We had a bat invasion earlier, or at least a scout for an invasion.
A bat got in when I was letting the dogs out.
Eventually, through arm waving and ducking, I cornered him in a small room with a big window and shooed him out.
Anyone have any better ideas short of batricide?
And for you smartasses, I don’t want to hear about “going outside and lure him out by acting like a bug”, and I’ve already seen this: Man, 66, killed accidentally by sledgehammer wielded against bat
Well, there’s always the John Candy method from The Great Outdoors 
Sounds like you did the best job possible without having to resort to bat injury.
The third floor apartment in my house seems to get a bat visitor at least once a summer. We’ve yet to figure out how they get in. When summoned, I try to corner it and catch it in a paper shopping bag, and release it trough the nearest window. If the bat’s too frantic, though, I try to hit it with a straw broom – not too hard, just enough to stun it – and then release it outdoors using the bag.
I like bats because they eat so many mosquitoes, so I’d hate to harm one. Last fall I put up a bat-house that I found on the beach, and I’m hoping some will move in this summer.
Just be careful wrestling with bats. They are a Rabies carrier.
No kidding! Not a floor model, but one with a hose. When my mother was still in her old apartment, she had bats in her . . . well, closet. The maintenance guy came over and sucked up the bat with Mom’s vaccuum cleaner, then took the bag outside (no, not my Mom, the vaccuum-cleaner bag!), opened it up, and the bat flew off, dusty but unharmed.
Yep. A Shop Vac works pretty well.
While the number of bats that actually carry rabies is pretty slight (maybe 1%) and the number of people infected with rabies in the US is vanishingly small (2-3 year), you shouldn’t handle a bat. And if there’s any chance that you may have been bitten or scratched by it (e.g. you wake up in the middle of the night to find it flying around your bedroom) or if the bat is behaving unusually (flying during the daylight, flopping around) then it might be worth keeping it and having it tested for rabies.
I remember having to deal with birds in the house as a kid. We’d do one of two things:
Open the window and try to shoo the bird out (or let birdy find its own way out, probably less stressful).
Trap the bird using a sheet or blanket, then take it outside and release it.
I’d think that a bat could find an open window more easily than a bird (sonar) and so shooing it out might be the simplest way to go.
I once freaked out my cousins because of the way I evicted a bat. It had gone to sleep near the ceiling of their computer room so I sent them off to find a pair of gloves while I moved furniture around. Then I just grabbed it off the wall and let it go outside. While copious amounts of Leinenkugel was involved, it was also the second time I’ve done this.
Bats eat mosquitoes and, therefore, rock. 
Works for bats too. I remember my mom capturing a few this way.
The museum in which I work gets invaded every now and then-- they come down the chimneys.
If you gently knock them to the floor, you can use a towel or a dust pan to pick them up. They can’t get up from a prone position. (They have to crawl to a vertical surface to get airborne again.)
Be prepared for pitiful, high-pitched shrieks of terror.
I like to put them in a bush, or somewhere where they can feel hidden until they calm down. Being swatted from the sky and picked up by a massive furless thing has to be pretty traumatic.
Keep them flying. They eventually tire out. Then you take a shoe box and put it over them. Then take the lid of the shoe box, and cut the lip off of one side (It helps if you have three arms for this). Then slide the lid between the box and the wall. Tape it shut. Drive a few miles away (Or just go right outside if you want to see him again real soon) and let it free.
If you know where it came in (If it wasn’t a door) block the entrance with steel wool.
I used to have to deal with bat invasions regularly when I lived in an old historic neighborhood. What I would do is turn the lights out, let the bat fly around for a while. They get panicky because they want out. Then either turn all the lights on or wait till sunrise. (They’re nocturnal ya see.) Little bat will go find a place to go to sleep. (If you can, lock it in a room so it’s not flying all over the house.) Then once bat is tired out grab a towl or some thick gloves and go searching for the bat. They will hide so this may take a while. Once you find it, *gently * pick it up (you don’t want to hurt its fragile wings) place it in a shoe box (or other container you can close, schelpp it outdoors and take the lid off. Bat is home free and you are a hero!
This has worked every time for me. Ya just have to have a little patience.
Good luck!
Our perticular bat is long gone, as I have taken care of things as per my FP, but from now on I’ll use the John Candy method. What a man, What a man, What a mighty mighty good man. RIP.
-DF