Woman finds dozens of bats living in Douglasville home

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A Douglasville couple is worried their health problems could get worse after bats infested their home, and they’re not alone.

Experts say they are seeing more cases of bats moving into suburban homes.

The couple told Channel 2’s Tom Regan that a neighbor was the first to spot the bats flying out of the house.

“I was just scared. I looked outside and they were just coming out,” said Cynthia Richardson.

Richardson says her jaw dropped when her neighbor called her outside one evening last week to show her bats streaming out of an attic vent.

“I just came out and they were just coming out, coming out, and she said there were about twelve of them before we called you,” Richardson said.

Richardson, who has breathing problems, says she’s worried about the bats causing more problems, and the risk of infection.

“They could be carrying rabies and I’m already sick,” she said.

Georgia is home to 16 species of bats. They're beneficial because they eat enormous amounts of mosquitoes and insects that threaten crops, but like many wild animals they are a protected species.

Killing one carries up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Richardson and her husband are upset that may have to pay of hundreds of dollars to have the bats removed.

Even so, Richardson says she can't bear spending more nights with unwelcome guests upstairs.

“I just want them gone. I don’t care how. My husband wants them dead,” she said.

In the past couple of years, the bat population in Georgia and the rest of the country has been threatened by a mysterious and deadly disease called white nose syndrome.

WSBTV