Bats are the animal most likely to be rabid in Washington. Therefore, avoiding bats is essential to reducing the risk of rabies in humans. Bats should not be picked up or otherwise handled. However, bats play an important role in our ecosystem, and it is neither practical nor desirable to try to eliminate bats from the environment. Rather, effort should be directed at altering the circumstances in which people are exposed to bats.
People commonly encounter bats in their houses.
Individual bats occasionally enter buildings accidentally, particularly during the spring and fall as they move between roosts. However, groups of bats may also establish colonies in houses or other buildings. This increases the chances that a person will encounter a bat. Preventing bats from establishing a colony in a building is preferable to trying to exclude them after they become settled, but methods of evicting bats from buildings have been developed. In Washington, where many houses do not have screens over windows and doors, the first step to take to reduce the possibility of being exposed to a bat at home is to put up screens.