How to Get a Bat Out of Your House
Discovering a bat circling your living room at 11 p.m. is more common in southeastern Pennsylvania than most people expect. This step by step guide covers exactly what to do when you find a bat inside your home, how to remove it safely and humanely, when to call a professional, and how to prevent bats from returning.
Key Takeaways
Stay calm, isolate the room, and open windows or exterior doors to give the bat a clear exit path. Do not chase or try to catch a flying bat.
Never touch a bat with bare hands. Bats can carry rabies, and even small, unnoticed bites pose a serious health risk. If anyone had direct contact or was asleep in the room, contact your doctor and local health authorities immediately.
A single bat inside your living space usually wandered in by accident and can often be guided out through an open door or window. A colony in your attic or inside walls requires professional bat removal.
In Pennsylvania, all bat species have legal protections. Timing, humane methods, and compliance with state regulations matter when you remove bats from a building.
For fast, humane bat removal in southeastern Pennsylvania, contact Evolved Wildlife Solutions.
What To Do Immediately If There's a Bat in Your Living Space
During summer evenings in Pennsylvania, big brown bats and little brown bats actively hunt insects at dusk, and a flying bat can slip through a gap, a cracked window, or doors leading to a porch. Finding one circling a bedroom or hallway is startling but manageable.
In the first five minutes:
Stay calm. Move slowly. A panicked bat will fly erratically, but it will not intentionally collide with you.
Remove children, elderly family members, and pets from the room.
Close the door to isolate the bat in that single room and limit its movement.
Turn off ceiling fans and avoid swinging brooms, towels, or other objects-this can injure the bat or cause it to hide behind furniture.
Open exterior windows and doors in that room to provide an escape route. Turn off interior lights so the bat can orient toward the night sky outside.
If anyone was asleep in the room-for example, waking at 2:00 a.m. to a bat circling the bedroom-treat it as potential rabies exposure. Contact your doctor or local health department before releasing the bat.
The sections below explain how to encourage the bat to leave on its own and when to call a professional like Evolved Wildlife Solutions.
Is It Safe to Remove a Bat Yourself?
In many single-bat situations, a homeowner can remove a bat safely if there has been no direct contact and the animal appears healthy. Most bats are not rabid. Rabies incidence in bats is extremely low-recent testing found roughly 5.7 percent of submitted bats tested positive, and those were bats already acting abnormally. Still, you cannot tell by looking, and a bat can easily bite without you feeling it.
Basic safety rules:
Never handle a bat with bare hands. Always wear thick work gloves (thick leather gloves are ideal), long sleeves, and eye protection.
The CDC recommends testing bats for rabies if someone has been bitten or scratched.
If a bat was found in a baby's nursery, a child's bedroom, or a room with someone who was sleeping or impaired, do not release the bat. Contain it for possible rabies testing and contact health authorities.
If you are seeing multiple bats, hearing squeaking inside walls, or finding guano in the attic, that is no longer a simple "remove a bat" job-it signals a colony and calls for professional bat removal. Evolved Wildlife Solutions follows Pennsylvania Game Commission guidance and humane practices to protect both people and bats.
How to Get a Single Bat Out of the House
This section covers a simple, humane approach for one healthy bat that has not contacted people or pets.
Encouraging a natural exit:
Open windows and exterior doors in the affected room. Turn off interior lights and dim or shut off exterior lights so the bat outdoors can orient to the dark sky. Stand quietly against a wall or step into an adjacent hallway. Wait 10 to 15 minutes. Bats fly in looping, U-shaped paths along walls and ceilings and will typically find the open door or window on their own.
If the bat lands on a curtain, wall, lampshade, or other vertical surface:
Place a small box, plastic tub, or similar container gently over the bat.
Slide a piece of stiff paper or cardboard between the wall and the container to secure the bat inside.
Carry the container outside. Do not try to catch a bat in flight-wait for it to land.
Releasing the bat:
Release the bat outdoors at a height that allows flight. Place the container near a vertical surface like a tree trunk or brick wall, tilt it so the bat can cling and climb, then back away. Bats cannot easily launch from the ground. Avoid releasing a bat into heavy rain, high winds, or temperatures below about 50°F. In those conditions, call a wildlife rehabilitator or Evolved Wildlife Solutions for advice.
When You Should Call a Professional Immediately
Some bat situations are too risky, complex, or time-sensitive for DIY removal. Professional bat exclusion is preferable for recurring bat problems.
Red flags that justify calling an expert:
Multiple bats appearing in your house over several nights
Visible bats in the attic, guano piles on insulation, or scratching and squeaking from walls or chimney around dusk
Any suspected rabies exposure-a bat in a room with a sleeping person, young child, or someone who cannot reliably report contact. The bat needs to be contained and medical providers contacted.
Structural challenges: steep roofs, three-story peaks, or bat entry points along high rooflines, soffits, or dormers requiring ladders and safety gear
In southeastern Pennsylvania, Evolved Wildlife Solutions can inspect the property, identify entry points, and design a humane bat removal and exclusion plan tailored to your home. If you are unsure whether you can safely handle the situation, contact Evolved Wildlife Solutions rather than risk injury or illegal handling.
How Professionals Humanely Remove Bats from Homes
Professional bat removal centers on bat exclusion: letting bats leave but preventing them from coming back, rather than trapping or harming them.
Typical process in southeastern Pennsylvania homes:
Inspection. Professionals evaluate attics, rooflines, chimneys, gable vents, and tiny gaps around siding, fascia, and roof penetrations where bats often roost.
One-way devices. Bat cones or tubes (typically a tube with a diameter of 2 inches) are installed at main entry points. Bats can fly or crawl out through these devices at dusk but cannot re-enter. Professionals leave exclusion tubes in place for at least seven days to ensure all bats exit.
Sealing. All secondary gaps and cracks are sealed with hardware cloth, caulking, or steel wool so the entire structure becomes bat proof over several warm nights.
Timing. In many states, eviction is prohibited from May to August. In Pennsylvania, exclusion avoids maternity season (roughly May 15 through August 1) so that young bats are old enough to fly and are not trapped inside.
Cleanup. After bats are excluded, professionals can coordinate guano cleanup, sanitation, and repair of damaged insulation or stained soffits.
Evolved Wildlife Solutions follows a structured, science-based process developed by a Master's-trained wildlife biologist with decades of field experience.
Prevent Bats from Getting Back into Your Living Space
Long-term success depends on making the home less inviting and blocking common bat entry points. After a bat is removed, inspect your home's exterior for entry points.
Key prevention steps:
Bats can fit through openings as small as 5/16 inch-some sources cite 3/8 inch, others half an inch wide. The takeaway: inspect for any gap along the roofline, chimney, attic vents, utility vents, and where different building materials meet. Even narrow gaps high on the structure are enough.
Bats may enter through loose fitting doors and windows. Install and maintain tight-fitting window screens on all operable windows, especially in bedrooms opened at night during late spring and summer.
Close chimneys with caps. Install screened attic vents. Add weatherstripping, door sweeps, or draft guards on exterior doors leading outside to reduce accidental bat entry into living spaces.
Seal gaps with hardware cloth or caulking. Steel wool works for small openings around pipes. Be mindful of electrical wiring when sealing around penetrations.
Seal interior openings between the attic or wall cavities and the living space-gaps around plumbing pipes, HVAC chases, and recessed lights. Plastic sheeting or rigid material can help create a bat-free zone in bedrooms and family areas.
Never permanently seal the main exterior bat entry points while bats are present. This can trap them inside walls and cause odors, staining, and mortality. Use one-way devices first to prevent re entry.
Evolved Wildlife Solutions can design a custom exclusion and prevention plan to help permanently prevent bats while keeping your home's ventilation and structure intact.
Why Bats Choose Houses and Attics
Understanding bat behavior helps you prevent bats and choose humane solutions. In southeastern Pennsylvania, bat species like big brown and little brown bats often use attics, barns, and church steeples as substitutes for natural roosts like hollow trees, rock crevices, or a tree trunk cavity.
Bats look for dark, sheltered spaces with stable temperatures, little disturbance, and safe access points high above ground-gable vents, loose soffits, and narrow gaps fit the description perfectly. There is an important difference between a single lost bat that blundered into a living space and a maternity colony that has chosen an attic for the summer. You may also find hibernating bats in attics or basements during winter months, especially big brown bats that overwinter in buildings.
Bats provide major benefits outdoors. One colony of about 150 big brown bats can consume enough cucumber beetles in a summer to protect crops from 18 million rootworm larvae. But they still must be excluded from homes for health and structural reasons.
Many bat species are federally protected in the U.S. All bat species are also protected in the U.K. and Europe. Mishandling federally protected bats can result in penalties. Humane, compliant bat removal is always the right approach.
Humane Ways to Remove Bats While Protecting Your Home
Humane bat removal is better for the homeowner, the ecosystem, and compliance with wildlife regulations.
Poisons, glue traps, or sealing bats inside a structure are dangerous, often illegal, and can lead to dead bats in walls, strong odors, and insect infestations feeding on carcasses. Products marketed to repel bats-bright lights, constant loud noise, chemical sprays, or ultrasonic devices-are usually ineffective or temporary at best. They can sometimes drive bats deeper into walls rather than out of the house.
Humane exclusion remains the preferred method: allow all bats to exit on their own through controlled openings, then seal the structure to prevent re-entry. As a complementary long-term strategy, installing a bat house on a pole or detached structure 15–20 feet high and away from the roofline can provide an alternative roost, helping keep bats out of attics while preserving their role in insect control.
Check your local state wildlife agency or wildlife agency for bat removal regulations and make sure any approach respects natural resources protections. Evolved Wildlife Solutions prioritizes humane solutions that comply with Pennsylvania Game Commission guidance and contribute to healthy bat populations outdoors-not in your attic.
Why Work with Evolved Wildlife Solutions for Bat Removal
Evolved Wildlife Solutions is a locally owned, science-driven wildlife control company serving southeastern Pennsylvania homeowners and businesses. Services are led by a Master's-trained wildlife biologist with over 25 years of field experience, ensuring that bat removal and exclusion plans are based on bat ecology, not guesswork.
Their multi-step approach includes:
Detailed inspection of rooflines, attics, chimneys, and siding
Custom bat removal strategy using one-way devices
Sealing, repairs, and coordination for cleanup and sanitation of guano-contaminated areas
All work is humane, compliant with Pennsylvania wildlife regulations, and focused on permanently removing bats from the structure while preserving their role in the local ecosystem.
If you are in southeastern Pennsylvania and need safe, effective bat removal or want to prevent bats from re-entering your home, contact Evolved Wildlife Solutions today to schedule an inspection.
FAQ: Getting a Bat Out of Your House
How do I know if there's more than one bat in my house?
Signs of a colony include multiple sightings over several nights, repeated scratching or squeaking from the same attic or wall area at dusk, and accumulations of bat droppings under rooflines or in the attic. A single bat appearing once near an open window is often just an accidental visitor. Many homeowners mistake a one-time encounter for an infestation. If you see repeated activity or visible guano, schedule a professional inspection with Evolved Wildlife Solutions.
What should I do if I wake up and find a bat in my bedroom?
This is treated as a potential rabies exposure because you may not feel a small bat bite while asleep. Safely contain the bat in the room by closing doors and windows, then trap it in a container. Do not release the bat until health officials give guidance. Immediately call your doctor and local health department for advice on rabies testing and post-exposure treatment, then contact Evolved Wildlife Solutions for help removing any remaining bats and preventing re-entry.
Can I keep bats around my property but out of my house?
Many homeowners in Pennsylvania appreciate bats because they reduce mosquito and insect populations during summer nights. Install a bat house on a detached pole or structure at least 15–20 feet high and away from the roofline to give bats an alternative roosting site. Complete humane bat removal and exclusion from the home before encouraging bats to use a bat house.
Do I need to clean my attic after bats are removed?
Dried bat guano can carry fungal spores associated with histoplasmosis and should not be disturbed without proper protective gear and containment. After successful bat exclusion, contaminated insulation may need to be removed, surfaces disinfected, and new insulation installed. Use trained professionals for significant guano cleanup and ask Evolved Wildlife Solutions for referrals or integrated service options.
Will sealing my house to prevent bats also help with other wildlife?
Professional bat-proofing-sealing gaps, adding window screens, capping chimneys-often helps deter other nuisance wildlife like squirrels, mice, and birds from entering attics and living spaces. View bat prevention as part of a broader home-wildlife barrier strategy that also improves energy efficiency. Contact Evolved Wildlife Solutions to discuss a comprehensive plan that addresses bats and other common wildlife issues around southeastern Pennsylvania homes.
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