Bat in the house - rabies scare!

[arto98607]

Last year we somehow accidentally had a bat enter the house and stay hiding probably one day & night or so without us knowing about it.
Following evening it ended up flying above our heads while we were watching TV and it just landed in a bookshelf above big TV screen.

No time to panic, had to do something in a hurry!

So I plugged in the house central vacuum hose and managed to suck it away with the hose the first try.

Since it had stayed overnight in the house, our county Health Dept. wanted to test the dead bat for rabies and lucky for us found it negative!


My neighbor was not so lucky - somehow he got scraped by a bat when outside, and he ended up having to get whole bunch of rabies shots as a precaution $$$ !

Cheers

 

[MossRoad]

Last year we somehow accidentally had a bat enter the house and stay hiding probably one day & night or so without us knowing about it.
Following evening it ended up flying above our heads while we were watching TV and it just landed in a bookshelf above big TV screen.

No time to panic, had to do something in a hurry!

So I plugged in the house central vacuum hose and managed to suck it away with the hose the first try.

Since it had stayed overnight in the house, our county Health Dept. wanted to do a rabies test and lucky to us found it negative!

My neighbor was not so lucky - somehow he got scraped by a bat when outside, and he ended up having to get whole bunch of rabies shots as a precaution $$$ !

Cheers

You got off easy. We had a bat situation a few years ago and the entire family had to get shots. It happened right at the end of the year, we hadn't met our deductible, so several thousand out of pocket, then the 1st of the year hits and our deductible reset, so several thousand more out of pocket. It was close to $10K WITH insurance. Without insurance, it would have been closer to $40K.

It's one of those crummy deals... the chances of catching rabies is incredibly small. However, the chances of surviving rabies, should you contract it, are statistically ZERO. Don't want to mess around with it.

On the bright side, rabies shots don't hurt anymore than a flu shot. It's just a small needle in the arm at day 1, 3, 7, and 14. But there's also the imune globulin shots on day 1. That's based on body weight. So, me being a larger person, got 4 huge shots, one in each thigh and one in each butt cheek. YEOWCH!

 

[oosik]

I don't think a year has gone by when one or two bats don't accidentally fly in the house. It's when I open the door to the porch and leave it open too long. I just reopen the door - watch carefully - soon they find the open door and, once again, all is well.

I had to pick up a bat once. Just wore my uber heavy leather work gloves and put the bat out on the porch. Nobody was worse for wear.

 

[Midniteoyl]

I don't think a year has gone by when one or two bats don't accidentally fly in the house. It's when I open the door to the porch and leave it open too long. I just reopen the door - watch carefully - soon they find the open door and, once again, all is well.

I had to pick up a bat once. Just wore my uber heavy leather work gloves and put the bat out on the porch. Nobody was worse for wear.

I have bats, but they never come in the house (yet). What I do get are birds down the chimney just about every spring. Have to close all the curtains, cover any windows w/o them, and turn off all the fans then leave the door open to get them out. If I don't cover the windows, they panic fly into them and get hurt when I open the stove door.

I had a bird screen, but the wasps loved using it for nest scaffolding

 

[cqaigy2]

I once woke to this flapping sound. A bat was flying a few feet over my head. It would go around the room, then try and land on the bare shiplap wall. Then off again. I opened the window and it flew out on it's next orbit.

 

[oosik]

I open the door and leave it open too long. The flying bugs are attracted to the lights in the kitchen. The bats follow the bugs. The bats quickly realize they are in the wrong place. They find the open door and exit. Just once I had a second bat come in while waiting for the first to exit. Not to worry - close the door and leave only a small open crack. They soon found the crack and flew off into the night.

 

[Wagtail]

First a disclaimer: there is no rabies in all of Australia. (Plenty of other stuff that can kill you, though. ) That's why Australia has strict, no nonsense, NO excuses quarantine laws. [Just ask Johnny Depp & his ex-wife who tried to smuggle their two dogs here on a private jet. ]

I've had bats in my house a few times and, as oosik says, I just wait until dusk and open a door. It'll quickly find the exit.

My cat has occasionally caught a bat (typically it's a windy/stormy night) and, of course, brings it to me as she doesn't know what this weird looking 'mouse' is. I just put on a pair of 'linesman' leather gloves, gently gather/cup it up and take it back outside. No worries.

Mind you, we only have micro-bats here in Tassie, no Fruit-bats/Flying Foxes.

 

[oosik]

Our bats are called - Little Brown Bats. Body size is less than half the size of a field mouse.

 

[Wagtail]

Our bats are called - Little Brown Bats. Body size is less than half the size of a field mouse.

I just Googled Tassie bats and we've got 8 different species (one is exclusively native to Tasmania)

All are tiny little micro-bats: Bats | Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania

 

[Alan W.]

Unbeknownst to me our lab was collecting dead rabid bats while slobbering all over my son and me.
My son who was little at the time asked me why Lucy, our dog, was collecting dead birds.
All of the bats that could be tested were positive. State said apparently they were suffering an outbreak in our area. They recommended we get treatment.
We both went through the shot series. No problem.
My brother in law works in a lab where they test for rabies so he has had his shots. They have their antibodies checked regularly. No one that has worked in the lab has had to get booster shots. He doesnt know how long the treatment will last but techs have retired there with their original shots.