I'd be a little concerned if it showed up in an enclosed room too, I'd want to know how.

I did have one inside years ago but it came in an open window - I'm a stickler for screens any more, they aren't optional. Closed the bedroom door and in the morning found it hanging on closet door molding where it was easily scooped up with a trout net and deposited outside.

My friends MIL used to tell a funny story about bats getting in at night. It seems like a chimney was the entry point there, and she woke to a little furry creature on her chest, telling her husband, Dear, Dear wake up....there is a bat on my bosom!

I think they are kind of interesting from a reasonable distance, I sure wouldn't want one landing on me.

Whenever we get one in the house, we just open the doors wide and try to hold up things that shoo him/her towards the doors. If you get another one, open the doors or windows (take out the screens!) and keep waving your arms around. I feel bad sending them out into the cold, though, there's nothing for them to eat and they need to hole up for the winter, if it's cold where you are.

We had pretty good luck snagging them with a long-handled fishing net. Once a bat is inside the net, you just flip it over and take it outside to release the bat. One time I sucked one up into my vacuum cleaner. It was years ago, so the vacuum had a bag. I put the bag outside, and we all watched through the window as the bat emerged, one "arm" at a time.

I'm fond of bats outdoors; not so crazy about having them in the house.

I used to have an older home that the bats seemed to get into. I actually saw it crawl in through the exhaust fan over the stove. My guess is, if you have an exhaust fan in your bathroom, that is how it got in. I just left the fan running, they wouldn't come in through the whirling blades.

I hope that a group of bats would not be evicted in the winter if you live in a cold climate. I'd not even allow anyone to disturb them at that time of year.

It's Federally illegal to kill most of our native bat species, and hopefully your exterminator knows that.

In the spring, they can be excluded from returning to their roost after an evening of hunting. An informed exterminator will know how and when to do that.

You all seem so calm in these answers. I'm actually pretty freaked at this. I did cover the bathroom vent with plastic and tape (as per instructions of the exterminator who, again, will be back Monday). But otherwise I just can't see any place at all where the bat got in on the second floor. All my screens/storms are new and well sealed, and there are no cracks or holes in ceilings or walls.

Also, can one have just one bat--an isolated event? I am so scared that there is a colony in the attic or something.

They aren't going to suck your blood while you're sleeping! You would not believe how small of a space they can go through. And now that I've scared you half to death, take a deep breath. Think about all we've said. Bats are good. They eat mosquitoes. They don't fly into your hair. No doubt the bat was just as startled as you were finding himself inside your house rather than where he had intended to go. You might have more. And you might not. Point of entry is the thing. Find that, seal it, no more bats. Put screen over the fan exhaust.

I hope it wasn't killed. :(

We had bats in our old farmhouse years ago. And I mean HUNDREDS. They usually stayed in the attic but when they started sneaking in, it was time to do something. It is true...it's ILLEGAL to kill bats....at least in my state (WI). they are on the protected species list because they are so beneficial to the environment. The exterminator came faithfully every night for about a week and looked to see where they were leaving the house at sundown. Mostly the chimney, but there were other spots too. Then he'd caulk and/or fill those cracks. Cost a pretty penny, but well worth a good night's sleep!

Just beware....we were told that where you see one bat...there are MANY others. Their colony usually doubles from one year to the next. The 2nd floor of this farmhouse had been undisturbed for over 20 years....you do the math. YUCK!

If you live in a cold weather area, why are there bats still there? We were told they all fly to caverns in the southwest during winter.....??....

Our cat brought them in, both times.

I had one in the house a couple of years ago and hurried an opened the front door and started waving a towel around and it flew out. Glad I wasn't being taped! Pulled a hat on just in case.....

Bats have only one or two babies each year.

Not necessarily so Julie. Where I live it is winter, and every year. Down at Dinosaur Park, the bat researchers move in to summer staff accomodations from October till the end of March, monitoring the bats in the area. They may hole up in caves and caverns but the still need water and will venture forth to seek such.

Cassandra, you have absolutely nothing to fear from any bats that may be in your attic. They will not get into your hair, they don't suck blood, bother your pets. They just look a little creepy. Cover up the exhaust fan, which is where I think they are getting in. Calm down. They do way more good than harm.

Do you have any chimneys in the house if so that's quite often the route to outside. It only takes a very small crack for one to get through. They don't bother me at all. We always had them in the barns and hay lofts. They really won't bother you. Don't be afraid of them they don't want to be around you any more than you want to be around them.

Bats DO NOT fly south for the winter. If in a cold climate, they hibernate....reducing their body temperature and heart rate to survive sub-freezing temperatures.

What is your general location?

Try to keep this in mind: Bats nurse their babies and devotedly carry them around. They miscarry easily.

If you think about them in those terms, they lose some of their scariness.

Also, a bat in the house doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the colony is in your house. It might be in a nearby barn or someone else's house.

Two likely entry points are (1) bath/power room vented into the attic instead out the roof with a self closing damper in the roof vent or duct. and (2) down the chimney.

Bats and squirrels should not be able to get into the attic in the first place. There is an opening somewhere. The soffett vents should have screens to keep out vermin and insects. One possible place of entry is by a chimney when the chimney is located at a gable end. When a full chimney is placed on the outside of an endwall, a gap may exist between the chimney and the overhang extension of the roof. It gets covered up with roofing shingles, but under the shingles is an opening into the overhang part of the roof. Bats and squirrels can enter here, run down the overhang box and drop into the soffett space. From there, they have immediate access to the entire attic. (That's what happened to my house and it was a new house. I got squirrels and they were tough to evict.) My chimney was built after the house was framed and the roof boards put on. The carpenters left a cutout for the chimney. The roof overhang was created by forming a box with boards. After the chimney was built, it did not fill the allowance space on one side leaving a gap and that is where the little rascals entered the house.

I wish you a lot of luck. Its going to take a lot of looking around to find the entry holes, but those must exist to premit the creatures to enter.

It happens rarely, but one time we did get a bird in our basement in a single story house. We came home one evening to find a robin beating itself up as it tired to frantically get out. The furnace was off and it had come down the chimney, through the upper part of the furnace and out the top vent that exists on most all gas furnaces.

I'm in MN where bats hibernate in attics all winter. As the exterminator explained, occasionally they will wake up to clean and get a drink. They also move down walls seeking warmth; thus, people often find them in basements. That happened to me many years ago in another old house.

Didn't sleep much last night expecting more bats, but there were none. I really think the bathroom vent was the culprit. Since I'm new to this house I haven't yet taken a good look at the attic. It is just a crawl space and hard to get into. My inspector looked at it and found nothing amiss when I bought the house. No doubt there are plenty of entry points for bats.

Besides flying around, what do you think a bat is going to do?

Oh my. My exterminator must've told me a fib to calm me or something. He told me that bats left the cold in the winter! oh well, his fib worked. I admire all of you who aren't freaked out by bats, I am and always will be. But truthfully, I highly doubt any of you had as many in your house as I did. It was like the movie Birds, but with bats. Horrible. And the amount of poop they left in my attic was highly lethal. The clean up men wore haz mat suits....you should've smelled the upstairs of my home when it got hot in the summer....thank the Lord we only rented that house!

There are different kinds of bats. Some bats hibernate in the winter. Some bats, such as the Mexican Freetail Bat go south.

When I first moved to Long Island some thirty-plus years ago, we would see "flocks" of bats flying around at sunset. They've lost a lot of their habitat (old barns) and there's a disease killing them also. So I haven't seen a bat in years. I know they eat lots of mosquitos. I've never seen one indoors. We did have a baby bird in our house last summer, my daughter's boy friend chased him to the bathroom, opened the window and he flew away. My best friend Sue's eighty- year-old Mom found a dead bat in her living room some time back.

Just watched a favorite show about the veterinarian Dr. Pol of Minnesota yesterday morning. He got up at night for a drink, went to the kitchen, saw what he thought was a ripe banana peel and picked it up. It was a bat. So then he sent the bat to the lab to see if it had rabies. So don't touch them as they can be rabid. Luckily, this bat was not rabid.

a funny story...a friend was swimming under water and popped to the surface. the bat missed his face by the width of his shadow. yellowed water gross, the look on his face..priceless. true story. seriously, if he's in the house, keep him moving till the poor thing is tired enough to catch. i don't want them in my house either, but, i do put nesting boxes up to keep them around. it is true, they eat their weight in bugs every day to be well fed.

DH keeps leaving the sliding glass doors open at night, in the Summer. They fly towards the light....indoors. We've had 2 fly in so far. They land on the walls and we put a LONG handled dust mop up next to them, it steps onto the mop and is carried outdoors. Simple enough.

Just curious; why does he leave the doors open? Do you have screens?

We had one years ago that came down the chimney - then made it's way into the house - DH came home and found DD & I sitting on the porch waiting for him waiting for him to take care of it. . Luckily it was in the summer. LOL Good luck and I hope it's an isolated incident. We never had another

Turn the lights off in the room where the bat is and close off that room from the rest of the house. Turn on an outside light, and open a window. Bats will use their echolocation and good eyesight to get the heck out of there.

Julie.....he sees the deer eating the roses and dashes out.....leaving the doors wide open. :0) Yes, we have screens.....he's careless.....