Bat Removal in Akron and What Summit County Public Health Does

Will Summit County Public Health catch a bat in my Akron house?

No, and its rabies FAQ page says so in plain terms: the department cannot help with the capture.

What it does say turns on exposure. If there is any question that a person or a pet was exposed, leave the bat where it is. Have a nuisance animal trapper capture it. The department also notes that a bat in the house is not a rare event.

There is separate help for keeping track of a single bat indoors until someone arrives.

Who arranges testing for a bat in Akron?

The county does. Once exposure is a question, the department asks residents to contact it as soon as they can to talk over what happened and how testing works.

Its rabies number is 330-926-5600. On a weekend you leave a message, and the department says someone calls back to go over what to do next.

Which health department serves Akron?

Summit County Public Health. The Akron Health Department was folded into it: in January 2011 the city department, the Barberton Health Department and the county health district began combining into one county-wide agency, according to a 2012 Kent State University report on the merger.

This site could not confirm the City of Akron’s own animal-control policy on wildlife, so this page does not describe it.

Summit County’s row sits with the others in the statewide lookup.

What if no one was exposed to the bat?

The county gives different advice for that case, and only for that case. If you are sure that no person and no pet was exposed, the department says to confine the bat to one room: shut the doors into the rest of the house and leave only the windows to the outside open.

Being sure is the whole condition. With any doubt, the first section applies: leave the bat where it is, get it captured and call the department.

Who handles the bat colony behind it?

The county’s part is the health question. The building is the owner’s. If a colony of bats is living in the house, an operator inspects and explains the plan on the call.

Ohio Attic Animal Removal is an Ohio referral service run by Local Core Group, with no field staff. A call to the number on this page, or the form, is passed to an independent operator when one works at your address. Whether one does is settled on the call. The operator sets the price and does the work. State rules apply to bat work, and the operator who takes the job answers for them.

For a raccoon in the attic, the request is passed along the same way.