Finding a bat in your home is a situation that should be dealt with very carefully. For one thing, the bat might have rabies, and even if not, it is likely it will be frightened and might bite a hand that suddenly reaches out to grab it. Taking an offensive stance to stun or kill the bat is not advised either. It is most likely that the bat doesn’t want to be in your house in the first place, and after finding its way in, can’t find its way out again. An article in dailypress.com where the writer, Cory Nealon, found a bat in the bed, illustrates how not to deal with the situation.
The article, entitled, Watch out for bats on campus, but don’t hit them with a tennis racket, after stating that it can be hard to find sympathy for bats, goes on to outline how useful they can be in gobbling up unwanted insects, such as mosquitoes, of which the Big Brown Bat can consume some 3,000 a night.
Their impressive gastronomical habits also saves America’s agricultural industry an estimated $3 billion a year through savings made on pest control, and guano, the name given to bat waste, is a very useful crop fertilizer. Guano was also used in the manufacture of gunpowder during the Civil War days.
This is our suggestion from the Pest Control Products site:
If you find a bat in your home, or even in your bed, don’t whack it with a tennis racket. That is cruel and unnecessary. Try to coax it outside through an open door or window. Wear thick leather gloves to protect yourself from the possibility of rabies, and if possible, throw a small towel over the bat to capture it without hurting it. Carry it outside and release it far from the house. It may have difficulty taking off from the ground, so try to release it close to a tree where it can crawl up the tree and drop from a branch, taking off more naturally that way.
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