05/31/2026
A bat on your siding in broad daylight is almost always a mother taking a thermal break between feeding flights.
She's not sick. She's not rabid. Female bats form maternity colonies behind shutters, in soffit gaps, and inside bat houses through the summer. A lactating mother hunts hundreds of insects per night and sometimes ends up on the sunlit wall outside the roost waiting for dusk. She'll re-enter on her own.
- If she's in full sun on a hot wall, prop a piece of cardboard nearby to offer shade. Don't touch her
- If she's on the ground or a pet has made contact, cover her with an overturned bowl and call your county health department — direct contact requires testing
- Don't seal roost entrances between May and August — pups inside can't fly yet
- If you want bats relocated, a one-way exclusion device installed in September is the standard method. A wildlife professional handles it in an afternoon
- A bat house mounted on a south-facing wall at least fifteen feet up gives them an alternative to your soffits
She eats more mosquitoes in one night than a bug zapper catches in a month. The wall she's clinging to is her commute, not a crisis.