So you and your friends are sitting around your fire pit one evening and notice bats flying overhead. You’re all fine with that because they’re eating the bugs that would otherwise be eating you. But suddenly, all heck breaks loose when you see a bat fly through the screen door someone left open. Now all you guys can talk about is getting rid of these winged bats without touching them.

You run to the screen door with your bravest friend right behind you. Then you start plotting what you’ll do when you find it.

“What am I going to do?” you ask in a rising panic. You shudder at the thought of trying to sleep with a brown bat fluttering past your head.

“We can’t call an exterminator,” says your friend, who loves a good rescue drama. “I don’t think they make house calls on a Friday night.”

“Oh man, I am freaked out. Will you go inside and search room to room with me, or… without me?” you plead with big puppy eyes.

“After you,” he says, pulling off his sweatshirt to swing at the bat should it decide to fly anywhere near the two of you.

So in you go, searching from kitchen to living room to bathroom to bedroom. And there it is, a brown furry splotch resting up against the bedroom wall.

Getting Rid Of Bats First Is Key

Bats in Omaha serve a valuable purpose in our ecosystem. Those of us at CT Bat Mitigation admire the unique part they play in reducing bugs that can irritate us. We want them to live and do what they’re born to do in the great outdoors.

Many homes have had a bat and other furry visitors. It’s not unusual for homeowners in woodsier neighborhoods to find critters like a raccoon in a garage, a mouse in the bread drawer, and, yes, a single bat on a bedroom wall.

Funny how they’re kind of cute outdoors where they belong but startling and quite unwelcome when they join you inside your home.

So let’s first look at the solo bat situation and how to get it out of your house. Here are six steps for getting rid of it without killing it.

1. Let it land, and remember, it’s not any happier than you are in this situation.
2. Close off the room to isolate it.
3. Don’t touch it so it can’t bite you. It could be carrying the rabies virus. If it bites you, you’ll need several rounds of rabies shots because the virus can be fatal.
4. Leave the bat in the closed room and find a plastic bucket, like an ice cream container. Also, cut a square piece of cardboard that you’ll end up laying across the top of the bucket to cover it completely.
5. Go back into the room, quietly and calmly approach the bat, cover it with the bucket, and then slide the cardboard under the bat, forcing it into the bucket.
6. Carry the covered bucket outside, walk to the back of your yard or nearby field and empty the bat onto the ground.

Bat Proofing Your Home So You Can Live In Peace

Now let’s explore the question of where all those bats are coming from. Unfortunately, that single bat may be a sign of a colony of bats in your attic, above the beams in your garage, or similar safe space.

Think about those times when you’ve seen bats swooping around your yard at dusk. Where did they come from? An old petrified tree in your neighbor’s backyard? A run-down barn across the street? The corner of your house?

If your answer is, “Come to think of it, they do seem to be close to the house,” then it’s imperative you do something; one bat might be a fluke, but we know that bats don’t like living solo.

If bats are living in your house — an attic is an ordinary Residence Inn for them — then you should know that they literally hang out wherever they feel safe together. They can take over the attic and hide out in the walls. And if they stay a while, they will drop feces (called guano), stink up the place, and you’ll start smelling them, perhaps even before you ever hear their fluttering as they come and go.

So how do they get in? Through cracks that are smaller than your thumb near windows, under siding, or between bricks. The most common brown bat is about the size of a 10-year-old’s hand. They’re kind of like a mouse in the way they can squeeze into really tight places.

It’s Possible To Bat Proof Your Home

The best way to bat-proof your home is to first stand outside your house at dusk to watch for if and where they fly out from, and second, walk around the outside of your entire house the next morning looking for cracks they can squeeze through.

We describe more details about How To Get Rid Of Bats In Your Attic in another blog post.

As we said earlier, we believe it’s in a neighborhood’s best interest to have bats. It’s completely doable to get rid of a colony of bats from inside your house and let them find a more appropriate place to reside.

Best Bet, Call A Pro!

You may feel comfortable removing a bat in your home using our suggestion of a bucket and a piece of cardboard. But if you know the problem is much bigger, we urge you to call us. A colony of bats can do severe damage to your house.

Also, a colony can do damage to your health. If bat guano is allowed to build up in your attic, your family could start having respiratory problems.

We’ll do a free consultation, assess how big the problem is, and then give you an idea of what it’ll cost to extract them.