Aspen Hunter Creek Residents Live With Bat Invasion

Aspen —The air in Aspen’s Hunter Creek complex hangs heavy with the dry heat of July. Inside Building 3, the silence of the residential halls was broken not by sirens, but by the frantic flutter of wings. Residents woke to the sound of small creatures navigating their bedrooms. It wasn’t a single stray finding its way in through an open window. It was an invasion.

On the night of Tuesday, July 22, Susan Capiel spotted a bat in her living room. She woke her husband to remove it. Moments later, another flew into the second bedroom where she was still awake, around midnight. When she entered the room to wake him again, a third bat hovered above him.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Capiel said. “We have to live with it the rest of the summer.”

The situation escalated quickly. While the Capiels dealt with their immediate crisis, the floor above them was far worse. Neighbors reported seeing up to 100 bats in their units. The scale of the infestation in Building 3 is large, affecting numerous units simultaneously. It is a unique event for the area, even if bats themselves are not.

The Romero Group, which manages the Hunter Creek property, confirmed the bats were discovered in an enclosed area above the residential units during routine maintenance. They stated the presence of bats in local structures is common. The group said it has worked closely with the homeowners association and affected tenants to prevent further intrusions.

But this is more than just a property management issue. It is a public health question that locals are asking. Why so many bats? Why now?

Pitkin County Public Health says the answer is still up in the air. Environmental Health Manager Kurt Dahl noted that warmer temperatures and persistent drought could be driving the increase. Or maybe it’s something else. No one knows for sure.

“We’ve had a ton of them this year just in general,” Dahl said. “We’re seeing a lot more human-bat interaction than we’ve seen in past years.”

Carly Senst, a Pitkin County Public Health epidemiologist, agreed. “This has been an incredibly active year.”

Senst emphasized that bats are endemic to this area. Finding them inside homes is not unusual. The scale of the Building 3 event is what makes it stand out. But the risk to residents? It’s no greater than for anyone else who occasionally finds a bat in their house.

The big question for locals is rabies.

Carlyn Porter, an emergency response and epidemiology program administrator, confirmed the colony in Hunter Creek will not be euthanized and tested. The county’s stance is firm: they do not test entire colonies.

Less than 1% of bats carry rabies, according to the state. Testing just one bat from a nest does not indicate the status of the rest. So, instead of culling the population, mitigation efforts will focus on removing bats from inhabited areas of the building.

The Romero Group says it is working to ensure no further intrusions occur. Residents are left to manage the immediate reality of living with them. For Capiel, that means enduring the summer months with the knowledge that the ceiling is alive.

The short version: The bats are here. They are not going to be killed off en masse. And neighbors are left to wonder if the drought is the only thing driving them indoors.