is the easiest method.
a bat will find a high spot to sleep in the day/light. they can be easily grabbed gently with thick gloves. this is harder method.
Sometimes (but probably not in the OP’s case), the best course is to do nothing, especially when there’s a mate in the picture.
When I was a kid, our patio was being re-screened and a male cardinal flew in through the two-panel gap, got disoriented, and panicked. My mother initially tried to herd the bird towards the gap, which only panicked it further. It was around this time that we noticed that a female cardinal had perched herself on the edge of the gap and was chirping. Seeing that, my mom came back in and we all watched from inside the house.
After a while, the male calmed down and noticed his mate’s chirping, and started chirping back to her, but even then he had a helluva time figuring out where the exit was – probably partly due to the light conditions, and partly due to his being, literally, a birdbrain. It was a bright spring morning in Miami, and the two-panel gap was under a large tree shading the corner, so the gap was shadowed while the rest of the patio (minus the overhang next to the house) was all sunny.
The whole episode took over two hours, but the male finally made his way out. How could the female have so much apparent wisdom to do just the right thing and not fly inside the patio herself?
[insert joke about men never stopping to check a map or ask for directions]
The one time I had a bat in my house I noticed that the window fan spooked him. I think they are spooked by “white noise” sounds. I turned off the fan & he calmed down enough to stay in one place (where wall met ceiling). Then I put a box over him & carried him outside.
I’ve had bats drop by for visits a half a dozen times, and not one of them has ever been convinced to fly where I wanted him to, no matter what lighting conditions I set up. Mostly they just did lazy circles up at the top of a large room or hallway. The only way I got 'em out was what you did, ThelmaLou: wait for it to come to a stop and put a box over it.
As for how it got in, a bat with a 3.5-inch wingspan could squeeze through a gap or hole the size of your finger. You’re going to have a hard time searching out every possible opening.
But look on the bright side. Maybe it’s already out of the house, having left the way in came in.
I just reread the OP and noticed that you woke up to find the bat in your house. You need to go right away, today, to the nearest hospital emergency room and start a series of rabies shots. (Don’t worry, it’s not 22 shots in the stomach any more; you’ll start out with 3 or 4 in the butt, then go back for 1 in the arm on three more occasions.)
Bats can easily bite you in your sleep without waking you up or leaving a terribly noticeable mark. Don’t wait to see if you come down with symptoms; if you’re showing symptoms of rabies, it’s already too late for treatment.
And yes, maybe you can catch the bugger tonight and have the body tested. But can you really be 110% sure it’s the same bat?
I’m not trying to scare you (or anyone else), and I hope I don’t sound like a Nervous Nellie or a Panicked Percy. I just want to make the point that it’s not worth taking the risk. My family and I (our daughter was 5 at the time) did this a few years ago, just as a precaution, and it really wasn’t that bad. Certainly better then the alternative.
Thanks for the heads-up about the rabies shots. This is from the CDC website:
That’s me in the underlined portion. My doc’s office is closed today, but I’ll call them tomorrow. I’ve researched the Metro Health District that is the dispenser of the treatment and emailed that info to the doctor’s office.
I didn’t keep the bat. I released it outside and then came in and read these replies. I didn’t touch it- caught it in a minnow net. “Caught” isn’t quite right… it was asleep on the wall and I scooped it into the net with a spatula.
We got a flying bat out of the house once by opening a window, then opening umbrellas and advancing slowly to herd the bat toward the window. We figured the umbrellas would show up as barriers to sonar (if they can get a return off a mosquito, surely they can detect umbrella fabric). Whether or not that’s true, said bat avoided the umbrellas and went on outside.
Cayuga, I started my series of rabies shots this afternoon. I spoke with no fewer than a dozen medical professionals today and every one of them took this very seriously. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. The friends I’ve told said they never would have thought of getting the shots in a million years. I go back for another shot Friday and another one next Tuesday. So thank you very much!!
As for my “boss,” I’m a freelancer… so no boss but me!
