a bat in my house

[lozina]

last night I was awakened at around 1:30 to some high pitched squeaking in my house. I go downstairs and find a tiny bat crawling around on the carpet screeching like crazy! It was maybe 4 inches wide with a nice black velvet looking skin. I couldn't tell if it was a jouvenile or an adult... or wether it was injured or not. It seemed to be crawling around fine and never attempted to fly. Not knowing what to do, I just got a piece of cardboard and let him crawl on it and took him outside and let him down on the lawn. My hope was that if it's a baby then maybe its calling for its mother and she'll come by and pick him up. I have no idea how it got inside my house... no windows or doors were open, and the chimney is sealed. We dont have central heating/AC so no ducts to think about either... very strange. Anyway, after I put him on the lawn and tried to go back to sleep I kept hearing his cries from outside. So what would you have done? I hope he's ok now.

 

[RossMAN]

I would have handled it the same way.

 

[MichaelD]

You did the right thing. Very kind of you to put it back outside and not kill the poor thing.

Bats are a vital part of the ecological system. They eat bugs. I hate bugs.

 

[jagr10]

Bats are blind so if he's a baby he's probably learning how to use his senses. My guess is it's normal. Where do you live to have bats flying around? heh.

 

[lozina]

I live in southern New York, 30 miles from the city. I will often see bats flying around at night but I never actually seen one up close, nor have I ever heard them make a sound. I always thought their pitch was too high for humans to hear. I love bats too for that reason: eating bugs. Especially mosquitos! I know I've heard very similar squeaks in my attic once before, which seem to be coming from the wall between the attic and the chimney. I always thought they were birds, but now I'm wondering if thats where the bats live. It still dosent explain how it got in the house!

 

[rky60]

A monster of a bat did a fly-by on my head while i was sittin at the computer a few weeks back. Total darkness in the room at the time, needless to say it scared the sh!t of me until i realized what it was.

The back door was left open on the screened-in porch an inch or two, them things can squeeze in anywhere. I just opened the door and the winged devil made it's way out through the hallways and around the corners with no problem