Batman put it best when he said, “It’s not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us.” Bats are much more than just fangs and wings. With over 1,000 species of bats worldwide, bats play a huge role in keeping our ecosystem alive and thriving. From pollinating plants to dispersing seeds to ingesting tons of irritating insects, bats are great friends to the earth. But what happens when they decide to shack up in your house? While bats are helpful and necessary to the great outdoors, finding a colony lodging in your home can cause quite a predicament. Uninvited bat guests can cause odor, unwanted noises, mold and mildew issues, and even structural damage.
Now you might be wondering how to find a bat in your house. Keep reading to learn some helpful bat detection hints and, more importantly, what to do when you’ve discovered bats in your house.
Wall Stains
Brown stains on the wall near entry points. The places to look for possible bat entry might surprise you, as they’re smaller than you might think. Bats can slip into some very tiny crevices—as small as 3/8?. A tell-tale sign that you have bats in your home is the presence of oily, brown stains on the walls wherever the bats are getting in. These stains occur because bat skin secretes an oily substance that rubs off onto your home’s outer walls when the bats squeeze their way inside. Look for brown staining near these common points of entry:
- Roof corners
- Eaves
- Vents
- Fascia boards
- Loose roof shingles
- Missing boards, tiles, or shingles
- Wall and roof trim
Bat Poop, No, Thank You
Mouse droppings are not mouse droppings at all. It might surprise you to know those bat droppings, or guano if you want to sound fancy, look an awful lot like mouse droppings—so much so that many people mistake a pile of bat poop for mouse poop. Both types are brown to black and oval-shaped. One of the main differences is bat droppings will most often be concentrated in big piles, whereas mouse droppings are usually scattered all around. Upon closer inspection (if you really want to take a closer look at bat poop, that is), you will notice tiny, shimmery flecks in the guano. Those shiny flecks are the remnants of the thousands of bugs bats ingest every day. Hate mosquitoes? Thank a bat today!
Bat Funk
Unexplainable odors. The bats themselves do not stink. On the contrary, bats are meticulous groomers and give themselves daily baths to keep their skin and fur clean. But bat guano combined with urine packs quite a pungent odor, and the larger the pile, the larger the stench. If you smell an ammonia-like odor similar to cat urine, you might have a bat infestation (especially if you don’t own a cat). Along with an ammonia smell, you might notice the presence of urine stains, which can appear as light-colored streaks down a wall or surface.
Scratches, Scrapes, And Squeaky Sounds
While bats don’t make a ton of noise, certain noises of unknown origin can be a sign that a bat colony is roosting in your home. If you lie awake in the quiet dark and hear scraping or scratching noises coming from your walls or ceiling, especially at dusk or dawn, you might be hearing the sounds of bat wings and feet scraping as they come and go. Bat communication noises can range from a shrill but quiet chattering sound to a loud squeak. If you hear unidentifiable noises during the night hours, it could be bats communicating.
What To Do When You Find Bats In Your House
First off, if you discover bats in your home, don’t panic. Bats are docile creatures and are utterly uninterested in sucking your blood, flying into your hair, or giving you rabies. Many people have an unfavorable opinion of bats, but these opinions are often based on very loose facts. Let’s quickly bust some common bat myths:
- Myth: All bats have rabies. Truth: Bats can carry rabies—all mammals can, including cats, dogs, and even your neighbor Randall. Rabies can be avoided by following a simple, common sense rule: Don’t touch the wildlife! If you find bats in your home, enlist the help of a professional bat exterminator.
- Myth: Bats suck human blood. Truth: Only vampire bats, who live in Central America, South America, and Mexico, feed off blood. Vampire bats feed on the blood of livestock such as cows and pigs. They rarely feed on human blood, only in times of food shortage. If you think a bat roosting in your home might drink your blood, you needn’t worry: the closest a bat will likely ever get to drinking your blood is when it’s snacking on copious amounts of mosquitoes. Chew on that for a minute.
How To Get Bats Out Of Your House
When the evidence is clear that bats are residing in your attic, walls, or ceiling, contact a licensed exterminator. DIY methods abound on the web, including things like smoke bombs, floodlights, and mothballs. These methods might annoy the bat colony, but odds are, they won’t do the trick to get them out for good. This is because bats are creatures of habit. They will need to be humanely removed and rehomed in a suitable location, and the entry holes will need to be patched up for good. Without taking these steps, the bats will keep coming back to their old stomping grounds.
Bat In Your House? We Can Help!
The experts at CP Bat Mitigation are well-versed in how to safely remove bats from your home and keep them from re-entering! With over ten years of experience, we offer safe, legal, and humane bat extermination at the right price. We even offer a free on-site consultation!
The best place for bats is outdoors, where they can fulfill all the jobs that Mother Nature created them to do. Call us today, and we will get the bats out of your home and back into the open air where they belong.