Bat Removal from House Actually Aids Bats

It’s tough to be an Ohio bat these days.

White Nose Syndrome has decimated their numbers. Wind turbines are not bat friendly. And, making it though the first winter is far from a given for a baby bat.

On top of this, humans who discover bats living in their houses usually want them out and professional bat removal companies like Frontline Animal Removal are busy right now evicting colonies of bats all over the Stark, Summit, and Portage County area.

It might lead a sympathetic to person to wonder, “Can’t a bat just get a break?!”

Believe it or not, we are very sympathetic to the troubles faced by Ohio’s bats.

In fact, in today’s blog, we make a case that humanely evicting bats from homes is actually beneficial to bats.

How Can Eviction Be Beneficial?

Just because bats have found a place in a home that offers shelter and the right climate, it does not mean that this is the best place for bats, especially the babies.

In fact, our attics and the ways in and out of them are often hazardous for bats.

It is because of this that, in the long run, it is better for bats to roosts where people do not live.

For example, the picture to the right shows a hazardous attic for bats.

Sadly, the four red circles all have dead bats in them.

Why did these bats die?

These bats died because the area where they chose to roost was on a screen that was behind a gable vent.

Those who put the screen in place did it to keep animals out. But, ironically, this screen on the inside provided an attractive spot for the bats.

The bats were able to fly into the louvers of the vent shown to the left and find shelter. Once there, the bats found a desired climate and a good structure to hang on; the screen.

The inside screen did give them a great place to hang out.

And, like all bats do when they’re roosted, the bats urinated and defecated.

The guano pile is pretty obvious, but we’d like you to really focus on the staining on the walls.

As you might imagine, that comes from the urine of the bats.

Just above the urine stains, and barley visible in the upper right corner of the picture, is the screen that was put in place from the inside of the attic, behind the vent pictured above.

Can you imagine what has happened to this screen over time with all the urine and guano dropping on it?

If you guessed that the screen came loose at the bottom, bonus points for you.

And this loose screen is what caused the demise of the bats visible inside the attic proper.

Once the urine broke down the screening, bats (especially babies exploring while their moms were out) were able to scoot down the screen and get trapped behind it in the attic. Maybe some were able to get past the screening, but obviously some weren’t.

This is exactly what we mean when we say that its better for the bats to never get into our homes.

It isn’t good to have bat urine and pooh in the attic AND it’s no good to have wayward bats that can’t get back out.

Bats that can’t get out the way they came in will seek other ways to get out. When this happens, they often end up in a living space below the attic. As you can imagine, these human/bat encounters often don’t end up going well for the bats either.

Get Bats Out of the Home and Keep Them Out

The moral of the story is that bats are better off when they stay out of our homes.

Bats living in the attic are not good for your home or the bats themselves.

In the case we’ve been highlighting, the solution to this bat problem is to 1) get all the bats to leave and then 2) put a well installed screen on the outside of the gable vent. No bats will be trapped inside and no bats will be able to get back in.

Here is a short video where Ryan is gently persuading the bats to leave. It is also a good opportunity to visualize the screen inside the vent in case the description above left something to be desired.