{"id":1032924,"date":"2026-08-30T12:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1032924\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T12:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:28:18","slug":"bats-invading-new-york-homes-to-kick-off-maternity-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1032924\/","title":{"rendered":"Bats invading New York homes to kick off maternity season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York is going batty! <\/p>\n<p>Bats are swooping into homes across New York\u2019s Capital Region and Hudson Valley this summer, with pest-control pros reporting a surge in calls from homeowners who have discovered the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/27\/health\/doctor-shares-psa-after-waking-up-to-a-bat-trying-to-get-into-her-mouth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flying mammals<\/a> taking up residence.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Pest Services in <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/albany\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Albany<\/a> has seen roughly a 15% jump in bat-related calls this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/news\/article\/bats-summer-enter-homes-rabies-risk-22391396.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to the Times Union<\/a> newspaper.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40556688\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/138783993.jpg\" alt=\"A brown bat that looks like it's hissing at the camera\" class=\"wp-image-40556688\"\/>Bats give birth during the summer and then look for cool, dry places to feed and care for their babies. Ivan Kuzmin \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>The reason? Baby bats.<\/p>\n<p>Mid-June marks the start of maternity season for New York\u2019s nine native bat species, as hungry mothers spend their days hunting insects and seek out warm, dark places to raise their pups. <\/p>\n<p>Bats can squeeze through tiny openings as small as a quarter-inch or 3\/8 of an inch, allowing them to slip into attics, walls and other hard-to-reach spaces.<\/p>\n<p>The creatures can also turn homes into year-round shelters \u2014 particularly as they struggle with white-nose syndrome, a devastating fungal disease that has killed millions of bats across North America.<\/p>\n<p>Still, experts caution that more bats being reported does not necessarily mean there are more bats.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40556690\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/138783921.jpg\" alt=\"A brown bat with its wings out\" class=\"wp-image-40556690\"\/>If there is a bat in your home, safely contain the animal and call your local health department or animal control immediately. Nicolas \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>Ashley Meyer, a wildlife biologist with New York\u2019s Department of Environmental Conservation, said increased public awareness \u2014 namely<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/06\/30\/rabid-bats-in-illinois-present-threat-to-human-health\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> fears about rabies<\/a> \u2014 may be driving reports of increased sightings.<\/p>\n<p>The actual risk of catching rabies from a bat remains low, Meyer said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, just over 2% of 239 bats tested in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Rensselaer counties were positive for rabies, although on a nationwide basis, seven in 10 human rabies deaths are caused by bats.<\/p>\n<p>Wildlife experts recommend sealing cracks and holes with caulk, flashing, steel wool or heavy mesh, while covering attic vents and chimneys with secure wire mesh screens and proper caps.<\/p>\n<p>If a bat gets inside your home \u2014 or if someone may have been bitten or had direct contact with it \u2014 health officials recommend contacting your local county health department or animal control immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York is going batty! Bats are swooping into homes across New York\u2019s Capital Region and Hudson Valley&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1032925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[3425,24156,8337,881,3649,159,67,132,8073,68,1154,837],"class_list":["post-1032924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-bats","tag-home-invasion","tag-public-health","tag-rabies","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-upstate-new-york","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117184466154766106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}