Oh dear God, I've got a bat situation! :( PICS & VIDEO - CORVUS HELP!!!!

Well, if you can't get someone to come check/remove them due to babies and such, how about calling the health department and asking if it is a health risk? Get it from another angle maybe? And if all else fails, call your TV station for a human interest/problem angle and if see if that nets you some help.

I love them too, but I don't like bats in my belfry either!!!!!!!!!

Good luck.

Amy 

 http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/bats/batsinhome.asp#howout

http://www.agfc.com/pdfs/free/bats_nuisance_bro.pdf

The look like big brown bats (that's a species).  They're really quite harmless. 

Thanks for those links.  Looks like the little guy didn't fly back up into the vent.  It appears that he dropped off the edge of the the deck and crawled under the door to my shed.  I found him there this afternoon, still alive and moving.  I left him alone and hoped that he would be okay and know what to do.  After the sun set, I went back out and it was gone and not anywhere in the shed, hopefully, I tried to check thoroughly but it's such a tiny bugger it could have wedged in somewhere.  I'm a little worried it might be a baby that can't fly.  I haven't heard anymore scurrying or scratching up in the ceiling, but, hey, it's not 3 am and I'm not sound asleep, which it seems is when they like making their presence known!  LOL!  

I'm calling DNR tomorrow to find out what they think I should do.  I bought those lightweight plastic liners that go under house plants and stronger duct tape and it seals the exhaust fan and light fixture much better and I can see through it in case another one gets stuck.  I'm sealing up the 2 access points on the 3rd floor and hopefully no more will make their way into the house again!  I'm comfortable leaving the exhaust vent open until end of August when they won't have babies anymore and then doing the abatement, but I'm still going to check with a couple departments to make sure that's an okay plan.  The thing I'm most concerned about after the chance that they'd get into the house again is the guano that might remain if I leave that vent open for 2 months.  I do not want to have to rip out the ceiling, so that might be a dealbreaker. 

Bats carry rabies -- and all you have to do is tell Fisheries & Wildlife that they are appearing at weird hours and doing NON-noctournal things and they should be there fast.  Because that's the kind of weird behavior they look for in sick animals. 

I've followed this thread with fear and loathing -- I'm sorry, I love critturs but I hate snakes and I hate bats.  They can exist in the wild or in behind glass in a zoo but NOT IN MY HOME.  Not me AND them. 

I had a situation years ago where ONE bat got in my apartment and I almost had a coronary.  I finally got it out, but it became a really "personal" thing between me and the bat, and it wasn't pretty.  He survived, and I consider the bat the victor in the situation. 

If I had more than one I'd just plain move.  That sounds extreme but so is my loathing of them. 

I'll do almost anything for an injured animal -- but snake or bat?  *sigh* nope. 

I'll pray for you, but just reading this has made my blood pressure go up.  phew.

Should I worry about rabies?
Like all mammals, bats can carry rabies, but only ½ of 1% of bats
have this disease; skunks and foxes are the most common wild
animals found with rabies in most of the US. Exposure to rabies can
happen if a bat bites you or if infectious material, such as saliva,
gets into your eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound. You can not get
rabies from just being near a bat or its guano.

 I'm not freaking as much as I was before and given the percentages, I'm not that worried about rabies, it's far more common in the squirrels and raccoons that are here and a much bigger problem.  I don't want dead babies in my walls either.  If it's brood time, I'm fine with blocking their access points into my house until August and then doing the abatement.  Once I looked at the little guy up close, he was much more terrified of me than I was of him (or he was in torpor - more likely ) and appeared very fragile, I'm more concerned about them than upset now. 

It helps that I finally got some sleep last night, no noise in the walls and no visitors.     For all I know, it could be a bachelor bat.  It could be the same one that was in the light fixture and the attic and then moved to the shed. 

 Call me Soft, but I hopes lickle Shed Bat is OK!

 Me too!  But I did check around after I found him in the shed to make sure no predators made any appearances in my fenced yard and watched the dogs like hawks, I hope he's okay too.

I talked to the extension service for my county, they said they're getting lots of calls right now and to wait until October to do the abatement because the bats around here can give birth up through August and then the young need time to mature and be able to fly before I can safely seal the hole.  I'm waiting on a return call from the wildlife department expert.  The extension service woman said not to use the ammonia rags because it could drive the mom away and leave the babies to die.    She said that if hibernation or brooding areas are disturbed, the bats can die pretty easily. 

Looks like I have house mates until October!