Huge swarm of 80 bats drives family of four from home

A swarm of bats seized a home in Savannah forcing a family-of-four to move in with their neighbour

A huge swarm of bats invaded a house in Savannah, forcing a family of four out of their home.

Almost 80 bats stormed into the Georgia home through the vents and overwhelmed the house in an incident mother-of-two Monica Grant described as “traumatising”.

Ms Grant and her partner Isaiah, speaking to local news outlet WSAV, said they moved into their rental home around a year ago with their two young children.

It was 18 January when they saw an unexpected guest in their home: the first bat. Then, a few days later, they spotted a few more raiding their house, according to the outlet.

Before long, they were met with a huge swarm of around 80 bats that started coming through their vents.

According to WSAV, the Georgia Department of Public Health deemed their house an “imminent health risk”, and the family moved in with a neighbour.

In an update on their GoFundMe page, Mr Grant said they have been “overwhelmed by support,” and someone has come forward with a furnished townhouse for the family to rent for a month before they figure out something else.

“What are we supposed to do?” Ms Grant told the outlet.

“We have to protect not even just ourselves but our children. We came to Savannah because we loved it and were so excited. We were going to rent while we figure out where we live, and at this point, it’s been so awful. I can’t imagine staying at this point.”

One of the most frightening aspects of their home invasion is that the family was advised by the health department to go and get rabies shots.

“You have no manageable way of understanding if you’ve been bitten,” Mr Grant said to WSAV.

“There is an off-chance saliva gets in an open wound for the kids from crawling around or touching something.”

A Savannah city code ordinance violation was filed and posted to the property, and the code enforcement and the owner of the rental home are working to get it resolved, according to WTOC.

The company that manages the property told WSAV that all the bats were removed last week, and it is working with multiple companies to get the house sanitised.

“Code Compliance left a violation due to the pressure they were getting from the tenants,” said Cathleen Barela from Property Management Company to WSAV.

“But all and all, that the bats needed to be removed from the property, and that they are well aware of the fact that we are working to get that done.”

“We acted as any property manager would, and had it addressed based on when they reported it,” she added to the outlet.