Bats are nocturnal creatures which means they’re active from evening till just before dawn. For homeowners who suspect they are sharing their homes with a bat colony, there are several signs you can look out for to confirm the presence of bats in your home. Hope you’re a nighthawk as most of these require being up and alert at night.
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Vocalisation
Bats typically produce sounds at a pitch higher than the human ear can detect, but they also emit a vocal chattering that won’t that is audible to us. This chatting is heard at various times of the day. There are also different times of the year that this will be more pronounced; specifically during summer months (especially during mating season; August/September). The female bat will store the male’s sperm until the following spring, therefore you will hear increased chatter during birthing in the spring as well.
It’s often heard at dusk before they fly out to feed. Homeowners can expect to hear this sound around dawn during July and August when babies are calling out to their mothers as they return from a night of feeding. The chirp and chatter can be heard inside roosts on a hot day, particularly if a number of them are present.
Bat detectors are available to capture sounds emitted higher than humans’ hearing capacity. Bats use echolocation: A form of communication where the sound travels out to the environment until it hits something. Detectors make this noise available to humans, as it’s actually at a decibel well above the human hearing range. Hearing their conversation as they go to and from the roost at night is one way to tell if you have bats.
Feeding Roosts
Bats will have several roosts, each of which serves a separate and unique purpose. The most common types you will encounter are roosts for sleeping and roosts for feeding. Their night roosts are close to foraging areas, which makes sense; work smarter not harder. The autumn season is often when they begin using transitional roosts because it’s in between their main breeding and hibernation season.
Spotting a feeding roost is one of those signs of bats at night. Bats choose a desirable location to visit on a nightly basis. They eat insects, fruit, nectar, and pollen, and their feeding roost is a place to digest that food, use the bathroom, and leave by dawn. While you may not see bats at this roost during the day, it’s noticeable due to the pile of guano left on the ground around it.
Bats Exiting Your Home
One of the easiest way to confirm whether or not you are housing a population of bats is simply to look out for obvious activity. Watch the building at dusk to see if any bats emerge. Summer months are the best time to conduct these surveys, as bats are the most active during this time. Surveys are often conducted at dusk and dawn between May and September to see if bats are present in the structure.
The prime time to see bats are the few hours after sunset or before dawn. An ecologist may perform this survey, examining the type of roost, the entry, and exit points. They’ll locate where the bats are staying what they’re using to get in.
Mating
Bats have a unique mating behaviour, which begins in late summer and continues until early fall. This is the most active time of year for bats. Not only are they getting ready to hide out for the winter (so they are feeding more actively) but they are also out to impress prospective mates. They accomplish this by swarming together and performing extraordinary acrobatic feats. Therefore you have a much higher chance of observing bat activity near your home during this period.
During mating season you will occasionally even see bats out during daylight hours, but this is still the exception and not the norm.
Scratching
These nocturnal animals make most of their noise in a schedule opposite to humans, and scratching is another one of the signs of bats at night. You’ll likely hear it on their way in and out of the roost. If bats happen to live in your attic, you may hear scratching along the walls as they move throughout the space. Bats also leave scratch marks on the surfaces they perch to, which are bound to become noticeable—whether it’s ductwork inside or outside around an entry point.
If these signs of bats at night sound familiar, don’t hesitate to call humane bat removal services. They can make your home bat-free, help with cleanup and restoration, and ensure they don’t return.
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