Although associated with vampires, being evil or scary, and getting caught in people’s hair, all attributes that are completely made up and not true, bats are actually incredibly beneficial animals. Your typical bat will eat almost half of their weight in food in a single night. One brown bat can eat more than 600 mosquitoes in one hour. Now of course most bats don’t really weigh that much, some only about the weight of about 17 dimes, but given how little mosquitoes weigh, a bat can help keep night-flying insects somewhat in check.

Good as these little flying mammals are, they can be quite upsetting if they happen to get into your house. Although they can navigate extremely well in very complicated terrain at night, in a house with a lot of commotion going on, they can get stressed and confused. If you get a bat in your house, you should turn out the lights, leave the room, and leave the doors or windows open. Undisturbed, the bat should find its way outside in short order.

If you see a bat in the daytime however or, if it seems to be having difficulty flying, stay away and do not be tempted to try and catch it, knock it out of the air, throw something over it, or touch it. Bats are the result of nearly all of the recent confirmed cases of human rabies in the United States and any bat doing anything that is not normal bat behavior should be treated with extreme caution.

If you are awakened by a bat in your bedroom, because the teeth of a bat are so small and sharp, it is almost impossible to detect if you have been bitten. If you think you have been exposed, you should contact your local health department immediately and seek their guidance. If you find a dead bat. Do not touch it or throw it away, rather try an get it into some type of bag without making contact and then take the bag and bat to the health department so it can be tested.