Did a bat just fly over my bed? How this reporter handled an unwelcome visitor

Editor's note: Additional advice on how to handle a bat encounter has been added to this story.

I was comforted to hear that I wasn't the only one who'd been awakened in the dead of night by a bat flying around the house.

“We’ve gotten tons of calls for bats this week,” said Nate Atwater, a wildlife consultant with the central Illinois office of Critter Control. “It's like someone flipped a switch, and it will be like this for the next month or two, until it gets cold.”

Nope, that's not a bird

Atwater came to my Peoria home Aug. 19, the afternoon following my second nighttime visit from a bat. "Igor" (as I eventually named him) first appeared in my home around 4 a.m. Aug. 16. I awoke to the subtle sound of fluttering and scratching and thought there was a bird outside the window. Then the dim light revealed something flying about a foot above the bed; I could have reached out and touched him.

To say I was horrified might be an understatement, but I still had the presence of mind to remove the screens from the bedroom windows and close the bedroom door. Then I did what everyone does these days when faced with a pressing question: I Googled it. Did I need to catch him so he could be tested for rabies? Will I or my dogs need to get rabies shots? And how will I get him out of the house?

There’s tons of information about bats online, but some of it was conflicting, so I called Peoria County Animal Protection Services’ 24-hour phone number. The call went to a fire station and a few minutes later an animal control officer called me back. She told me to let the bat go – if I hadn’t touched him and he was flying around, he was healthy and I didn’t need to worry about rabies. Turns out there are differences of opinion even locally on that course of action, however. I was later told by someone from the Peoria City/County Health Department to get rabies shots, something I ultimately decided to do.

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Why won’t he leave?

Igor definitely appeared healthy – a quick peek into the bedroom revealed him flying maniacally around the ceiling. It went on for so long I took a photo and posted it on Facebook asking for advice, because he wasn’t going out any of the four open windows. In fact, as light began filtering into the room, he started looking for a place to roost. At one point, I thought he had left only to find his tiny body curled beneath a window shade – he chattered at me when I moved the shade.

While PCAPS offered to send an officer to help me catch the bat, I didn't want to wait until 8 a.m. when they came on duty. I roused a neighbor with previous bat experience who caught Igor in a cloth and showed him the way out.

Commenters on my Facebook post suggested a better method for catching a roosting bat – put a plastic container over him and slide a piece of cardboard beneath it. Then put the container outside. All the advice left on my Facebook post was not only informative, it also showed me I wasn't alone in my bat problem. In fact, a friend posted a similar plea a day later after a bat appeared, then disappeared, in her house.

"They are really active this time of year,” said Atwater, the wildlife specialist. “It’s warm and there are mosquitoes out, they have a big food source, and the babies can fly and they are getting into even smaller spots than the adults.”

How, and when, to evict bats

All Illinois bats are protected species, so killing them is illegal. It's also against the law to evict them from their roosts except for a few months out of the year. Guidelines have been created to protect young bats before they are able to fly and all bats when the temperatures drop and they could freeze to death. Bat evictions are only allowed between Aug. 5 and Oct. 30 and again in the spring from March 15 to May 15, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Fortunately, we are in the time period when it’s OK to evict. I learned that bats were roosting in a gable window of my attic shortly after I bought my home nine years ago. Since they never bothered me, I left them alone. Bats are helpful creatures who consume mosquitoes, and they have to live somewhere. Because the window is screened on the inside, I assumed they were unable to get into my house, but over time that may have changed. Now it was time for them to move on.

Atwater examined my house and said the problem wasn’t too bad. He thought perhaps I had a few males living in my attic rather than a maternity colony, which can grow over time. Males are more likely to come and go, and once my house was no longer available, they would quickly find another place to roost.

A few days later, Critter Control wildlife service technician Chris Peplow arrived and did a more thorough inspection. Then he spent several hours caulking small gaps in my siding and installing screens on vents around my house. He also installed a special gate over the gable window that would allow the bats to get out, but not back in.

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Are bats dangerous?

Because bats can carry rabies, anyone who has physical contact with a bat should take precautions, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

If a bite is suspected, the bat should be captured and tested, and the victim should seek medical attention. Rabies is a deadly disease that causes brain inflammation, but it's rare in humans – only a handful of cases are reported annually in the United States. Treatment is through a series of shots. Although a northern Illinois man died of rabies in 2021 after waking up with a bat on his neck and refusing treatment, only 25 cases of human rabies were reported in the U.S. from 2009 to 2018.

Bat droppings can harbor a fungus that can cause histoplasmosis, a disease that affects the lungs, according to IDPH. People most likely to be affected are those who clean up bat droppings. While the majority of people will experience no symptoms, people with a weakened immune system are in greater danger of experiencing severe – and possibly fatal – symptoms.

Will I ever be able to sleep again?

Though Peplow said the bats should be gone after the first night, it took several nights for me to start sleeping easier. After a total of three nocturnal visits, I had developed what could only be described as PTSD – my hearing had become surprisingly acute and the tiniest noise woke me from sleep, heart thumping. The fluttering of a bird's wing or even just the flicker of a shadow glimpsed out of the corner of my eye could drop a fireball into my stomach. It might take a little more time to get over that.

I also have a genuine sadness for the little colony I made homeless. After the third visit, I decided that it was a single bat that was visiting me – who knows if this is true? - and that I had somehow gotten on his nightly route, because bats actually do have routes (thanks, Google). Igor visited me every third night – and it was easier getting him to leave on his second and third visits. With all the bedroom doors closed, he flew around the first level near the front door, which he accessed fairly quickly. I decided it was key to get him out of the house before the sun came up.

I now better understand all the folklore and misunderstanding surrounding bats. While I think it would be terrifying to have any type of wild animal running around your house, the fact that bats function in the dead of night makes their visits all the more disturbing. But even as my heart raced as Igor flew circles around my living room, I couldn’t help but admire him. After all, he was only doing what bats do.

Leslie Renken can be reached at (309) 370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: What to do when a bat visits in the middle of the night