If you have ever encountered a colony of bats in or around your home, you’d be surprised at the mess and smell they can leave behind; and it piles up. The piles can get so massive and distinct, that it makes you wonder how much these little guys can eat and how long they’ve been in your home.
Honestly, having bats in your attic is no laughing matter! Bats that are harbouring in an attic, or even in an outdoor contraption, can transmit a respiratory diseases called Histoplasmosis where exposure to mass quantities of bat guano over a long period of time can become detrimental to a person’s health. Histoplasmosis in smaller doses can affect humans with weakened immune systems, and so avoiding the harbouring of a colony of bats in and around your home becomes important business.
In this video we were called out to a home in Scotland Ontario and if you take a look, you’ll see the many piles of bat guano that needed to be removed.
Removing the bats was one job, but the cleanup, prevention and decontamination was another. Removing bats takes a special process that involves extra care not to hurt them but once that’s done, it’s what’s left behind that can become the real trouble.
Bat season has already begun
In Ontario bats hibernate during the winter season, but once it becomes consistently warm out, they start coming out of their colonies where you can see more and more of them at night. Some bats like the male Big Brown Bat, are solitary and so when they’re found in homes the damage isn’t usually too extensive.
The females on the other hand like to live in colonies and when they come out during warm springs and in the summer, their existence isn’t usually a secret and the leave a lot behind to make their presence known.
Signs you have bats in or around your home or property
If you don’t notice them because of the way your home is built, you can still look for the signs you have a few bats or a colony living in your home or attic. They are as follows;
- brown greasy film around cracks in roof, attic, siding etc. (what looks like entry points)
- piles of bat guano (bat poop) on any given area of your home, inside or out
- see a bat in your home (this could mean it, or a colony actually life there
- squeaking sounds that are high-pitched and slightly hard to hear
- areas of your home smell like ammonia or another strong odour
- seeing dead bats in or around your home
- the cat or dog brings one home
A thorough inspection by an accredited wildlife removal company is the best way to determine if you have a bat problem. If you do, they’ll be able to quarantine the area, safely remove the bats, decontaminate and secure the area’s entry points from further intrusions.
Types of bats in and around Ontario we could encounter
There are quite a few species of bats living in Ontario (8 according to the following chart) and during our many years of service involving bats, we’ve removed quite a few of them.
The following chart from the same link above, lists out the species we see in this province. I’ve taken the time to highlight the bat species’ names and the column for Ontario.
As a company, since we first started removing and controlling bat colonies we’ve come across the Big Brown bat and the Little Brown bat most often.
We have a Little Brown Bat problem to tell you about
Unfortunately the Little Brown bat colony has been significantly affected by a disease called White Nose Syndrome which can take out whole colonies at a time. In order to help offset this tragedy, you can purchase a bat box from the Canadian Wildlife Federation with proceeds going to help bats fight back against White Nose Disease.
Plus bat boxes encourage bats to be near your property, but not in your house. They’ll also help with mosquitos as bats eat up to 1000 mosquitos an hour. Bats are a natural pest control.
Bat infestations can be a hard blow to deal with like this Scotland home owner learned but in the end, and by choosing the right company, you can have your attic back up to code, repaired and cleaned up in no time. You just need to know who to call.
All Wildlife Removal Inc.