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Bat Removal and Control

March 5, 2019
5:46 pm

Have you ever heard the old expression “bats in the belfry,” meaning crazy? Belfries are the tops of bell towers that bats like to inhabit due to their darkness and seclusion. You might not have a belfry, but if you have bats in any part of your home or business, it could be making you batty. Let the wildlife experts at Animal Remover help.

Bat Nuisance and Health Concerns

Bats are classified as a nuisance animal species due to their habits of living in residences and other buildings. The most common complaints about bats include them living in the attic, basement or chimney, bats roosting on soffits and woodwork, and bats entering through holes in siding, ridge vents, and roof vents. Little brown bats can squeeze through a gap or crack as small as ⅜-inch-wide by 1 ¼-inch-long.

Bats become a nuisance to people when they roost in large numbers in homes and other structures. They rapidly produce a large accumulation of guano (bat droppings). Guano is not sanitary for many reasons, but chief among them is that it is a breeding ground for Histoplasmosis, a fungal disease that endangers humans who breathe in the spores it produces. Bats also bring a risk of rabies, which is a viral disease that causes paralysis and death in mammals, including humans.

Bat Behavior

Bats sometimes get a bad reputation but they are not aggressive and can be very beneficial to the environment. For instance, little brown bats are insectivores and eat their weight in mosquitoes each night. They also eat moths, wasps, beetles, gnats, midges, and mayflies.

People usually encounter nuisance bats when a roosting colony takes up residence in a building. Attics make excellent bat habitats due to their typical temperature, light, and humidity. Once inside, if the habitat is good, the colony grows until the homeowner notices the bats flying in and out, notices the droppings in the attic, chimney, outside, or even the basement when the droppings fall down the walls. Sometimes a bat will get lost and find its way out of the attic and into the living space. Occasionally a stray bat may also fly into a house.

As mentioned above, bats are beneficial to the environment. They eat mosquitoes and other pests, disperse seeds to spread greenery, and pollinate important plants. Once you’ve removed them from your building, if you want to encourage bats to hang around, look into putting up a bat house.