Midcoast Wildlife Specialists – Bat Control

Bats In The Attic Or Chimney? This is not uncommon in the state of Maine. We receive many calls from people who have bat problems. The first step when attempting to remove bats from a structure is to make sure you provide the bats a way to exit unharmed. It is highly illegal to kill bats by sealing them inside. First, one must find where the bats are coming in and out. These areas can be identified by locating gaps in the home where droppings are present directly below the entry gap. Next, a one-way exclusion door needs to be installed over that area. This device must be constructed so the bats are able to travel through it on the way out, except are unable to come back through the device on the other side. It’s important to seal this device over the entry hole with calking or foam so the bats cannot slip around the device. Dealing with bat issues is not easy, and its best to leave it to professionals.

After your one-way exclusion door is on, the bats should be able to travel through it and when they return, they cannot get back in from that area. There may be several entry areas on a large home with bats inside. The most common entry areas are located around chimneys, ridge vents, gable vents, drip edge, gable ends, and many other areas. Bats can slip through a gap 1/2 inch or larger. The next step is to meticulously seal up the rest of the home with hardware cloth, copper mesh, non-expandable foam, and clear calking.

This is where our experience comes in handy because it’s nearly impossible for an amateur attempting a bat exclusion to locate every possible secondary entry area the bats can get back in. And the bats will get back inside the structure through these kinds of areas, simply because bats will utilize their sonar hearing to locate drafts coming from open gaps on a structure. They are able to hear the draft and make their entry into the attic.

Once the exclusion devices are on and the entire home is sealed for secondary entries, the bat job is complete. However, do not doubt there is still a chance the bats will find their way back inside. Even we have done jobs where we thought we did everything absolutely perfect, but it ended up there were still bats getting inside and so we had to go back to those jobs and take care of it.