Recently, I discovered bats in my roof. Here in St. George, Tuscan Roof Tiles are common, and so are the infamous winged creatures. While re-tiling my roof a few months ago, I discovered what seemed to be an infestation of small, brown bats living underneath the tiles! It was unreal the number of animals that had been nesting unbeknownst to me right above my head for who knows how long! Now I’m no wimp, but when I pulled the first tile and those little things flew at me, I screamed like a was a two-year old that had just discovered my own shadow and jumped higher than a startled cat. Of course I can tell now how foolish my reaction was, but it didn’t change the fact that I was scared of the harmless bats.
After taking a couple minutes to regain my cool, I brought my son up to see if I could get the same reaction out of him. I swear he peed his pants when they burst out, I was in tears watching him jump and squirm (I know it wasn’t the nicest thing but how could I resist?). We both decided that it would be even funnier to see how my wife would react so she was the next victim, embarrassingly she wasn’t even afraid. She let out a small squeal of excitement and quickly unveiled more, my son and I were red from our head to our toes when she scolded us for our “childish behavior”.
When the fun and games came to an end, we all knew what had to be done, we had to get these bats out of our roof, but how? It’s illegal to kill bats in Utah so we had to be careful when dealing with the small bats. The best thing we knew to do was call in someone with a better handle on the situation. A professional. He, in fact, had been in plenty of circumstances like this, of course not usually with a colony of bats like I have, it’s more often only one or two. Anyway, we ended up taking ALL the tiles off the roof and putting asphalt shingles on so that there were fewer spaces they could crawl into. Let me warn you, it’s crazy to have bats in the roof.
Category Archives: Bats
Anything to do with bats
Bats Love Tight Quarters
Charte Oak, Iowa
“I have had four bats in the house and can hear another one in the ceiling, i’m not sure where they are getting in at and would like them gone. Our house is a two-story house downstairs there is a porch, pantry/store room, bedroom, bathroom, dining/toy room (for grandkids), kitchen & living room. Upstairs (which is closed off from the main floor) is a bedroom, closet & store room. We have had bats before but only 1 or 2 at a time.”
If you ever have bats that get into your house, try to stay out of the house and stay at a friend or relatives house until the problem is taken care of because bats can carry rabies, and if you get bit, you will need to be on rabies shots. It would be wise to get rabies shots because you may never know if you have been bitten or not. If a bat ever does get into your house, it would be good to wear leather gloves, carefully try to catch the bat, and put it in a glass container. Then you want to freeze it and take it to the health department to get it tested for rabies.
Bats can get into small cracks and crevices. If you are noticing bats getting inside of a structure, it is important to get the problem fixed immediately before more and more bats start using your house as a hotel. There may be cases where bats are just roosting or hanging around or above your porch or deck to digest their food. Know that bat urine and bat guano is not good to be tracking into your house, let alone having it get on you or breathing it in. It would be wise to get your house inspected to see if bats could be living inside the structures of your home.
Bats and Snakes and Construction
As municipalities ramp up for spring and prepare for upcoming construction projects, leaders are discussing how bats and snakes may affect construction projects, including roads and bridges. White nose syndrome has taken a massive toll on the bat population in America, particularly in the northeast, prompting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explore placing northern long-eared bats on the threatened or endangered species list. Lawmakers in Michigan and other states are petitioning for more time for public comment before USFWS makes their decision, because they say construction jobs are at risk if these bats are designated as threatened or endangered. Implementing further protection laws may place “undue economic burden on regions impacted by white nose syndrome,” by putting construction projects on hold or eliminating the projects altogether.
This week just north of Washington State, at Boundary Bay in Canada, construction workers repairing a dike unearthed over 500 garter snakes hibernating under the rocks. Construction was halted as the harmless snakes were gathered up in bins and buckets and delivered to British Columbia shelter, and shelter employees treated those snakes who were unintentionally harmed during construction work. These snakes are due to be returned to the site in the spring, after the construction is done, but it’s a stark reminder how construction work affects local populations of snakes and other wildlife.
Mining companies may have to abandon mines where bats hibernate. Electrical providers, road construction crews and oil companies laying pipeline may have to conduct surveys and bat relocation efforts before cutting down trees in which the bats roost. Construction of buildings and roads will be halted or put on hold when snakes are unearthed. Road and bridge construction crews may need to carefully work around bat populations.
It is a difficult and delicate balance, between the needs of human populations and the needs of our local wildlife. There is no question that jobs are at risk, and so is the habitat of these wild animals. Taking it one step further, when construction projects unearth snakes or disturb delicate bat populations, these wild animals are forced to seek shelter elsewhere, and sometimes that is a home or warehouse or office building. That is where Allstate Animal Control comes in. The wildlife trappers and technicians who work with us are local to you. That means they are most familiar with the wild animals in your neighborhood, the federal and local laws protecting those animals and dictating how they are to be handled, and they have the experience and skill to humanely remove bats, snakes and other wild animals out of walls, attics, chimneys, crawlspaces or wherever else the animals have gotten into. It is up to our lawmakers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine how best to protect both construction needs and jobs as well as our wildlife. It is up to Allstate Animal Control to remove wild animals out of your home or property and keep them in their natural habitat. It’s better for your safety and health, and it’s better for the safety and health of these wild animals.
Bat In Ballroom
We recently received a frantic call from the organizers of a marathon in a major U.S. city. They had a VIP party going on in a ballroom, and a bat flew near a woman’s plate. She screamed and dropped her plate. You can imagine, the organizers were horrified and needed the bat removed quickly. Fortunately, the bat was removed quickly without further disturbance to the party.
Competitive Bats
Discover magazine just released an article discussing how bats are pretty competitive against each other. They’ll send jamming signals to steal a rivals’ prey. Bats, just before snapping their bug meal out of the air, will sometimes send out a series of rapid chirps so they can better home in on their target. Lately, scientists have discovered nearby bats will sometimes send out ultrasonic jamming signals to confuse the hunting bat just so they can steal the bug for their own meal.
Bat Management
Of all the different ways to manage bat problems, one town in Australia is trying to discourage bats from roosting in neighborhoods by allowing residents to seriously trim back the trees lining city streets. The hope is they will deter the bats from living in the trees and encourage them to move to a more suitable location in the wild. Unfortunately, they may discover that the bats may end up moving into attics, chimneys, walls or eaves instead of seeking shelter in a more natural setting.
Bats aren’t the truly terrifying creatures that swarm around people’s heads or go for blood. But, their presence in our homes, apartments, office buildings, out buildings and industrial spaces aren’t good for them and it’s certainly not good for us. The mess they make with guano (or bat droppings) is smelly, foul, and attracts other vermin or bugs. They can carry ticks or mites that drop off and infest the area. They damage walls, soffits, eaves and other building materials, and leave a large greasy smudge around the areas where they access the building. And, yes, they are a common carrier of rabies. The problem is, their teeth are so small that a person may not even know they’ve been bitten. So, health officials strongly suggest you never touch a bat with your bare hands, and if a person wakes up in a room with a bat, they should seek medical attention immediately. Rabies is fatal unless managed properly, so don’t take a chance around bats.
Bats at Work
I had to send our office staff home, because we have bats at work. I run a human resource company, handling human resource needs for small companies in the area that don’t have the staff or experience to handle it themselves. As you can imagine, my staff is extremely busy and I need them at their desks, but I won’t make them work in an environment where bats are hanging out on the ceiling or dive bombing employees.
Several of my staff had noticed the creatures flying around the roof line and entrance way a couple of weeks ago. Admittedly, I didn’t think much of it. I just assumed the bats were migrating and searching out insects for food. Obviously, the problem was much greater than I thought. I should have contacted Allstate Animal Control as soon as we saw a few bats, just so they could inspect the building and see if they were getting inside and roosting. Now, they’re definitely inside the roof, the eaves and even inside the office space.
One of my best sales people was on a call this morning when she noticed a bat on the ceiling in her office. She held it together and finished her phone call, but then ran out of her office and slammed the door behind her. Thank heavens it didn’t fly around her head, and everyone knew enough to leave it alone and not try to pick it up or anything. Yes, I have insurance for my staff, but I’d hate to have to send anyone to the hospital because of an unsafe work environment.
I just don’t want to risk having one of our employees being bitten or scratched by a bat, and you can just imagine the kind of chaos several bats cause. No one can really focus on their work, and some of our employees are genuinely afraid of them. So, I made the decision to send the staff home, and need to take get rid of the bats as quickly as possible so they can either return later today or tomorrow morning. My employees who get paid by the hour are concerned, too, because they don’t want to lose out on their paycheck. They also don’t want a trip to the hospital because of a bat bite.
I have no idea how many we have, but I need the bats removed quickly so my employees can safely go back to work. I also want any holes or gaps sealed up so I don’t have to deal with this again. In this economy, well, in any economy really, what business owner can afford to shut down operations for any length of time because of wild animals in the office building?
Bats In The Attic
As a local handyman for hire, Tyler sees a lot of weird things, and it’s not unusual for him to be called to a customer’s home to take care of some problem or other, and have it turn out to be something completely different. A “loose roof shingles” call may end up as a raccoon in the attic, accessing the space through a hole the raccoon tore in the soffit. In another service call, an air conditioner unit that only worked sometimes was actually caused by a squirrel chewing through the wiring. That one was sobering, because if Tyler hadn’t spotted the problem quickly, it could have resulted in a home fire or it could have electrocuted someone.
Once, Tyler got a call from a guy who didn’t want to tell him any specifics over the phone. He just insisted on having a handyman come over and investigate the attic. When Tyler got there, the man offered no further explanation other than he had heard odd noises at night coming from the attic. He was so hesitant to explain the problem, and he was obviously terrified.
Finally, Tyler put him at ease and the man confessed. “I think it’s the ghost of my grandmother.”
That was a new one. And, Tyler wondered, just what was a handyman supposed to do about a ghost in the attic?
The man went on to explain that he had inherited the house from his grandmother, who had passed away two years ago. He had lived among her things for a time, and finally got up the courage to pack up her keepsakes and stash them in the attic. He’d done that almost exactly a year ago, and now he was hearing noises above his head each night and sometimes in the early morning. He’d lost sleep over it, and was too afraid to confront the ghost in his attic. Apparently, his grandmother had not been a very nice or understanding woman.
Fortunately, Tyler didn’t believe in ghosts and good-naturedly climbed the stairs up into the attic. In the end, he almost wished it had been a ghost. He was not prepared to find hundreds of bats in the attic. His flashlight and movements disturbed the roosting bats in the attic, and they swarmed, hitting his head and face and shoulders in their panic. He’d never seen so many bats in an attic, and it was all he could do not to scream as he climbed back down the stairs and explained what was really going on to his client. The man was relieved it wasn’t the specter of an angry grandmother, but it was just bats in his attic. Tyler felt differently. He made it out to his truck, where he allowed himself a mild freak-out attack before calling Allstate Animal Control to get the bats out of the attic.
Flying Bats
A bat just smacked my brother right in the face! Hahahahahahahaha! I think I’m gonna pee my pants, I’m laughing too hard. He was being a Class-A Douche, hitting on my friends, bragging about how much he can bench press and how many curls he did this morning with 50-pound weights. Like he thinks that’s gonna impress my friends. I’m like, we’re in the arts program, dude. The guys that impress my friends actually think and have interesting lives, you know?
My brother steals my friend Melissa’s beer, finishes it, and walks over to the diving board to do his stupid diving trick. Like we want to stop watching the sunset and talking about Melissa’s photography project just to watch his stupid butt hit the water. But, he finished the beer and tossed the empty bottle at us just to get our attention. Just as he jumped off the edge of the board, a bat flew right into his face! He was screaming when he went under the water! Blahahahahaha!
Yeah, of course he’s okay, but now he’s walking around all pissed off about bats flying around the house, and yelling that he’s gonna need rabies shots. What an idiot. It’s not like the bat bit him or anything. Not even a scratch! He’s just got some kind of macho wounded pride thing going on, and it’s making him even dumber than normal. He’s got Mom’s tennis racket and he’s just swinging it around at the few bats flying around us. I’m not gonna lie, I’d freak too if a flying bat hit me in the face. It just couldn’t have happened more perfectly! Just when he was perfecting the Douche Cliché, he gets smacked by a flying bat.
Melissa’s got her camera out and she’s capturing the moment. My brother’s conflicted, cuz he obviously wants to impress Melissa, so he’s not yelling at her to stop taking his picture or anything, but somewhere deep inside he’s probably aware he’s acting like a spoiled kid. I have no idea whether her pictures are going to work in her photography show, maybe under the heading of “Wounded Man”, but whatever she doesn’t put up in her gallery, I’m getting from her and putting it in my “Idiot Brother” collection. Seriously, if you get hit in the face by a flying bat, just laugh about it, don’t make it worse by stomping and yelling and chasing it.
Bats in Weber County Utah
It’s no surprise to Weber County, Utah residents that bats live in the area. They are often to be seen in the night sky, flitting around silently, changing directions quickly as they chase after their meals. Bats in Weber County do their best to keep the mosquito population down as well as preying on all different kinds of bugs, flying or not. They’ve even been known to carry off crickets, centipedes and other large bugs. At most recent counts, Utah has eighteen species of bats, and Weber County bats do their best to keep the county from being overrun with bugs.
Usually bats will roost in places such as caves, mines, rotting logs, but often bats discover warmer, more convenient places in which to roost or even nest. Breeding season is coming up, for most bat species, and that’s the spring. They’ll happily roost or breed in attics, chimneys, abandoned buildings, inside building walls, behind shutters, under eaves, and anywhere else that provides a relatively protected environment close to food sources. You may not even know you have a bat or a colony of bats living inside your home or apartment until one makes its way inside your living room or bedroom or kitchen.
Do Weber County bats carry rabies? Usually, no, but the chances are high enough that you absolutely should NEVER touch a bat. If it bites a person or animal, seek medical attention immediately. Keep your animals up to date on their rabies shots. People who handle bats may not even realize the bat’s tiny claws have scratched them, so always seek medical attention if you have come into contact with a bat. And, if you come across an active bat during the day time, it may be sick or diseased. Keep children and pets away from it.
Discovering a bat or a colony of bats in your house or other buildings will come as a shock. You may have a very clean house with a well-kept yard, and yet still have a bat problem. The safest course of action is to contact us to send a professional to your home to remove the bat or bats. Trying to remove a bat yourself may result in being scratched or bitten by it as it will be terrified and try to get away or defend itself. Bats are protected under the law, as well, especially a nesting colony of bats, and our professionals know exactly how to handle the situation legally and safely. A professional will also be able to safely clean the bat droppings from your building and even install materials to prevent bats from returning to your building.
It’s fun and interesting to watch Weber County bats flying around at night, but make sure it’s at a distance. Up close and personal bat encounters can result in a trip to the emergency room. And, if you discover one or more bats in your building, contact us to remove the bats and keep you and yours safe.