Wondering how to get rid of bats permanently in your attic, wall, and generally in your house? You have every right to freak out, but remember that they really have no interest in you or your family. They’re just doing what bats do: looking for a dark place to hang out. Houses are becoming particularly attractive to bats, especially where residential development is increasing while the number of wooded areas is decreasing.
It’s amazing how these and other creatures manage to find small gaps in windows, under eaves, beneath garage doors, and near chimneys. And then you’ll hear something flutter above your ceiling in the attic or a scratch inside a bedroom wall. Is it a bird? A squirrel? What?
We don’t blame you for sleeping with one ear open as you realize that those noises may belong to these dreaded, winged nocturnal mammals. Here are a few ways to know if they’re in your house.
How To Determine Whether Bats Are Roosting Under Your Roof
It’s natural that you’re dying to know how to get rid of bats in the attic and other rooms and walls in your house. We know that bats can unnerve even the toughest folks in town. But let us give you our perspective to quell your fears just a bit.
Bats get a bad rap. They really are no different than squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, and other mammals that move about our neighborhoods. People don’t start running and screaming when they spot a chipmunk! Truth be told, we think bats are just as cute.
These small neighborhood mammals are part of our natural ecosystem, and bats are particularly helpful with managing the insect population buzzing around us.
It might help you to gain perspective about these special mammals if you read our Myths and Facts page, so you understand bats better.
With all that said, let’s first take a look at a few ways to determine if you have them before we talk about how to get rid of bats.
- You can make an educated guess that bats are your problem if you notice them flying by the dead trees or pond near your house in the early evening or morning.
- Notice when you hear noises. Bats are nocturnal, so it’s not unusual to hear their wings flapping or little cries as they fly out to get food and then return. Also, notice if everything quiets down around the time you start your day, being the diurnal mammal that you are.
- Bats produce a strong odor from the feces and urine they drop. They are messy housemates. You might be in an upper bedroom and think, “What the heck is that awful smell?” Well, it’s not your son’s gym clothes!
- Stand outside your house at dusk and watch to see if bats are flying out from or around your roof.
So now that you have identified that bats are in your home, what do you do next?
Be A Detective First, Then Figure Out How To Get Rid Of Bats In The Walls
Start by looking for where exactly the bats are entering your house. We get that it is unnerving to position yourself anywhere near bats, but there’s no way around this; you must investigate that entry point.
Did you know that bats can squeeze through openings as small as 3/8 of an inch? Once you have seen where they are entering your home, do not close that opening yet, believe it or not. It seems crazy to leave it alone, but there’s a method to our madness.
Look for and seal similar cracks, crevices and gaps everywhere else around the outside of your house that bats might use as an alternate entrance. Don’t take any chances with a small crack; if you see it, seal it.
Keep in mind that the bats will want to avoid you as much as you want to avoid them as you move about the exterior of your home, finding these possible entry points.
The idea here is to close off any other possible points of entry, so you’re confining the bats to as limited an area in your attic and nearby walls as possible.
After you’ve sealed or closed off all other entry points, get ready to “exclude” the bats from that one remaining primary entry point. This means you’re not going to let them back in.
Many state natural resource departments have expert advice about these exclusion techniques on their websites. Here’s one helpful page about exclusion on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website.
Use Netting At Points Of Entry To Exclude Bats
One simple way to exclude bats from the inside of your house is to place bird or bat netting over the final entry spot. You can pick up the netting at a local hardware store. While you’re there, don’t listen to anyone who tells you to buy rodent poison instead!
Rodent poison doesn’t always work for bats, partly because they’re not rodents. And do you really want to go up into your attic to shovel them out? The smell and mess are overwhelming.
Tack or Velcro the netting to the surface but leave a small gap of about 3/8 of an inch to one inch, which they’ll easily glide through to get outside.
The netting is an effective deterrent and doesn’t hurt the bats. When they return to that spot where they enter your home, they hit the netting and fly away. Surprisingly, they don’t try to squeeze through that little gap to get back in.
You’ll want to leave the netting in place for up to a week to make sure they’ve all left.
It’s possible that you can have a few bats and remove them, but if they are in your walls or a colony of bats is roosting in your attic or walls, call us. We know how to get rid of bats permanently.
Contact CP Bat Mitigation for professional assistance.