If a random bat enters your home, try to confine it to one room, then open doors and windows leading outdoors, says Jim Knight, Montana State University Extension wildlife specialist. The bat should find its way out. Dim the lights if possible, but leave enough light so you can see when the bat is gone. Chasing a bat with a newspaper or tennis racket is usually futile. The bat will seek safety and hide.

If your residence is Home Sweet Home for a colony of bats, your strategy will become more complex, says Knight. No toxicants are registered for bats in Montana, and besides, most people do not want to live with the odor of dead bats trapped in an attic! Instead, the step to take is exclusion--eliminating all possible entrances. If you close off entry to your home after they leave to get food or for the winter, the bats will not be able to find their way back in.

Knight has written a MontGuide fact sheet that outlines several strategies for excluding bats from your home. The publication, "Coping With Bats in Montana," also includes instructions for building a bat house, which allows homeowners to reap the positive benefits of bats without sharing space with them.

The fact sheet is available on the Web at www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/pubs.html -- click on Agriculture, then Wildlife. Or, you can get a free paper copy from your local MSU Extension office. Ask for publication MT 2000-01.