How to Keep Bats Out Of Your Belfry And Other Places
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: seasonal
Here's How:
- Inspect your home thoroughly inside and out for all possible bat entry sites.
- In the evening shine a bright flashlight into places in your attic where you suspect could be openings for bats. Have another person on the outside signal to you when he/she sees light escaping from under overhanging eaves or other places. Those are your bats' entrance and exit sites.
- Plug up or cover all openings (holes in boards or screens for example). Do this in the evening after all bats have departed your premises for their nightly feeding flight.
- When a bat is discovered in any people-occupied room of your home, open as many windows (remove screens too) as possible to give the bat an escape route.
- Also keep all doors to this room closed at all times until the bat has vacated the room. Remember, the bat will be as anxious to leave this part of your home as you are to see it go and usually will leave the room within a few hours to a day.
- The strong fumes from Camphor balls or flakes in a few screen-covered containers placed on the floor of your attic will repel any bats already residing there and will discourage any new ones from moving in.
- Build or buy a 'bat house' to hang somewhere outside your home. This could serve as a new home for your bats once they discover that they can no longer enter your home.
Tips:
- Never attempt to kill bats as some are endangered species and it is unlawful. Furthermore, the use of poisons to kill bats could become a threat to humans in your home, especially small children, and to your pets.
- November is the best month to plug or cover bat entry locations after the bats have left your home for the season.
- Fiberglass is a material that irritates bats. They hate the stuff! So insulate your attic for a bat-free environment and you will also be saving energy and reduce your home's heating costs at the same time.
