How do you evict bats?

Question

I have a one story OLD (Complete with square nails)rental house I have been trying to replace some rotten siding and sheathing on.  I took off some on cold north side and find bats all the way down to the bottom of main floor walls  ,,,nestled in the pink fiberglass put in on renovation maybe 20 years ago.

How often to bats HAVE to go out and feed?? Do they hibernate all winter,,,like inside this wall??  Anything you can put in a house attic AND walls that would repel bats and not offend people living there??

Josh Clemence · Answer

I have a lot of experience with them. The tricky part is that where I live, the Indiana Brown Bat is an endangered species so you can't get an exterminator to do anything.  You have to stay on top of it, or they will keep trying to come back, once they nest in the house they will continue to try to get back in.

Here are the things I know work from Experience.

1) Moth balls in atttic, open the vents and throw them in.  They don't like them and will leave.

2) Put lights up the attic and leave them on, they don't like light.

3)  The most important is, get some Great Stuff spray foam, they kind that cures hard and fill every opening.  Look for openings where they are coming in and out. A sure sign of a an opening being used, is this black grease like substance around the opening.  Once you get the foam in it, use some wood or metal to close the opening permently.

3)  Use silicon caulk to seal up any small opening on siding and and vents, they can get in very small cracks.  Think mice, as they can get into the same types of spaces.

4)  Get some of the electronic rodent/pest deterent devices that plug into your electrical system.  The best ones are the ones that work by going through the electrical system.  Put one on each floor.

If you pay attention around dusk you should be able to see where they are coming in and out.  Where I live they are really common, and can be a real pain.  Good luck, if you put in some effort you should be able to get rid of them.

Michael Shadow · Answer

A bat with rabies won't make it through the winter, they typically die within a week of getting the disease.  Don't kill them or wake them over the winter, they are quite valuable to our ecosystem.

All the bats will leave when it warms up, they are just hibernating there.  You need to find the place they got in at and attach a mesh screen over it leaving the bottom side a bit loose (and make sure it overlaps the wall) so they have to slither through the mesh and the wall to get out.  Then when they try to come back in they can't get back in because the meshing is covering the hole.  Once you are sure all of them are out repair the hole correctly.

On a side note you may want to open the bottom of the bay they were in to get the guano out.  Don't throw the guano away, sell it on ebay, it's worth some nice money if you have a good pile of it in there.  You could also post an ad on craigslist there might be someone local that wants to make a bat box and they will need the guano to get it started.  If they're local enough perhaps they will attract your colony.

-Michael

Robert Pulliam · Answer

First time to post.  I bought a 100 year old quad last year and the middle floor was uninhabital (sp.) because of the bats.  It smelled like ammonia.  After extensive reading on the internet, I found that bats in my area only hang out from late spring until early fall.  Unfortunately, after early summer they have babies.  If you can get to them before this time you are in luck.

At dusk I watched where they were coming from and counted 165+ bats fly out.  They came out of a wall 30 ft up. I rented a tow behind man lift and removed the wood siding.  What I found was amazing!  Only about 15 bats, but over two feet of guano in 5 of the sections of the wall.  I used a trash grapple to gently remove the bats, a respirator and broom to remove the guano.  New wall, new sheet rock inside, no bats, no smell, happy tenants.  It was an interesting experience.  Total cost 5 hours and about $275 to rent the machine.  Quotes ranged from 9500 to 30k.

Corey Demuth · Answer

pissing my pants... sell the poo on ebay, ahahahaha

by all means, go for it, i guess one man's crap really is another man's treasure... !!

Jim Wineinger · Answer

Sorry to say, but a major renovation may be required. Bats carry many things, as mentioned before, and they leave lots of Dung behind which will need to be professionally cleaned up.

I was lucky with my bats. A major renovation was already under progress when they were identified. One thing that can be done is disturb them as much as possible during the daytime. Like anyone else they do not like being disturbed while asleep, But for that to be effective all of their entrances must be blocked so they will not return and any workers must be protected fully.

Corey Demuth · Answer

...napalm  :cool:

James Hiddle · Answer

Bats are nocturnal hunters going out at night and feed off of insects and a few animal species.

What I would do is have a professional exterminator get rid of them. You probably won't want to do it yourself you run the risk of getting bit by one and bats are a cesspool of infectious diseases like rabies.

How do you evict bats?

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