Bats have taken up residence at the Courtyard at Highland Park, a restored cotton mill east of downtown Rock Hill. The mammals occasionally swoop down into apartments, where they frighten unsuspecting residents.

Few can recount as up-close an encounter as Annie Laura Owens, who awoke one recent morning to find a bat curled up on the pillow, inches from her face.

The 67-year-old grandmother summoned police, who showed up with a maintenance man. The bat was carried away in a plastic bag, but Owens’ ordeal hasn’t ended. She and her husband, Jack, are getting rabies shots as a precaution. It’s unlikely they were bitten, but shots are recommended whenever people are exposed to the mammals.

“They hurt like heck,” she said.

Now, the North Carolina company in charge of managing Highland Park is promising action so Owens’ horror story doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“Our reputation is very important to us,” said Jim Sari, director of property management for The Landmark Group. “We’re going to do what we need to do to get rid of the (darn) things.”

Earlier this year, bats were spotted inside Rock Hill’s Finley Road Elementary School. The school district called in pest removal specialists to suck the bats into vacuums. The bats then were released unharmed.

At Highland Park, Landmark has tried different approaches to eradicate the bats, which were first discovered during renovations. The company installed rooftop wooden boxes known as “bat houses” where bats are supposed to live peaceably without disturbing anyone below. A construction worker said he checked the bat houses this week. They were empty.

On Wednesday, the worker used a cherry-picker to ascend to Highland Park’s wooden upper reaches, where he stapled mesh netting to a hole. He said bats could fly out through a slit, but wouldn’t be able to get back in.

Inspectors with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control visited the complex on Monday and plan to return to check on progress, DHEC spokes- man Adam Myrick said.

“If there’s a still a problem there, or an issue with the bats, we may advise them to seek out a professional company,” he said. “That may be ultimately what we do, because if they’re just putting up nets, they may be missing an area for the bats to get in and out of.”

Responsibility belongs to Landmark, a development company in Winston-Salem, N.C., that finished restoring the mill in 2005.

“When we first started, there were tons of bats in that building,” Sari said. “We spent tons of money getting them out and filling all the holes. Obviously, we must have missed a hole somewhere in a 180,000-square-foot building.”

Killing isn’t an option; bats are a federally protected species. The creatures are considered valuable because they devour mosquitoes, moths and other insects that would otherwise multiply to untold numbers.

“We’ve got protection for bats, but we don’t have protection for seniors,” said Toni Wooten, who spotted a bat flying through the hallway. “We are all concerned about the bats, whether people say anything or not.”

The best option is probably to install something sturdier than netting, such as trap doors that resemble plastic tubes, said two bat removal specialists. Once the bats are gone, holes can be sealed. Ryan Harrell, owner of Animal Solutions, said he charged $30,000 to remove bats from a church sanctuary.

Once a bat colony moves in, Harrell said the animals are “not going to leave unless they’re forced to leave.”

Matt Garfield • 329-4063