Bats in the Bedroom

[whiteyswifey]

Last night around 12:30...I was woken from my sleep, hearing something in our room. I was expecting it to be our 4 year old, but no one came over to my side of the bed. Then I heard a noise by my side, but no one got in bed. I turned the light on and looked at where my daughter should've been standing, only to look straight at a bat flapping around feet away from me.

I screamed. Woke up DH. Who then killed it with a drywall sander, while I hid under the blankets. Needless to say, sleep did not come easily the rest of the night. It didn't help that I thought there were 2 in our room, never found the other one. I've now locked our bedroom door until DH comes home and we can go through our room.

I had to share with somebody.....

Still freaking me out.

[cjeanette]

This happened to us last week! After a lot of research we learned bats need about as much space as a mouse to get into your house so it can happen.

[whiteyswifey]

Aug 20, 2014 16:18:39 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

This happened to us last week! After a lot of research we learned bats need about as much space as a mouse to get into your house so it can happen.

We figured it came in through the window. We have an old house with just a double window fan in, but it doesn't span the opening perfectly. My guess is it just flew in.

Freaked me out though! lol

[jillybean222]

OMG, that happened to us before! Those little rats with wings are so scary and unpredictable!

[MauMau]

I had this happen to. I was home alone and it was the middle of the night. It was awful. I had to shut all the lights off except in the guest bedroom and was crouching on the ground waiting for it to fly into the room so I could shut it in.

I'm glad your H took care of it.

[thatgirl2478]

That would freak me out! I would have been hiding in the bathroom or another room...

[Deleted]

OMG, bats completely freak me out! I would have to make DH take care of it and then I'd be sleeping in the guest room. I have the willies just thinking about it!

[finally]

OMG I would have had a heart attack!!! I have them flying around outside at night at my new house and they freak me out. The first few weeks I was here, I wouldn't even go outside at night because of them. I was going to post on here "How to keep bats away from my house" and figured I would just get a bunch of responses like the ones I found on google saying how helpful they are in getting rid of bugs/mosquitos that I never posted.

So, if anyone knows how to keep them away from my deck at least...that would be helpful!

[dr.girlfriend]

I really hate to tell you this, but you may have to talk to your doctor. You may have to do rabies preventatives. Bats can bite you without you knowing while you're sleeping. My friends had this same issue and had to do the rabies shots. Sucks, but better than rabies.

[r]

Oh My! When I was a little girl we lived in an old old farmhouse. I woke up one night with a bat flying around my room. I think that was the most terrifying experience I have ever had in my life. I totally feel for you. That still gives me the shivers lol.

[pumpkin]

I was at my parents house when a bat got in one night. It kept circling through the house until we got it trapped in one room and then my dad kept trying to get it to fly out the window by waving a tennis racket around. It was terrifying and hysterical

[cjeanette]

Aug 20, 2014 18:08:35 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I really hate to tell you this, but you may have to talk to your doctor. You may have to do rabies preventatives. Bats can bite you without you knowing while you're sleeping. My friends had this same issue and had to do the rabies shots. Sucks, but better than rabies.

Not what I want to hear!!!

[lavender444]

Aug 20, 2014 16:33:56 GMT -5 MauMau said:

I had this happen to. I was home alone and it was the middle of the night. It was awful. I had to shut all the lights off except in the guest bedroom and was crouching on the ground waiting for it to fly into the room so I could shut it in.

I'm glad your H took care of it.

Did that work? I thought bats had very poor vision, and traveled by sound. So the lights wouldn't have made a big difference?

this whole read is creepy! 

[whiteyswifey]

Aug 20, 2014 18:23:13 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Aug 20, 2014 18:08:35 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I really hate to tell you this, but you may have to talk to your doctor. You may have to do rabies preventatives. Bats can bite you without you knowing while you're sleeping. My friends had this same issue and had to do the rabies shots. Sucks, but better than rabies.

Not what I want to hear!!!

Me neither. I don't think it was in the room long enough for it to bite either of us. I was awake pretty quick.

[mandiespharm]

We've had a few of them get in. Sucks but you will prolly get more...you should make sure that there are no holes in between the roof and house and that any spots that have the potential for them to get in are covered in some sort of grating. We still aren't certain but we think that they came in thru the fireplace since we don't use it all the time.

For the record we did not go and get rabies shots/tested but if you think that either you or your pets may have been bitten don't kill the bat. You will need to provide it to animal control or whoever does testing in your area. I think in some areas it may even be illegal to kill bats because of all of the good that they do in terms of eating bugs.

[orangeblossom]

Aug 20, 2014 18:08:35 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I really hate to tell you this, but you may have to talk to your doctor. You may have to do rabies preventatives. Bats can bite you without you knowing while you're sleeping. My friends had this same issue and had to do the rabies shots. Sucks, but better than rabies.

This. You can also call your local health department for guidance.

[dr.girlfriend]

Aug 20, 2014 18:23:13 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Aug 20, 2014 18:08:35 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I really hate to tell you this, but you may have to talk to your doctor. You may have to do rabies preventatives. Bats can bite you without you knowing while you're sleeping. My friends had this same issue and had to do the rabies shots. Sucks, but better than rabies.

Not what I want to hear!!!

I know, this happened to a friend of mine and she got SO mad at me when I told her the same thing.  She was all, "Oh, thanks, now I'm having a panic attack!" But...rabies man.  That stuff is no good.  I'd much rather freak you out potentially for no reason than have you get rabies.

[Laura Palmer]

I should not have opened this thread!! How horrifying. Glad your H took care of it. Shudder a million shudders

[MauMau]

Aug 20, 2014 18:49:54 GMT -5 lavender444 said:

Aug 20, 2014 16:33:56 GMT -5 MauMau said:

I had this happen to. I was home alone and it was the middle of the night. It was awful. I had to shut all the lights off except in the guest bedroom and was crouching on the ground waiting for it to fly into the room so I could shut it in.

I'm glad your H took care of it.

Did that work? I thought bats had very poor vision, and traveled by sound. So the lights wouldn't have made a big difference?

this whole read is creepy! 

It did. It attracted it to the room. Obviously, poor vision still leads to light sensitivity! Thankfully! I was glad I was awake too because like some else mentioned you can be bit in your sleep and not know. I'm a little rabies paranoid because one of the few people to survive it was from a town 30 minutes from where I grew up.

[justkly]

OMG. This happened to me this week too. There was a bat in my bedroom the very first night that DH left for a 2 week work trip. I wasn't able to remove it, but I haven't seen it since. Needless to say, I'm not really sleeping and super paranoid.

[AmyRI]

So we've never had bats in OUR house, but here is my horrifying bat story to make you feel a little better about your current situation.

We went to DH's family's reunion in the middle-of-nowhere Colorado. We had our DS at the time (just over a year old) and I was 4 months pregnant.

DH's grandfather had rented a huge house so everyone could stay together, and he footed the bill to encourage us to come. I couldn't find any reviews for the place on TripAdvisor, but here is the first part of the review that I left:

"I'm going to put the worst part first to save you the time of reading the rest of this review - this house is infested with bats. And I do mean infested. There were at least 9 bats in the course of 4 nights inside the house. First night it was 2 in the same bedroom. The caretaker wanted to spray ammonia around the room and put painters' tape over the crack in the wall to keep them from coming in again. Finally convinced her that ammonia is not good for people (especially the small child staying in the room), and she used peppermint oil instead. We taped over it again ourselves, as well as other cracks in the walls and window screens so we felt somewhat safe sleeping there. Second night was 1 bat in the living room. Orkin shows up to "fix" the problem on the 2nd day - sprays ammonia outside the house and puts screens over their entry points. This results in more bats trying to get "out" by coming into the house. Third night was 3 bats - 2 in the living room and 1 in a different bedroom. We cut our stay short, but there were 3 more bats in various rooms the last night of our rental period. They were not near being gone either - you could hear a lot of them in the wall along the stairs going to the 3rd floor. June and July are breeding season, so I'm guessing the issue will only be getting worse with lots of baby bats soon to make their appearance."

Seriously, you could see dozens of bats fly out of the house at sunset. Maybe hundreds. It was disgusting. And there was nothing as-advertised on their website (which was the second half of my review). Worst vacation ever!

[asoctoberfalls]

August is the month where bats in houses are SUPER common. It's when the baby bats first learn to fly, and they get confused and end up in houses.

This happened to us a few years ago in August, except the bat was in the bathroom. DH was on the toilet, and he yells, "What IS that?!" There was a bat clinging to the towel literally about 6" from where DH was sitting. He high-tailed it out of there. We were brain storming how to get the bat out, and we decided to bring a trash can with a lid into the bathroom so we could throw a towel over the bat and then toss it in the trash can. It moved while we were attempting this, and we both freaked out and ran out of the bathroom. When we got up the nerve to go back in, we realized the bat had actually crawled into the trash can all by itself (thank God!). We closed the lid, took it outside, and opened the lid. At some point overnight, it flew away.

Did you happen to save the bat's body? You can get it tested for rabies even after it's dead, and I would do that, because there are stories of people dying from rabies contracted in this exact same scenario. I'd rather get rabies treatment than worry about the possibility.

[BAMFMrsB]

[jloww]

OMG!!!  Our cat chased one in our bedroom once.  It was the worst!!!

ETA:  Maybe I like to live on the edge, but we were never treated for rabies.  We read that a very small % of bats actually have rabies and those that do are most likely to be out during the day, acting strangely.  

[mcfelix]

My parents are experiencing a bat problem right now. They have a vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom so the bats fly up there from where they get in, somewhere in the attic. They have called an exterminator to get rid of them. Not exactly sure how that works and it is so gross to think about bats chilling out in the attic. BUT the hilarious part is that it completely freaks my dad out. He cannot deal with it and it makes me laugh. However I would be the same way. My mom is like, oh whatever, we just need to get rid of them.

[jloww]

Aug 22, 2014 20:52:32 GMT -5 mcfelix said:

My parents are experiencing a bat problem right now. They have a vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom so the bats fly up there from where they get in, somewhere in the attic. They have called an exterminator to get rid of them. Not exactly sure how that works and it is so gross to think about bats chilling out in the attic. BUT the hilarious part is that it completely freaks my dad out. He cannot deal with it and it makes me laugh. However I would be the same way. My mom is like, oh whatever, we just need to get rid of them.

Ours were in the attic  .

they were flying down the sidewalls at night (no insulation) and then flying back up to our bedroom.

The exterminator out a tube in the roof at the entry point he suspected, left it for two weeks, then came back, sealed it, cleaned and sanitized our attic. It was 1,000 well spent dollars.