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OUTDOORS: Protected bats can carry and transmit a fatal virus
by David Thompson
One evening, when I was 13, my mother yelled for help in the kitchen. When I got there, she pointed to a bat that was clinging to the top of the door that led to the basement. Terrified, she wanted me to "do something."
Grabbing the straw broom that I used to sweep the sidewalk, I followed her instructions. Mother said it had been flying all around the kitchen, where it didn't belong.
That night I was her hero, as my dad was out of town. I had hunted small game with him since age five and thought I understood what mother expected me to do about the bat that frightened her.
I had nothing against bats, but had heard nothing good about them back in the 1950s. I didn't believe the folklore about bats becoming entangled in people's hair. My mother, who was raised in an old farmhouse with bats in the attic, may have taken such stories to heart. She didn't appreciate them, and consequently, I've been cautious about bats ever since that night.
Also, between then and now, I've learned that bats can carry rabies, so, yes, I am suspicious of them.
Something else about bats is that today they are classified in Pennsylvania as non-game animals, so they are protected. When my mother had four youngsters at home, little attention was paid to unfamiliar and unpopular bats. Since then, bats have gained admirers who study and conserve them. You can erect a bat house on your property for their convenience.
I have newspaper and magazine articles that provide information about bats being beneficial by eating insects. Bats catch bugs at night while flying. They are the only mammals with wings. Some insects they catch with their mouths, and other bugs are captured with their wings and transferred to their mouths.
A bat's wings have a thin membrane that can serve as an insect-catching "net." That membrane stretches between thin, bony "fingers." The mammal's wings allow it to swoop with precision through the air and capture many sizes of flying bugs.
Like all warm-blooded mammals, including humans, bats can contract rabies. Bats spread the fatal virus to other warm-blooded creatures, usually by biting them. In the United States, most people who contract rabies are bitten by bats. To me, that's something about bats that you should know.
I'm not suggesting that you should despise and fear bats, but that you should learn more about them and how to protect yourself and your home. Information is available in a Penn State booklet titled "A Homeowner's Guide to Northeastern Bats and Bat Problems." The county's extension office probably can help locate a copy or a different guide.
In Pennsylvania, approximately 300 mammals of various species are diagnosed with rabies annually. This year, as of the end of July 2026, there have been 205 cases, including 39 cases of rabies in bats. Bats are among the main carriers of rabies here. Other main carriers include raccoons, feral cats, foxes, and skunks.
All other wild mammals and domestic animals, including pet dogs, cats, and livestock, are susceptible to contracting and spreading rabies to people. A law requires dogs to be inoculated against rabies. If you own a cat that roams outdoors, keep in mind that feral cats spread the virus.
It is believed that less than one percent of bats carry rabies. If a bat or any other animal bites you or anyone you know, you should seek immediate professional medical care. A victim may need to be treated with a series of anti-rabies inoculations. That treatment is critical because without it, rabies is deadly.
Bats are seen at dusk and dawn during spring, summer, and autumn when they fly to catch insects. If there is enough moonlight, bats are seen at night flying back and forth repeatedly. Bats are not active during the day when they hide and rest in dark places in barns, houses, outbuildings, trees, caves, and tunnels.
It is uncommon for bats to fly during the day. If you encounter one, do not approach it because it may be rabid. If you find a bat on the ground that does not fly or cannot fly, it is injured, sick, and possibly rabid. Do not approach it or allow pets to approach it. (The same precaution applies to other wildlife that act abnormally. A healthy wild animal flees when a person approaches it.)
Bats enter people's homes. Keep your eyes open. Being small, they can squeeze through openings for doors, windows, attics, chimneys, loose siding and shingles. They probably enter houses when searching for a place to rest, hide, or bear young. They don't find food or water inside a structure, so they must leave it nightly in order to eat and drink to survive until they hibernate before winter or migrate south to a warmer place.
The problem is, you cannot tell just by looking at a bat inside your house, barn or outbuilding whether it is sick unless it falls to the floor, can't fly or acts strangely. This bat is a potential threat.
Under the Commonwealth's Game and Wildlife Code, all native species of bats are protected. It is illegal to poison, harm, or kill them. You should contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission at 1-833-742-4868 for advice if you are dealing with a bat at home that must be removed.
A reason that bats deserve protection is that their numbers have dropped significantly due to a fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome that exists in Pennsylvania and other states. This disease attacks hibernating bats in winter, causing starvation or freezing to death. The disease is spread among bats and has led to several species of Pennsylvania's nine bat species becoming endangered or threatened.
Pennsylvania's little brown bat and big brown bat are the two species that you are most likely to see flying or encounter at home or a different structure. Bats have tiny teeth so that a bite at night may not be felt by someone asleep. If you find a bat in your bedroom or another room, take quick action if you also find a reddish mark or wound on your body or a family member's body. That mark could be a bat bite.
Even though bats are protected, the one that has bitten someone must be tested for rabies as soon as possible. A dead bat's brain is tested. You can think and plan about how to handle that bat. To evict a bat from your home, certain procedures can be used. For information, you can contact the Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 877-724-3258.