Bat Removal & Prevention

Happy September!

With young bats flying and Ohio’s bat laws stating we’re good to go—Bat Removal and Prevention Season is in high gear.

Therefore, we’d like to reiterate some of the basics of bat removal and prevention in this week’s post.

Remember, the ultimate goal when it comes to bats is to get the bats living in structures out so:

1) They don’t end up in a human living space

2) They don’t make a mess in attics and such with their guano and urine.

Don’t the bats roosting in an attic look pretty content? They love hanging on that screen that was put there to keep them out. It’s time to make things right in this and other cases to stop bats from coming in next year.

How Do Bats Get Inside?

Attics provide safe, comfortable living spaces. It’s no wonder that if we give bats the opportunity to move in they’ll usually take it.

With that said, let’s review how bats get into homes.

Unlike squirrels and raccoons that force their ways into people’s homes, bats get into homes through small openings that come to exist on our homes through age, damage, design, or poor workmanship. Or, more than likely, a combination of these factors.

The opening shown above is plenty big enough for bats. In fact, they were using this spot.

The small stature of Ohio’s bats is one of their biggest assets when it comes to finding shelter.

Little openings that don’t look like much to the untrained eye often lead to nooks and crannies (or big attics) that have climates bats thrive in. If they find the right conditions, they’ll be back year after year.

So, bats happen. And the guano build up…and the urine staining…and an occasional foray into the living quarters…you get the idea.

Dealing with Bats

So if bats are in the house, what is the next step?

Solving a bat problem, in theory, a simple two-step process:

Make sure all the bats are out of a structure
Seal up the structure up so the bats can’t get back in

Making sure all the bats are out of a house is a process of putting barriers over entrances that let them out, but prevent them from getting back in. We use tubes at entry/exit points designed so bats can get out but not back in.

You can read about it in the post, BAT CONES.

Step 2, sealing up the structure, is what we refer to as bat-proofing.

Bat Proofing a Home

For bat-proofing, the bats’ main entrances and points of use need modification so that the bats can’t enter or use that spot again.

Additionally, once the bats get kicked out they are going to want to get back in. They’ll explore the structure searching for other ways in. This means all the potential points of bat entry/bat use should be given attention.

The extent of the job depends upon how many potential areas of use need modified.

The modifications to the structure typically include:

Screening- Sometimes bats access vents that are necessary. Properly installed screens with fine mesh prevent bats from getting into openings that have to stay.
Siding, soffit, flashing, and fascia repair- Bats often get into attics through roofing/siding elements that are old, damaged, or installed improperly. Sometimes the best way to bat-proof is to replace the piece that is letting the bats in.
Caulking/Sealing- Often times, a good portion of bat-proofing is devoted to filling in small gaps that exist in building pieces without replacing them entirely. This is accomplished through sealing the existing gaps with filler material and a high quality caulk.

Here is a video example of how the sealing was done at a particular job. Each job, however, is unique.