Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I guess living in a house built in 1896 might be a reason for the bats. I am getting a new 12,000 roof in the spring so I hope that solves the problem...Old houses have alot of nooks and crannies.. just hope I can find where they are getting in!
Location: Vermont, grew up in Colorado and California
5,296 posts, read 7,236,621 times
Reputation: 9253
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirron
Open one door or window, turn out all the lights and make children and pets remain quiet. The bat should sense the outside air and fly out the opened door.
The problem is that bats could carry rabies. More of an issue if they were in the bedroom when you were sleeping or even worse when kids are there. Have had them on two occasion and I killed them and took them in for autopsy to make sure they were not rabid. Rabies vaccine is available, expensive and painful....
Open a window, leave the room and close the door. It will leave. There was one flying around my bedroom, and that's all I needed to do to get the bat out of the bedroom.
BUT, you probably have bats living in your attic. You'll need to get rid of those or you'll have a repeat guests in your living area. We've done this twice and we learned the easiest way that doesn't require counting bats for days and days. (Trust me, counting bats is a pain!) Go outside at dusk and watch to see where the bats are leaving your house. Since you are skipping the counting of bats, don't close off the hole at night. Once you have identified the area, go up on a ladder the following day and staple plastic above to hang down over the hole. You're basically creating a light flap of plastic that will allow the bats to fly out at dusk, but they won't be able to fly back in at dawn. You have to wait a few days because not all of the bats leave each night. At the end of the week, go up during the day, remove the plastic and close up the hole permanently.
It's important that you don't do this during the season when bats have babies becuase you don't want babies left in your attic walls to rot. Plus, bats are good for the environment. It's sort of funny to watch the bats move from house to house in our neighborhood after they keep getting kicked out from each house.
I guess living in a house built in 1896 might be a reason for the bats. I am getting a new 12,000 roof in the spring so I hope that solves the problem...Old houses have alot of nooks and crannies.. just hope I can find where they are getting in!
As I described in my previous post, it's easy to see where they are getting into the house. You're not getting one bat now and then. A colony of bats are living in your house. All you have to do is go outside at dusk and watch your roofline. You'll begin to see them leave. You can pinpoint the exact spot. Usually there is a dark area immediately below the hole from their feces. You'll be able to see that if your house is a light color.
Dont count on that new roof solving the problem either. You'll need to make sure the contractor includes in the quote that he will close off all openings on the sides.
BUT you can't wait until Spring to close off the bats because Spring is when there will be babies inside your attic walls. You need to do it NOW when there aren't babies, or you'll need to wait until the babies are old enought to fly before you close everything off.
The last thing you want is roofers working on your roof while those bats are still inside. They won't fly out during the day. The roofers will trap the bats inside the walls of your house and they'll die and rot inside your house.
Well.. I won't be able to go outside in this cold weather and check out bats.. If the weather was better I would.. just too cold to stay outside for an extended time..plus if they have several entrances I can't possibly check both sides of the house at the same time..I am at a standstill....just pray I don't see anymore....
Well.. I won't be able to go outside in this cold weather and check out bats.. If the weather was better I would.. just too cold to stay outside for an extended time..plus if they have several entrances I can't possibly check both sides of the house at the same time..I am at a standstill....just pray I don't see anymore....
It's easy to identify where they are entering/leaving the house. Just watch it a few nights a week. You'll pinpoint it quickly. In the meantime, close your attic door and stuff newspaper or towels along the crack under it. Close off any other ways you can think they might be getting into your main living quarters should be blocked off too. They don't want to be in your main living quarters. They just end up there accidently.
Thank you so much.. I think the one came out of a wall outlet in the hall that is going to be replaced. I have a door that closes from the top of the stairs so I don't think they are coming thru that..How big a hole do they need to enter a room?..I appreciate your help..Do they travel thru the heating ducts??????? We are not using the upstairs.. at the moment..but we will be in the spring..
Thank you so much.. I think the one came out of a wall outlet in the hall that is going to be replaced. I have a door that closes from the top of the stairs so I don't think they are coming thru that..How big a hole do they need to enter a room?..I appreciate your help..Do they travel thru the heating ducts??????? We are not using the upstairs.. at the moment..but we will be in the spring..
I've heard they can crawel under doors so that means they can go through a fairly small opening. Definitely close up the hole from the wall outlet that's open. I'd have a hard time believing that they are in the heating ducts because that would mean there is an opening in the heating ducts somewhere. All of your ducts have grills and vents, right? If not, install them. Do you have a fireplace? Perhaps they could get in through the chimney. You can close that off temporarily with a fine wire mesh.
You'll need to make sure you time your blocking them out perfectly. You don't want to wait too far into spring---then you'll have the baby problem. One year, we had to wait all the way until the end of fall because we missed the spring window of opportunity. (As I said, we had to evcit them twice over the past 10 years.)
Another important thing: what time of day was it in your living quarters? Was it in the middle of the night? Was it dusk or dawn? Was it in the middle of the day?
We had them both after midnight...We have no fireplace....We have lived in Illinois most of our life, Maine and Nova Scotia , Canada and did not expect this kind of problem. Our real estate broker said the previous owners never had bats in the house...I don't get it..As for the ducts.. we really don't know much about that kind of problems.. Would you think a heating and air conditioning person could tell us about any problems with the ducts.. ?? I am sure there are plenty of ducts here... It just makes me kind of upset that the other owners aren't telling the truth......Thank you.. you are most helpful
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
