Is there a bat in your attic? Here’s what to do, straight from the experts

While bats are ecologically important, they can pose a danger to humans when they’re in our living spaces. Bats can carry a specific strain of rabies — a fatal disease for humans.

During bat roosting season, from May 1 to July 31, wildlife handling agents will not remove bats from attics or other places in your home that are not directly tied to your living space. This eviction moratorium protects both bats and people from unnecessary harm.

“People who learn this might wonder why, thinking it sounds like a silly rule. But not only does it protect bats, but it helps prevent the much worse scenario of an evicted female, evicted mother bat trying desperately to get back into that space by any means possible, trying to get back to her babies,” said Falyn Owens, extension biologist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

“This can include getting in through doors and windows and flying through a home’s living space. Evicting a bat during the moratorium period can turn a relatively non-emergency situation of having bats in an attic to a much more serious scenario of having bats in the living space, which they’ll do because they’re trying to reach their young.”

Here’s what to know about safe interactions with bats and how to keep them away from your living space:

NC bat eviction moratorium in spring, summer

Wildlife agents will keep vulnerable, young bats in place from May through July to ensure their survival.

During bat roosting season, bats find a place to rest and raise their young.

“Young bats are initially flightless and are totally dependent on their mothers, so when adult bats are evicted, the young perish because they can’t yet leave the roost or survive on their own,” Katherine Etchison, bat biologist for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, told The N&O earlier this year.

“To make matters worse, mother bats may end up in the living space of a building trying to seek alternate ways to get to their pups.”

Young bats are mature enough to fly by Aug. 1, so eviction methods can safely resume then.

How to stay safe from bats in spring, summer

Trained wildlife professionals won’t extract bats from May through July, but they can seal off entry points into your living space.

“There is no time when you can’t get assistance with bats in your house,” Owens said.

“Even if somebody can’t evict the bats on that exact day, they can set you up for success by prepping the home so they can evict the bats in August, and they can seal off entrances to living spaces in the house so bats can stay where they are and not interact with people.”

WRC trains and provides licenses to the wildlife management professionals who can help with bat management in the home.

While WRC won’t recommend a company, they can provide a list of all currently licensed wildlife removal agents in the area and their contact information, Owens said.

Is it dangerous to have bats in my attic?

No — as long as they can’t get into the living space. Bats roosting in the attic poses little risk to humans in the short-term, so it’s safe to wait until the eviction moratorium lifts in August.

Bats are not capable of making holes themselves, but they can squeeze through pre-existing holes as small as half-an-inch wide, WRC says. If there are spaces from the attic that lead into living spaces, those holes need to be sealed off right away.

Fortunately, they don’t won’t want to get into your living space. They prefer dark, narrow spaces for roosting and raising their young. Still, ensuring bats cannot get into contact with humans is crucial.

“People worry that bats in the attic is a serious emergency and something has to be done to get them out right away, but that’s almost never the case,” Owens said.

“It’s certainly something that needs to be solved eventually, and you should ensure the bats are evicted when they can be, but they won’t be an immediate threat.

“It’s much different than finding a bat in a bedroom that you just slept in. That’s a situation where rabies could be at play. Understanding the difference between those two scenarios is important, as one has an immediate threat of rabies and the other has close to no threat.”

Can you get rabies from bats?

Yes, it’s rare though possible. Rabies can be fatal for humans, so it needs to be taken seriously.

“I can count on one hand the number of people I’m aware of who survived rabies. We always make sure we relay just how serious it is to people,” Etchison said.

About 60,000 Americans receive treatment after being exposed to rabies every year, according to The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Vox reported rabies treatment costing up to $10,000 in the United States.

“You can never look at a bat and say ‘This one doesn’t have rabies,’ so it’s safe to assume they all have rabies, even if only a very select few of them do,” Owens said.

“Out of the bats tested in North Carolina every year — and the only ones that get tested are potentially sick or suspected to bite a person — only 1% to 3% of those select few bats come up positive. It’s a tiny amount even out of the suspected bats. But for everyone’s safety, you should operate as if every bat has rabies, because it is serious.”

Can you get rabies by touching items bats have touched?

No. It’s a common concern that you can’t go into your attic anymore after bats have been there, fearing you can develop rabies by handling the bags or bins that bats have touched.

But rabies is only spread through saliva-to-blood contact, meaning through a bite.

“Fortunately, rabies is a very weak virus that doesn’t survive outside of a living body. You don’t have to worry about touching something that an animal touched,” Owens said.

How do I know if I’ve been bitten by a bat?

It can be tricky.

Bats have tiny, razor-sharp teeth, meaning bat bites might be unnoticeable and may not even bleed, Owens said.

Unless you can undoubtedly prove that you did not have contact with a bat in your home, you should seek treatment.

“Anyone in the medical field will call this a potential rabies exposure. At that point, they will first test the bat for rabies, and if that test is positive, they will begin immediate treatment to prevent rabies,” Owens said.

“It’s so important to get treated because once symptoms develop, you have almost a 100% chance of death. But that’s very, very preventable. You have to treat it early and before symptoms develop. If you get special shots, there’s nearly a 100% chance the symptoms will not prevent themselves, and you will not develop the disease.”

Why are bats important?

Bats can spread deadly diseases to humans, so they should not be inside our living spaces. But bats are still a vital part of our ecosystem, so it’s important to protect and remove them humanely, Etchison said.

Here’s why:

▪ They’re bug vacuums: “They are ecologically and economically valuable, providing free pest control as they nearly devour their own body weight in insects nightly. Their appetite increases even more during pup-rearing season,” an NCWRC press release says.

▪ They’re pollinators: Many bats eat insects, while others eat nectar and provide pollination for many plants, including peaches, cloves, bananas and agave, according to US Fish and Wildlife Services.

▪ They disperse seeds: Bats play a major role in seed dispersal, according to FWS. Bats that eat fruit are responsible for 95% of the seed dispersal that can help regrow rain forests.

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