Of course, bats are critical to our environment, they exterminating hundreds of thousands of harmful insects such as mosquitoes in just one night. On the other hand, bats can also be quite dangerous and can cause even harm when they roost in your home or come accidental in contact with you.
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Bats generally are living in attics, building walls or between the ceiling and roof of residential and commercial properties. Most importantly, dead bats and bat droppings not only emanate an extremely unpleasant smell, but they are unhealthy for you and can contaminate the heating system and your property as well. They usually are living solitary or in colonies, which vary in number from a few individuals to hundreds. If you are not careful, bats can rapidly and systematic infiltrate any available space, whether small or not, making their removal quite difficult. And their removal is mandatory because otherwise their colony can double in number every year, not to mention their tendency to return to the same breeding place every year.
Moreover, a bat infestation can lead to many and serious health problems such as “rabies” that can be lethal if not treated. Another serious disease is “histoplasmosis” that is caused by inhaling bat droppings. Histoplasmosis is a severe disease that will compromise the immune system of the infected person.
Finding the Bats
Bats are easily recognized if you have one hovering the house, but if you have one bat you can likely find others residing in roof, walls or attic. They like to settle in tight corners and also under insulation so it could be very difficult to discover their whereabouts. Due to difficulty linked to finding bats, leaving aside the risks associated with the bats removal, it will always be advisable to hire a professional to remove these things from your property.
Removing the Bats
Of course, ideally would be to remove not only the bat colony but their droppings and dead bats as well. This can be a quite difficult task. Bat is a small mammal, sometimes a tiny creature able to find its way through any small hole no larger than a dime. Therefore, their carcasses are pretty hard to find, not to mention that removing the bat colony during their breeding season will cause the bat pups to die in their dens inside your house and potential health hazards remain. It is a smart solution to hire a professional pest company that knows better, when it is the best season to remove bats. The truth is, always employ a professional for bat removal.
Preventing the Bats
Prevention is always the best approach. First, you need to locate any possible entry points looking for bat droppings. Ill fitting or even broken screens, loose roof tiles or shingles, loose siding or flashing, crevices and cracks in cement, pipe ends are all potential entry points for these small creatures. So, make sure all these possible entryways will be sealed. Also, to prevent these unwanted guests to move their residence into your home, here some tips.
a) Hang a sack full of mothballs near a presumptive nesting area to discourage them to nest. However, you need regularly to replace the mothballs otherwise, the bats will return.
b) Spray daily aerosol cat or dog repellent when you think that bats are not around.
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