Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- Eight USC students are being treated for potential rabies exposure after finding bats in their off campus home.
Former News19 interns Jamie Hicks, a USC student, is one of those roommates. She says she had never seen a bat until they showed up in the home the girls rent.
"They were like hanging from bath towels, they were hanging from door ledges, actually I found one sneaking under my door," said Hicks. "So we ended up calling a bat man, a bat exterminator believe it or not and he came out and found out there's four corners of the home and they were pretty much digging their own little hole in this old home, the foundation of the home and getting under the shingles."
Hicks said it started with one bat appearing every now and then, but the number began to increase as well as how frequently they saw them.
After calling out an expert who sealed the bats' entrance into the house, the girls decided to be on the safe side and get pre-rabies shots.
The treatment comes with 5 to 6 shots for the first time and one dose for the four following weeks.
"You never really know if they're carrying any kind of disease, and since there was more than one sneaking into the home, we couldn't just capture that one bat and get it tested, and that's when we took the necessary precaution to get the shots, get the rabies shots just in case," said Hicks.
DHEC says most bats do not have rabies, but you can't tell from looking which do or do not have the disease.
The agencies says if you are bitten by a bat at night while you sleep, you may not even know it because of their small teeth so they recommend that series shots.