Bats are pretty cute. And they eat mosquitoes, which is definitely a plus. In addition, bats rarely cause any structural damage. They don’t gnaw on electrical cables, wood, or concrete. They just take advantage of existing holes to get into your attic. Once there, they cling to your timbers or squeeze into your crevices. They won’t destroy your home to build nests. In small numbers, bats aren’t typically much of a problem, though they can be quite messy.
However, even though damage to your home is rare and minimal, having bats in your attic can cause other serious problems. Having bats in your attic can harm your health and wellbeing.
Guano Can Be Fatal
Bats love to stay in the same place for a long time—colonies will stay in the same housefor thousands of years if conditions are permitting. So if you have a small colony of bats living in your attic and you don’t do anything about it, it will grow larger every year. Babies will join the colony. And in a few years, you could quite literally have thousands of bats residing in your home.
Do you really want thousands of bats leaving behind their droppings in your attic every single day? Not only is the odour going to be horrendous, but the bat droppings, called guano, can carry threats to your health. Guano buildup from large colonies in your attic can even be fatal.
That’s because bat droppings carry the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which has microscopic and airborne spores. These spores can easily get into your living quarters through the air. If you inhale them, you could end up with a lung infection called histoplasmosis. Though this infection can sometimes clear up all on its own, it may develop into a chronic lung infection requiring treatment. If no treatment has been had, the infection can spread all over your body, proving fatal. Histoplasmosis is particularly dangerous for young children and the elderly.
The Risk of Rabies
Though few bats carry rabies, they are capable of transmitting rabies to humans through their bite. In addition, you can be exposed through contact with bat fur, guano, blood, and urine.
Rabies will cause inflammation in your brain, which will be fatal if not treated in time.
Though many animals can carry rabies, bats pose a different risk because they can live full, productive lives while infected, while other animals will die from infection.
What to Do When You Have Bats in Your Attic
It’s important to note that, in Canada, bats are a protected species. Therefore, you cannot kill or harm bats that are in your home or you could face fines of up to $10,000 per animal.
Bats are critical to our ecosystem because they consume significant numbers of insects—three times their own body weight, in fact. And due to white nose syndrome, some colonies’ numbers are currently dwindling.
Therefore, if you have bats in your attic, you must call an experienced bat removal expert to remove them. It is risky to deal with bats on your own and it is illegal to harm them. It’s best to call in an expert, both for your own health and for the wellbeing of the bats. In addition, the eviction process for bats is limited to certain seasons—before or after baby bats are born. It is illegal to evict them at other times of the year.
Having bats in your attic can be a serious issue. The situation can be detrimental and even fatal to your health. Contact a wildlife removal company with expertise in bat removal to eliminate the problem. The company will not only remove the bats, but also prevent, clean up, and decontaminate.