Bats Behind Shutters is Common
Next time you are driving through a neighborhood, notice the number of houses with decorative shutters…there are a lot, right?
Affixed to the house beside a window, they have a nice aesthetic evoking a time when shutters served a purpose beyond the look of the home. They’re attractive on a traditional home and can really increase curb appeal.
What many of us don’t often think about, however, is that the right shutter also has a very high appeal to some of our Northeast Ohio bats as a roosting area.
Shutters that offer shade, protection, good footing, and the right temperature, can be very attractive to bats- as we’d like to show you today.
Video | Bats Behind Shutter
Just take a look at the following video.
We were called to investigate because the bat droppings on the front steps were pretty hard to miss.
As you saw, we found a decent amount of bats and more bat droppings behind this particular shutter.
Why this shutter? The bats chose this shutter because it offered:
- Opportunity- Simply, there was a way to get behind the shutter. Because these shutters are attached to an uneven stone face, there existed gaps between the back of the shutter and the house. Bats like to roost by day in little crevices and cavities and because this shutter did not sit flush with the home’s surface, there was opportunity.
- Good Roosting Conditions- Bats are temperature particular when seeking roosting spots. This is why they roost in some places and not in others. Obviously, they can tolerate a range of temperatures, but they do have preferences. This combination of wooden shutter and stone behind it, definitely provided the temperature for which the bats are currently looking. Also, the uneven stone behind probably made the bats very happy with lots of little nooks and crannies to get comfortable in and hang out.
The solution to this particular bats problem is to remove the shutter and, as Ryan says in the video, try to “bat-proof” it. Bat proofing in this case means adapting the back of the shutter so that there are no gaps between the shutter and the stone surface of the house.
If there are no ways to get behind the shutter, then bats won’t roost there. If the the bats stop roosting there, they will consequently stop pooping there. Problem solved.
Bat Control and Removal for Northeast Ohio
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