Bat removal ?

Does anybody have a good way of safely removing bats from a building ! I do not want to harm them because they do a lot of good for Mosquitos around here but really need them out of my garage. My wife went out tonight and they where flying at her so naturally she freaked out and ran back in to the house! Any ideas ?

Thanks
Pete

try a google search, im sure there is info on ideas for this... you must be on the couch tonight man LOL.... jeeeesus if my wife came running in from the garage after being attacked by bats she would immediately find a baseball bat and start clubing me in the head with it hahaha.... i feel for ya man!

Ya Doug she came running in yelling I got attacked and my first thought was burglar ! Then she explained it was in the garage and it was bats .

Pete

Hello

I had a family of Bats living in my Attic a few years ago. They can get in thru a hole the size of a Dime! So I did some research and found if you pepper the place with Moth Balls they will fly out and stay away!

Then plug up the hole(s) where they get in! Bats are a protected species so no one will come kill them for you!

Moth Balls are the best way to get rid of them. They worked great for me!


They probably found another house to live in!

I do not want to kill them just get them out. I have a very healthy respect for bats excpecially because I hate mesquites so much lol. Thanks I will try the moth balls tomarrow !

Pete

Haha yup that sounds nasty bat burger ! No I meant burglar.

Pete

I pity the poor Moths, seems like they should be a protected species!

Gary

It's funny to watch them commit suicide in my fire pit ! They come to the light and fly right into it usually.

Pete

Be careful not to touch any of the bats. And if you do make contact with one, save it it to be tested for rabies. I don't want to cause undue worry but bats are the main source of human rabies cases in the US. My cats caught a bat last year and then scratched my wife afterwards. Being a bit of a softy I let the bat go before calling our vet. Big mistake, rabies booster shots for the cats, my wife had to get rabies shots as well which cost close to 7k before insurance, and a pretty penny afterwards.

If your ever bitten or find a bat in a sleeping child's room, and don't have it tested you need rabies shots. If you get the shots early you'll be fine, but once the symptoms start, there is no effective treatment.

I agree with Don2222 btw, moth balls then hole plugging should work.

There's a reason why this works. Mothballs are primarily made of naphthalene and naphthalene is not good for most living things, including humans. If you do use moth balls you should probably do it so that you can remove them once the bats have gone.

Here's some health info on naphthalene: http://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/16120.htm

Coaly,
Do you have a favorite design for bat houses? I think I'd like to put some up.
They're having a hard time with the White Nose syndrome and I'd like to give them a let up if possible. I'd rather watch bats zip around the dusk sky anytime rather than have mosquitoes.
Do you know, we have caves nearby; will they even use the house we put up if there's nearby access to caves?

they don't appreciate lights left on either.

Did you laugh at her? If so, are you able to post any longer?

Acctually I did smile a little lol but then I grew up in the middle of nowhere we used to lay on the grass for hours and watch the bats bug hunting . She grew up in a town so bats to her where far and few between which makes them dirty and evil in her mind. I explained that they eat bugs and are acctually very helpful to us and she started to understand why I don't want to kill them. she still doesn't like them though. You should have seen her at the theater when batman stands up in the swarm of bats I thought she was gonna pull the seat out of the floor bolts and all hahaha. I guess we all have our irrational fears though me I don't like centipedes on me I can watch all day but they touch me and I have to shower for an hour then she lauphs at me !

Pete

There's a lot of hoopla out there about moth balls and whether or not they work, not to mention the smell they leave behind which never seems to go away. The best, and most reliable, way to keep bats out of a building is to make one-way doors and close up all potential entries: you don't want them dead in the attic (smell/humanity), so the one-way door (usually a flap of fabric) lets them out at feeding time but keeps them from coming back in.

I had a small colony that kept returning (could hear them in my walls in winter) each year--I decided with the height and access of my home, I would pay a pest expert. Cost me $250, and they guaranteed they wouldn't come back. That was four years ago, and all's good. Something to think about.

S

Locate where they come and go from. Tack a screen fairly long (ten feet maybe) draping down over the entrance/exit. The bats will drop out under the screen and fly away at night. When they try to return they won't be able to enter because the screen will be in their way. They will eventually leave. They are not smart enough to land on the house and crawl up behind the screen. Once you are sure they are gone , you can seal up any openings they were using.

Put the screen up during the day. You could use rolls of plastic ect.

Hello

Did the pest expert build a one-way door? Do you have any pics?

Don, to be honest I think they just threw a piece of cheesecloth type material (stronger, no doubt) so that the bats could push out but not come back in. They then identified all the locations bats could get in (eaves, vents, etc.) and sealed them up.

My post was mostly on the cost aspect--it might be worth finding out what someone would charge as opposed to climbing all over some of the taller areas and risking getting hurt, not fixing the problem, or having a dead batt-o in your attic-o.

S

Thanks for the info, I used the moth balls. Moth balls was the cheapest easiest way out by far!

They swoop around humans because of the mosquitos we attract, no so they can attack us. I love when they do that. Feels like a little blessing. But then they live in my attic and in my neighbors bat house and are very welcome. I wouldn't use the mothballs. Toxic stuff.

im not reading the whole thread so i apologize if someone mentioned this already but you should get one of those oneway door thingies and mount it where you think they are coming in (this is all done from the outside of your home during daylight hours), look for any other points of entry while your up their and block them up! now you know all bats can get out but cannot get back in and you do not have to put yourself in contact with them.