If you've had a bat fly through your living room or land on a wall this month, you're not alone. Across Connecticut — from Waterbury to West Hartford to Harwinton — late spring is the busiest stretch of the year for bats finding their way inside homes. The calls we get tend to sound the same: a single bat appears in an upstairs room, no one knows where it came from, and the family isn't sure whether more are hiding in the attic.

Here's what's actually happening, what to do tonight before a technician arrives, and how professional bat removal works in Connecticut.

1. Why Bats Are Showing Up Indoors in May and June

May through July is maternity season for Connecticut's most common species — Big Brown Bats and Little Brown Bats. Pregnant females cluster into warm, sheltered spaces to give birth and raise pups. Attics, soffits, and the space behind shutters are exactly the kind of microclimate they're looking for.

What that means for homeowners: the bat you saw in your kitchen is rarely a one-off. If a female has been roosting in your attic since April, her pups are now active too, and young bats often take a wrong turn and end up in living spaces while learning to fly. The "single bat" you spotted is often a clue to a colony you can't see.

The other reason May spikes: bats become more active outside as insects emerge, so any gap, crack, or unsealed vent that's been quietly available all winter is now in heavy use.

Common Entry Points in Connecticut Homes

Bats can squeeze through openings as small as 3/8 of an inch. The places we find them most often during inspections in our service area:

• Gable vents and ridge vents with missing or torn mesh
• Gaps where the roofline meets the chimney or dormer
• Loose soffit panels or fascia boards
• Around attic fans and bathroom vent terminations
• Behind shutters, especially on second- and third-floor windows

What to Do Tonight, Before the Technician Arrives

If you can see the bat and it's safely contained to one room:

1. Close interior doors to confine it to that room.
2. Open one exterior window or door in that room and turn off the lights inside while leaving lights on elsewhere. A healthy bat will usually leave on its own within a few minutes.
3. Don't try to swat it or grab it. Even with gloves, bats can bite, and any potential exposure has to be reported to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
4. If anyone was sleeping in the room with the bat, or if a child, pet, or person who can't reliably report a bite was alone with it, capture the bat without releasing it (a coffee can and a piece of cardboard works) and call your local health department. It may need to be tested for rabies.

What Not to Do

Don't seal up any holes on the outside of your home until a professional has inspected. If a colony is roosting inside and you close the only exit, you'll trap nursing pups in the attic — which is both illegal under Connecticut wildlife protection rules during maternity season and a much worse problem than the one you started with.

2. How Professional Bat Removal Works in Connecticut

Bat removal isn't extermination. In Connecticut, all native bat species are protected, and several (including the Little Brown Bat) are state-listed as endangered. The legal, effective approach is exclusion : identifying every entry point, installing one-way doors that let bats exit but not return, and sealing the structure once the colony has cleared out.

During a free wildlife inspection, our technician will walk the exterior of your home, identify primary and secondary entry points, check the attic for guano and staining, and put together a written recommendation. You can read more about what to expect in our guide on what happens during a free wildlife inspection.

Connecticut law also restricts when full exclusion can be completed. From roughly June 1 through August 15 , pups in the attic can't yet fly and exclusion has to wait or be carefully staged. A reputable company will tell you this up front — anyone promising to "remove the bats today" during maternity season is either unaware of the regulations or willing to ignore them.

3. When to Call vs. When to Wait

Call right away if:

• A bat was found in a room where someone was sleeping
• You're seeing more than one bat per week inside the home
• You hear scratching, chirping, or rustling in walls or the attic at dusk or dawn
• You've found dark staining around a vent, soffit, or chimney joint
• There's a strong ammonia smell in an upstairs room or attic

If you're seeing bats outside the home at dusk — flying around your yard catching insects — that's actually a good thing. A healthy bat population helps with mosquitoes and other flying pests. The issue is only when they're roosting inside the structure.

Next Steps for Connecticut Homeowners

If you've had a bat inside this spring, the safe assumption is that there's an entry point somewhere on your home that needs to be found before fall. Our team handles bat inspections, exclusion, and structural sealing throughout Waterbury, Southington, Bristol, Cheshire, Hartford-area towns, and the surrounding 15-mile service radius.

Wildlife inspections are $149 and that fee is waived if you book the recommended service. Contact ProSource Pest Solutions to schedule your inspection, or call our office to talk through what you're seeing. We can usually get a technician to your home within 24 hours.