Do you have any uninvited bat guests in your home?  This frequently occurs in the summer when young bats become disoriented or when bats are attempting to escape excessive heat.  Please remember that bats are far more afraid of you than you should be of them.  When you first encounter a bat in your home and if it is flying around the house from room to room,  please don't use towels or brooms and strike the bat for you will injure it.  Close the doors to other rooms in the house and isolate the bat in one room.  Open all windows and screens in that room providing the bat an outside exit and then leave the room shutting the door(s) behind you.  Frequently when the bat calms down it will leave through the provided exit overnight.  If your bat guest has still not left in the morning it may be in a docile enough state for you to remove it.  Always use thick leather gloves and quietly place a can or container over the bat and then slip a piece of cardboard beneath it creating a floor/lid containing the bat.  I prefer to use see through plastic containers this way you can observe the bats movements when you slip the cardboard beneath so as to not injure the bat.  As long as no direct contact with the bat has occurred, you may release it outside and let nature take its course.  If you have encountered more than one bat in you home there is a good possiblity that some part of your home or building is currently a seasonal or permanent home for them.  Big Brown Bats are the only species which will hibernate/overwinter in your home.

Bat Tenant Confirmation?

To confirm the existence of bats living/roosting somewhere in your home or building you must first find the entry/exit the bats are using.  Typically they have one or two.  First look for bat droppings(guano) which frequently accumulate when a few or more bats are present.  In many old barns and uninhabited buildings you might find guano scattered everywhere for bats frequently shift positions in these places.  On homes noticeable guano may accumulate on the ground, driveway or deck where it abuts the building.   Where you find guano the bat exit/entry point will usually be above it somewhere on that side of the building.  Look for guano stuck to siding or urination stains on house siding.  Also look for a small scratched or dirty spot ie (scratched or chipped paint or darker area).  Bats only need a 1/2 inch crack to gain access to your building.  Guano may not be seen until insects populations are higher and bats are actively feeding nightly.  Usually late spring or early summer is a great time to do this.  Exit/entry points may not be easily visible if at a great height.  Use a pair of binoculars to search for the suspected exit/entry.  If you find guano, save a few samples in a plastic bag.  This will help identify the species to help exclude them if necessary later.

New!  Click here for using guano to help identify species!

Bat Exit Count?

Identifying the number of bats which exit from your home/building at certain times of the season can help determine whether you have a few male bats (bachelor colony) or a nursery colony (many female bats).  This helps devise a plan which benefits both you and the bats so that you can still live in harmony with them and eventually exclude them from your home or building.   To accomplish this at dusk you must go to the far corner side of the building which has the suspected bat exit/entry and keeping your shoulder side of your body within a couple feet of the building look up to the sky parallel to the roof edge.  Don't focus on the building itself but the SKY's background next to roof edge.  This will enable you to see the bats much easier and get a far more accurate count than staring at the suspected bat exit/entry point.  Non overcast nights are ideal for your exit count.  If the bats exit/entry point is unknown you can use this method on four different nights individually or with help from others to cover all  sides of the building to help identify the bat exit/entry points.  I frequently use a chair or simply lie on my back if the ground is dry for the best view to accomplish this.  Remember use insect repellent for the biting insects may feast on you while your attempting to do this.  All the bats usually emerge together within a few moments of one another.  If 5-10 minutes elapses after the last bat is seen exiting, all or most of  the bats have probably emerged and you should have a pretty accurate bat count.   If your bat count suddenly doubles within a one month time frame from May to June  i.e. 30 bats to 60 or more this may indicate that you have a nursery colony(females and young)  and the young bats are now exiting and foraging as well.  Remember that bats will not waste precious fat reserves required for surviving hibernation.  On certain nights in which it is too cool i.e. early spring below 50 degrees F. it may not be worthwhile for bats to emerge for there may not be enough insects active for them to eat.  Save your exit counts for a warmer evening.

Put up some bat houses!

I have had frequent success with bats relocating from the innards of buildings/homes to bat houses which are mounted on or near the building/home.  Mounting bat houses before you attempt to exclude bats from a building will allow the bats to become familiar with their new home/roost if they haven't already relocated to them.  When the exclusion is performed bats will frequently choose the new roost/bat house if it is well designed and meets their needs.  You can then fix and repair the former bat entrance/exit so that bats will not be able to utilize it.

Excluding Bats

A Bat exclusion is simply evicting/removing bats from a building without harming the bats.  This should be done in the fall.  Click Here for BCI's outstanding bat exclusion information.

Batnic 2000-2002