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Bats in Your Columbus House: Georgia Dates and What to Do

Checked against Georgia DNR, Georgia DPH, West Central Health District and CDC guidance on November 7, 2026. How we research this site.

Georgia DNR’s first words on bats in the house are “don’t panic”. Most bat problems can wait for the right season. The one that cannot wait is a bat in a room where somebody was asleep.

Georgia’s calendar comes first

DNR’s reason is the pups. From spring into summer young bats are too small to fly, and if the adults are shut out the young are trapped inside the building and die. That is cruel to the bats, and it leaves you with a smell in the wall a few weeks later. So for a colony that has been in the attic all summer, the realistic plan in Columbus is usually to exclude in August or later, after the young can fly.

A bat loose in the house tonight

This is the urgent case. Close the room off, keep pets and children out, and do not let the bat go if anyone might have been in contact with it. CDC’s advice is to contact the health department or animal control to have it captured for testing, and not to release it until you have spoken to a public health expert. It points out that bat bites can be tiny enough that you never know you were bitten.

• In Columbus the health call is Columbus Environmental Health, (706) 321-6170, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed 1 to 2 p.m. It runs the district’s rabies control program.
• If you are told to catch it, CDC describes leather work gloves, a box or jar over the bat once it lands, and cardboard slid underneath and taped down.
• If you were bitten or scratched, Georgia DPH says to clean the wound thoroughly with soap and water straight away and call your doctor, who can consult the Georgia Poison Center on 800-282-5846.

Georgia DNR is blunt about handling: do not pick bats up, because a bat that is picked up is likely to bite. Very few bats carry rabies, it says, but without prompt care the disease is fatal.

Doing it yourself, or hiring it out

Georgia DNR says most situations can be handled by the homeowner, and points to Bat Conservation International’s step-by-step guidance both for a single bat indoors and for excluding a colony. It suggests hiring a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator when there are a lot of bats, when the building makes exclusion difficult, or when the work has to happen during the April to July maternity period.

DNR’s operator list is organised by the county each company is based in, and many serve several counties. DNR suggests searching for companies in your area, checking them against the list or asking whether they are licensed by DNR, and getting more than one estimate. DNR has also published acceptable management practices for operators doing bat work in structures, written with federal agencies and CDC after steep declines in bat populations, so a good operator should know them.

We do not publish prices. How many gaps the roofline has, and how hard they are to reach, decide the work. For what is particular to Columbus housing, see bat removal in Columbus.

A bat outside, in daylight

A bat on the ground or out in the middle of the day is one to leave alone and keep pets away from. Columbus health officials ask residents not to pick up or handle stray or wild animals and to report animals behaving strangely or aggressively to animal control, the PAWS Humane Animal Services Division.

Questions people ask

When is it legal to get bats out of a house in Georgia?

Georgia DNR says bat exclusions should be avoided from April 1 to July 31, when pups are too young to fly and can be trapped and die inside. If one has to be done in that window, DNR says it must be done by a licensed Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator.

Can a Columbus homeowner exclude bats themselves?

Georgia DNR’s view is that most situations can be handled by the homeowner, outside the April to July maternity period. It suggests hiring an operator for a large colony, a difficult building, or work that cannot wait until August.

Who do I call in Columbus if a bat was in my bedroom?

Columbus Environmental Health, part of the West Central Health District, on (706) 321-6170, and your doctor. CDC asks people not to release a bat found in the home until they have spoken to public health, because a bite can be too small to notice.

Do bats in Georgia have rabies?

Georgia DNR says very few bats are positive for rabies, but that without prompt care the disease is fatal. Georgia’s Department of Public Health lists bats among the wild animals that carry rabies.