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Updated September 2026
Most single bats that get indoors are lost and just want a way out. Here’s how to help one leave safely — and the one situation where you should catch it instead of releasing it.
A flying bat looks alarming but it isn’t trying to attack — it’s disoriented and looking for a way out. Don’t swat at it. Close the doors to the rest of the house so it stays in one room, open an exterior window or door as wide as you can, turn off the lights, and give it a few minutes. Most bats find the opening and leave on their own.
Wait until it lands and comes to rest on a wall or curtain. Wearing thick leather work gloves — never bare hands — cover it with a plastic tub or coffee can, slide a piece of cardboard behind it to trap it, and carry it outside to release it against a tree trunk. Never pick a bat up in your hands.
A single bat indoors in summer is often a young one from a maternity colony roosting in your attic or a wall that took a wrong turn and ended up in the living space. If you’re finding bats more than once, or hearing scratching and squeaking in the walls near the soffits at dusk, you likely have a colony — and that needs professional exclusion, not a jar and a piece of cardboard.
Bats are protected, and the way a colony is removed is regulated by season. From roughly June 1 to August 1, flightless pups are in the roost, and sealing the entry then traps and kills them. Proper exclusion is done with one-way devices before or after that window, then the gaps are sealed for good. Our guide to NJ’s bat timing rules walks through when work can and can’t happen.
Bat guano can carry Histoplasma, a fungus that’s hazardous when disturbed and breathed in. Don’t sweep or vacuum an attic pile dry — colony cleanup is done with the right protection and disinfection, usually as part of the exclusion job.
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