There are over nine hundred species of bat in the world and eighteen of them live in Utah. Usually of the small brown sort, Utah bats normally call caves, barns and trees home, but as urban areas move further into mountain areas, a bat’s habitat may end up being your home, cabin or business.

We received a call from one Utah woman who had a bat living in storage cupboards in her garage.

In most states bats are a protected species, and they’re good for the environment they’re just not good for your car paint or anything else in a house or business. There’s the smell (which we won’t even begin to describe in detail), guano piles (that’d be little black bat droppings), squeaking noises and the scarier prospects of fleas, lice, spreadable diseases and the off chance of rabies. All this is enough reason why bats sharing human living space is a bad idea, but, let’s face it, there just aren’t many of us who are comfortable with a bat living in our attic, in the rafters above our bed, or even in our garage. As cool as they are, keeping separate residences is best for us and the bats.

We were able to catch and safely remove the bat from the garage, but after removal, relocating bats is a special business for they have been known to find their way back to a roost over long distances.