When it comes to infestations, the last thing you want living in your attic are a family of bats. Farmers like bats because they eat up all the insects which would otherwise destroy their crops, however there’s a lot of mess they can make if they’re setting up shop in the dark corners of your home. Providing you live in a country where these methods are legal, then here are some of the best ways on How To Know If You Have Bats in your attic or anywhere around your home.
Signs of Bats
You may have your suspicions that bats are living in your roof or loft, however without proof you won’t want to fork out an inspection fee by a trained expert. Thankfully there are a number of signs that give away the presence of bats, and as long as you’re got a torch and a bit of wit, you’ll be able to find out them no time.
The first step is to inspect the outside of your home, and see whether there are any droppings down the walls, or on the grass and pavement around your home. Next, try and see whether there are any clear points of entry into your room from the outside, like obvious holes or breaks in the brick work. If you can’t see anything, wait until dark and shine a torch along the rim of your roof, as well as down the walls. Bats like their darkness, so a searching light will hopefully disturb them. If they flee, you’ll be able to see where they’re appearing from in your roof.
If there are no obvious signs on the outside of your home, you’ll have to check the inside, preferably the loft. You don’t have to go all the way up, or even turn off the lights if you don’t want to. You should be able to notice a distinct smell as you enter your loft, and this will be the smell of droppings and rotting insects. Maybe, even fruit. If you can smell something that’s not supposed to be up there, it’s a sure sign that you might have bats. Always check up for information on bats if you’re even unsure about how to identify them.
Getting Rid of the Bats
If you know that you’ve got bats hiding out in your loft, you’ll need to choose the right time of year to get them out. If you remove them during the wrong season, it’s highly likely that they won’t survive the winter months, especially when most of the insects are dormant. No insects means no food.
You’ll also want to find out how many bats you’re dealing with, and whether it’s a few singletons or an entire colony. Removing the mother or father bat from a family will most certainly cause their pups to die from lack of food and protection, so it’s best to get the advice online or off a trained bat specialist who can arrange to transfer the bats to a new habitat. Furthermore, the smell of bat carcases is pretty tough to remove from a confined space like a loft, so it’s in your best interests to insure that they are safely and humanely removed.
David is a keen enthusiast for bats and advocates their safe protection and removal from properties.
Thank you for this information. Whenever I moved into my new house we saw a couple of dead bats lying around inside and then like a month later we saw a bat flying in our basement we got rid of it and then we saw 2 more so we blocked off our chimney because we suspected that is how they were getting in but just a week ago we had another bat so we found out that is was coming from our bathroom in the basement and upon inspecting outside of our house we realized there were a couple of holes that they could possibly be getting in at. So I am hoping (fingers crossed) that that is the last of them. I really am afraid of bats.
Luckily for us, we don’t have bats in the condo where we live. I would be freaking out if I saw any around! Although bats are not exactly my fave critters, I totally advocate their safe protection and humane removal from properties.
Thank you for this very interesting and informative post.
Luckily for me, we don’t have bats where we live! But thanks for this – could come in handy!