Bat! (in my apartment) (Albany: house, live, health)

[stasia]

Recently had my first bat in my apartment. Woke up in the middle of the night, and it was flying above me.

It's since disappeared - I searched high and low for it, so I can only assume it went back out the way it came from. (And the presumed access point has since been sealed.)

Just curious about anecdotes. Have you had a bat in your apartment/home before? How did you get rid of it? Did the appearance of one bat lead to a larger colony problem in your building?

[sarchivist98]

I have not had any in Albany, but I did have one when I lived near a lake in Wisconsin. Although there were lots of bats in the area, it did not lead to more in my apartment.

[Anamandy]

You need to search high and low because they are small and can put themselves in the tightest spaces. I had one in my house once and hearing it flapping about as I was trying to sleep freaked me out. I turned on all the lights in the house and it disappeared out of sight. I didn't sleep that night - too scared. I spent the night and most of the next day seaching for it and finally found it right in plain sight. It was attached to the brick of my fireplace flue so camouflaged I thought it was soot. I took a towel and grabbed it and put it in a box, then called my local health department. They tested it for rabbies and it was negative. A great relief for me but sadly not for him/her.
The health department told me you have to be really careful with bats because so many of them are affected with rabbies today. And their bite is the size of a small scratch. You'd never know you were bitten. My sister had a bat in her house and she opened her sliding glass door and it flew out. But, even though she was positive she wasn't bitten, her doctor insisted she get the rabbies vacine because she let the bat go. You really need to contact the health department and tell them what happened because there is only a small time period where you can get vacinated against the disease for a disease that there's no known cure for once allowed to develope. Don't mean to scare you but you must take this very seriously.

[stasia]

My bat did come out of hiding the next night, and I was able to catch it and take it to the health department. I've since learned you have a 10-day window to start the rabies shot sequence after exposure/possible exposure.