Getting Rid of Bats in Your Home

Bats are small and it is not difficult for them to sneak into even the tiniest crevasses in your home which leads to bats in basements or bats in attics. It is also common for bats to enter through unscreened fireplaces or open windows. If you hear unpleasant noises around your house at night, you may have a bat problem or bats in the attic.

How Do Bats Get Into Attics and Basements?

It is much more likely female bats will enter your home looking for a safe place to give birth. Homeowners in colder climates can experience hibernating bats in the attic during winter. For bats, entry points can be smaller than an inch in diameter. What humans may see as a small crack, tear, rip, or break in a building, bats see as an entryway. Bats are not able to create an entry point. They aren’t strong enough to do so.

They have clever ways of getting indoors, however. As bats fly at night, scooping insects into their mouths and wings, they search for places to roost. As they pass by your home, barn, or shed, they use temperatures to determine where to stay. Bats like warmth while they roost, and small cracks and holes around your home allow heat to escape. Bats feel even the slightest bit of heat and follow it inside, where they will locate a beam or other part of the structure for roosting.

If you find a bat entry point, you can test if it is actively used. Put a piece of cardboard over the hole during the day. If the cardboard has been moved, you likely have a bat. It can be challenging to find bat entry points due to their small size. Some may be in locations you cannot access physically or see just by looking. Therefore, hiring an expert is recommended.

How Do Bats Get into Your House?

To understand how bats get into a house or how bats get into an attic, you must learn more about building structures. The outside of your home is a barrier to the inside. A break in that barrier allows a bat indoors. Below is a list of places to check for entry points on your property:

Attic Vents

The most common way bats enter your home is through broken attic vents or screens.

Soffits

Soffits are the materials that connect your home’s exterior walls to the planks that hang underneath your eaves. Without soffits, the rafters and beams of your home would be open and exposed. Soffits may occasionally detach in small areas, or wildlife such as woodpeckers and squirrels may break or tear them. This gives a bat just enough space to enter your home.

Fascia Boards

Fascia boards are bands or strips of materials. They serve many purposes, including holding gutters in place and closing off the ends of rafters. They are usually wood strips strong enough for adhering gutters, soffits, and roofing materials. Improper installation or damage due to the elements can leave small openings that bats may enter.

Ridge Vents

Roofs with shingles will have ridge vents along the roof’s peak. The ridge vent allows heat and humidity to exit the house. This heat will attract bats looking for a warm place to roost. If the vent is damaged or cracked, bats will use it as an entry point.

Gable Vents

Gable vents are decorative, allowing air to flow into the attic to cool it down when the temperatures are warm. Homeowners can adjust gable vents based on how much air they want to enter the home. Open vents provide the perfect entry point for bats and other wildlife.

Roof Returns or Eaves

Decorative materials may be used during the building process to attach a roof to the side walls of the home. The construction of these materials as well as the condition of returns may determine how well they hold up to weather conditions. Poor construction can leave entry points for bats.

Chimneys are like hallways for animals. Bats can quickly fly in and out of chimneys and roost on bricks or rocks used to construct the chimney. When not in use, chimneys should be fitted with chimney caps to seal the area and prevent bats, birds, and rodents from entering your home. Caps can also prevent debris from drifting into your chimney. Debris that gets stuck can create a fire hazard.

Siding

Siding, whether wall panels or corners, can be damaged by weather over time or by a random rock thrown by a lawn mower. Nuisance wildlife may also cause damage. If it is not installed correctly, wall panels can buckle. Any of these scenarios give bats the perfect opportunity to use your home as a roost.

Signs of Bats in the Home

If youʼve noticed droppings, or stains on the side of your house or noises from bats in attics, itʼs possible that bats have made their way inside. Droppings and staining are common identifiers of bat entry. You may also have bats in your house if you hear scratching sounds in the attic, or within the walls. If you experience any of this in your house, the next step is to perform a bat watch. You will likely notice bats flying in and out of your house around sunset. If you see any bat activity in or around your house, call Wildlife Management Services for professional bat control assistance.

Why You Need to Get Rid of Bats

Despite the fact that bats consume many insects in a single feeding, there are many health risks involved with bats in the attic or bats in the basement. Many bats transmit diseases, such as rabies, and the defecation of bats have been known to cause health problems. This is why it is important that trained experts handle and remove the bats in your basement or attic. Once inside your house, bats can cause an array of problems, so it is important to contact Wildlife Management Services to implement effective bat removal and exclusion. Bat droppings and urine in the house can leave foul odors. The associated noises from bats living in your attic or walls can be very bothersome. Furthermore, some bats carry harmful diseases, like rabies, and histoplasmosis may be present in their droppings, especially if the droppings accumulate in moist areas. A professional should always handle these bat situations in your house.

How Are Bats Removed From Homes?

First, the bats in your home will be humanely excluded through the use of one-way doors or check-valves. We identify where the bats are entering and then install these devices over the bat entry points, so when the bats leave at night to feed, they can’t re-enter. It’s important NOT to perform any bat eviction work during the months of June and July if a maternity colony has been established in your home. This is when baby bats are born and the parents will not be able to return to feed their young if one-way doors have been installed, especially for bats in attics. This will lead to dead bats in the attic, which will cause odors, flies and maggots. The trained professionals at Wildlife Management Services provide all of these bat-proofing services effectively and efficiently. We will get the bats out of your basement, attic, or any other area of your home.

How does Wildlife Management Services Prevent Bats from Entering A House?

Wildlife Management Services can get bats out of your house and bats in attics out through effective bat control techniques. If authorized, we will install bat doors in the house, allowing the bats to leave the house and preventing them from re-entering. We then seal the entry point into the house, once we are certain all bats have been vacated. Wildlife Management Services will also handle bat cleanup in the house, to prevent any harm to your family. Bats are very important animals in the ecosystem, so it is important that proper and safe bat control methods are implemented when getting bats out of a house. Call Wildlife Management Services for more information.

If you are concerned about a bat problem in your home, bats in attics or would like assistance with sealing bat entry points to your basement or attic, call the experts at Wildlife Management Services today at 763.233.6895 for professional services!

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