Tag Archives: how to get rid of bats

Bat Season

‘Tis the season for bat problems.  Late spring and early summer are when we as wildlife control specialists see an influx of bat related calls, so we want to give you some important information to help keep your home safe from these intruders.  First of all, bat problems are not something to take lightly, bat guano can contain traces of the virus Histoplasmosis which is an airborne virus which means it mainly affects people through the air they breathe.  While it’s not an all-too-common thing to find in household bats, it is a serious illness that can cause major health problems.  With the risk of illness, it is important that when you are cleaning guano, you have protective gear like masks and gloves.

Sealing entrances can be tricky because bats can fit into a multitude of gaps in your home; as long as a space is larger than ¼ of an inch, bats can squeeze right in.  Common bat entrances include broken tiles/shingles, gaps in soffit, attic vents, gaps between the roof/walls and chimneys, gaps in overhangs, and places where pipe and wiring enter the home.  There are, of course, many other places where a bat could gain entrances, but it is unique to the home making them hard to identify for the untrained eye.  It is important that you don’t seal off your home with the bats inside, and we recommend hiring a professional to assist in the removal process to make sure all the animals have gone before and final sealing is done.

It’s also important to remember that, although they prefer higher places, it is just as common to find bats in basements, cellars, and other rooms in the lower parts of the house – which, again, just makes finding entrances more difficult.  While bats are good for the environment and kill many harmful insects like mosquitos, they can pose health hazards to you and your family’s health if they are in your home.  Above everything, your safety comes first, so if you feel uncomfortable with your bat problem, and you don’t want to take care of the problem yourself, don’t be afraid to call for help.  That’s what people like us are here for, to protect you and your home from wildlife.

A Blast from the Past

When you buy an older house you expect it to come with quirks like maybe it’s haunted or the doors are on backwards; we expected these kinds of quirks, but we were not expecting bats in the attic.  This house was built in the 1800’s and the attic is actually HUGE, so in reality we were prepared for the possibility of there being bats in the attic so we had an inspection done to check the house for any kinds of wildlife problems.  The inspector came out an hour later and gave us the all clear. No bat problems anywhere.

Two weeks later and here we are.  Six days ago I went to the basement to put some boxes away and I found a dead bat on top of the shelves; three days I had to pull a dead bat out from behind the stove when I started to smell something heating up as I cooked dinner.  From six days ago until now, I have found 8 bats dead in my house.  I thought to myself, ‘this has to be a coincidence, the house doesn’t have a bat problem!’ I started to dig around to find out if these dead bats were just old or if we were dealing with something larger altogether.  I didn’t have any luck finding any live bats and I was starting to become more hopeful that there wasn’t a bat problem at all, until I got to the attic.  I cracked open the door and shone my flashlight around the large space; I could see that there was definitely guano covering the floor so I moved my light up towards the ceiling and I almost screamed.  What had to be more than 100 bats were hanging peacefully from the rafters.

I am so unbelievably upset!  Not only are there bats in the attic of my house, but the inspector that was supposed to look for the bats was either incompetent or he lied straight to my face!  There is no way that a problem this extreme just happened in the last two weeks, especially since we actually moved in a week ago and we started finding bats immediately!  Okay, what I need is to first take a deep breath, and second is some serious help.  I need someone to get these bats out of the attic before I lose my mind and burn this house down.  I have been patiently dealing with the quirks of my (new) old house, but I cannot handle this without some professional help; be it a therapist or bat control. I need SOMEONE.

Get Rid of Bat

bat removal

“Myron, I think we need to get rid of a bat.”  I heard my wife call from the other room. She sounded so nonchalant, like it was the most normal thing in the world to yell to me across our home, starting a conversation about bats.  She might as well have been asking me if I wanted turkey or roast beef in my sandwich.  Admittedly, I was a little confused.  After nearly fifty years of marriage, we’d never had a bat in the house.  A mouse problem once, but that was a long time ago.

Maybe I misheard her.  “What’d you say, Jane?  Do you need anything?”  I called out.

“A bat.  A BAT.  I think we need to get rid of a bat!”  Her voice was a little more insistent and a lot more irritated.  She hates it when I don’t hear her correctly.  She thinks I ignore her sometimes on purpose.  If I’m completely honest with myself, sometimes I do.

Sighing, I put down my tools.  During my working years, I had dreams of my retired life.  It involved a lot of golf, a lot of time watching football, and plenty of time in my wood shop.  So far, I spent the majority of my time finishing the basement and turning it into basically a second home.   I’d built a kitchen and living room down there, a couple of bedrooms and an office.  It had been my wife’s idea, and so I grumbled about it a lot.  Truth is, I was enjoying myself.

But, now I had to stop, once again, and head back upstairs to where my wife sat on her easy chair, playing Sudoku.  Her health hadn’t been so good this last year, which meant she wasn’t able to spend her retirement years traveling, as she’d wanted.

I made it upstairs and saw her looking up at the wall above the mantle.  “A bat, Myron.  I said we need to get rid of a bat.”

Looking up, I saw the bat on the wall.  At first, it looked like a medium-sized smudge, but as I walked closer to the fireplace, I could easily see my wife was right.  We needed to get rid of the bat.  I was impressed that she was still sitting there, doing her Sudoku, in the presence of this creature.  She hadn’t been this calm when we had a mouse problem.  The years had mellowed us both out.

I had no idea how to get rid of the bat, though.  My mind went through the possibilities.  At best, I might scare it out of the house.  More likely, though, I’d end up scaring it into a witless flight pattern around our heads, and possibly hurt myself in the process.  Plus, I really wanted to get back to my basement project.  Then, it dawned on me.  Call Allstate Animal Control.  They’d send someone out to get rid of the bat for me, and my wife and I could go back to our respective retirement activities.  Good plan.

Bat Control

get rid of bats

I wonder how much bat control I need.  We’re buying a house, and the inspection turned up an attic full of bat feces.  Bat droppings are all over the place, but we haven’t been able to find a single bat in the attic, or anywhere else in the place.

I really love this house.  I researched the area with my agent, and we’re in a really good school district, we’re within walking distance to the grocery store and other shopping areas, it’s a quiet neighborhood with other kids who are close in age to my own two children, and the house itself is perfect for us.  After my divorce, we agreed to sell our old house and split the proceeds.  Of course, some child support came from my husband’s portion, but other than that, it was even-steven.  I was happy to get out of that old house, anyway.  It held too many bad memories for me, and the neighbors had been really good friends of both me and my husband.  It was getting awkward to see them or chat with them, because they either sided with my husband, or spoke badly of him in front of my kids, or they just looked at me with pity.  I had to get out and get a fresh start.  So, even though we ended up moving into this much smaller home, it is the perfect size for the three of us, and a new neighborhood, new job and new school for the kids were just what we needed.

The house is small, but it still has enough bedrooms and bathrooms to make all of us happy.  I love the style of it, too.  It has kind of a French country feel to it.  I was honest with my agent when we were putting in a bid.  I really, really wanted this house.  Of course, I also really, really needed it to be within my price range.

So, when the inspection turned up a few issues, like the fact that the house needed bat control, my agent and I decided to use it as a negotiation aid.  I’d pay for the bat control if the seller would pay closing costs.  The seller accepted, and we are scheduled to close on the home in a little over a week.

I’ve been calling around for bat control quotes, and finally settled on Allstate Animal Control.  They are nation-wide and have contractors right here.  Plus, they will clean up and sanitize the attic in addition to the bat control.  The guy I talked to was really knowledgeable about the bats in our area, and had some good guesses about which kind of bats had roosted up there.  He also told me that, when they came out to do the bat control and clean-up, he’d inspect the home, remove any bats he finds, and seal up the entrance-points.  All for one very reasonable fee.  I was really impressed with their bat control knowledge.

Now, I just have to focus on packing everything up, closing on the new home, and moving me and the kids in.  Fresh starts are wonderful, especially right after a difficult time.