Batman is awesome, but bats are problematic. They can enter your house and make it their roosts. Usually, they prefer to roost in your attic because they hate lights. As they stay in your house, you should consider finding the ways on how to get rid of bats. While they are residing in your house, you will deal with their nuisance, droppings, and even health disease threat.
Before we get to that part, let us know more about the nocturnal animal. Bats sleep through daytime and fly out of their cave or roost points at dusk. They are out for food and drink. They found small insects such as moth and beetles tasty. If they are tired, they will find some place for roosting to rest. It means that they can do several trips only for a night.
Bats use sonar-like of the sound wave to scan and navigate their surrounding so they will not hit things while flying. Bats have colonies which usually only comprise female bats. The female use buildings for roosts frequently. They also can tolerate very high temperatures. Meanwhile, the male one tends to roost alone in solitary areas. No wonder why Vampires and Batman always depicted lonely.
Damage, Nuisance and Health Disease
Bats can cause nuisance concerns because they can make your house as their roost with large colonies of bats. Furthermore, you will face a big problem if the colonies is a maternity type colony. It means your house will be swarmed by bats. They are noisy as they fly in colonies during dusk and dawn. As a colony of bats stays in your house, they will drop a pile of their waste on to your ceiling. It will be smelly and of course eventually, your house will be damaged physically too as the huge pile of dropping collapse the ceiling.
The worst part is that the bat’s droppings can also cause health disease. They are smelly for sure, but if you don’t throw them out, it will produce fungal spore that can be inhaled by your family and lead to a lung disease called Histoplasmosis.
Besides a lung disease, bats can also transmit rabies. The chance that bats transmit rabies is higher than average animals. So, if you find sick bats on your lawn or house don’t pick it up because they can bite. You don’t want the colony of bats in the house accidentally bite your family.
As you know that bats are a nuisance, now you need to know how to get rid of bats. Even though they are problematic, still, you should consider getting rid of them from your house safely. It is not an easy work, but worth to try.
20 Useful Methods on How to Get Rid of Bats
Please take note that there is no effective bats repellant that can get rid of the bats in an instance. Everything has its own process.
1. Investigate The Bats
Investigate and find which types of bats that live in your house. Then, find their maternity season so that you can drive all of them out without leaving the bats babies. They will not survive without their mother and dead bats will leave stench, stain on your ceiling.
2. Seal Off The House
This is the first important tips on how to get rid of bats. This method will help you to prevent bats from entering the house. Use sealants like netting, or hard boards to seal your house. Sealing off your house from flying creatures like bats will keep them exclude outside. This is not an easy task. If you fail to 100% sealing off the house, they can find another hole or spot that you missed.
If the bats are already in the house, observe carefully where the bats go in and out. You should also inspect the house to find another possible way for the bats to crawl or fly. Then, make sure you seal the house fast while the bats away after dusk. If you succeed, don’t forget to clean the bats’ mess.
Please don’t trap the bats in the house because they can be very erratic when trying to find the way out. It may cost you more damage as they dig up or bite your house to get out.
3. Use Lights
Use bright lights in the attic and in the outside. This method will repel bats since they love dark places. It is the opposite with getting rid of some insects who seeks lights. Bright light make bats uncomfortable. Find the necessary brightest lights so you can repel the bats. This method also makes the colony of bats stay away from your house.
4. Use Ultrasonic Application
As it is mentioned before, bats use ultrasonic sound to navigate while flying. So you can disturb and trick the bats by using ultrasonic apps that you can find online. This sound will not disturb you as human because we humans cannot hear an ultrasonic sound. Place the device near of the bats roost to be more effective. Eventually, the bats will be uncomfortable and leave the house. Once the bats out, you can seal the entry points and clean their mess.
5. Trim The Trees Around Your House
Bats eats fruits and also they often roost on trees. If there are fruit trees around your house, you should consider trimming them so bats will not find it appealing to fly there to eat the fruits. Trimming the trees also decrease their roosts around your house. Then, there is only small chance that they will fly inside your house.
6. Use Sulfur
Did you know that bats despise some smells? One of the smell is the smell of sulfur. So, you need to use this to get rid of bats out of your house. What you have to do is to burn the sulfur until its smoke reach the bats roosts. It’s quite effective to disturb the bats. Sulfur is also relatively cheap so you do not need to spend much money to get rid the bats.
7. Use Insecticide Spray
Yeah maybe sounds weird since insecticide is useful to get rid of insects. In fact, insecticide is also useful to get rid of bats. What you need is its smell. Yes, beside they despise the smell of sulfur; bats also dislike the smell of insecticide. Spray the insecticide near the place where the bats settle. Let the smell disturb them. Another option is that you can also spray the chemical directly the the bats. It won’t make them deas as it does to insect, but it will make the bats smell the insecticide wherever they go and it will make them fly far away from your house.
8. Hang Mothballs
Mothballs are also known as one of the best solutions in getting rid of bats. It does not only make the bats go away, you can also prevent them to enter through entry points in the house as you can hang the balls on the entry points. The mothballs also easy to find. You can buy it at pest control store. Buy the mothballs and hang it near the bats roost in your house. However, the effectiveness depends on the ventilation. Good ventilation will make the effect fade away quickly. So you need to semi-trap the place where the bats roost so it will not be too airy and also bats can get out after being driven out by the mothballs.
9. Phenol Spray
Another method that uses smell to drive out the bats is by using phenol. Spray the phenol near the bats’ roosts. The smell of phenol will repel the nocturnal animal and make them uncomfortable to stay in that place. You can buy phenol from supermarket. Repeat spraying it until the bats found your house less attractive.
10. Aerosol Spray
Aerosol will repel the bats and keep them from coming back to your house. Spray the aerosol near or on their roosting spot only when they are out. So you will likely to apply this method after dusk where the bats out for food. You can also buy aerosol that is specifically to repel pests from pest control shop.
11. Use Mylar Balloons
This method quite fun since applying this method means that you are about to scare the bat away. When the bats move out for food, put a mylar balloons in the same place where the bats roosting. The balloon should be filled by helium so it will fly in the room. Ti will scare the bats once they are back at dawn.
12. Hang Aluminum Foil
The purpose of this method is quite the same as using mylar balloons which is to scare the bats away. The idea is that hanging aluminum foil on the same room with the bats or on the bats’ entry point will disturb them. First, the foil will produce chime-like sound that is annoying for bats. Second, the foil also reflects lights. So it will disturb the bats and make them fly away.
13. Hang Mirrors
Another method to disturb the bats by using lights is by using mirrors. Hang mirrors in the room where the bats roosts then put or turn the lights on in that room. The lights reflection from the mirrors will be brighter than aluminum foil and it will make the bats very disturbed. Furthermore, mirrors are widely available and relatively affordable.
14. Water Spraying
This method is suggested to be applied in the daytime when the bats are roosting. All you need to do is to find a long hose pipe and aim it to the bats. Yes, you will shoot the bats with water and force them to leave your house. It is better to be applied in the daytime because it is easier to aim the bats while they are roosting.
15. Using Christmas Décor
It may be not at Christmas when the bats happen residing in your house. But it won’t hurt if you decorate the areas where the bats reside with the Christmas decoration. Hang the rice bulbs, glitter materials, and bling balls around the roosting spot. The Christmas decorations will make the bats disturbed because they are moving around and also produce and reflect lights at the same time.
16. The Birds Gel
This gel is sticky and makes the bat land on it. You can apply the gel on the entry points or on the roosting points where the bats land. This gel is also widely available so you can easily find them. However, this method is only give you temporary result.
17. Cinnamon
You need to find the powdered form cinnamon to apply this method. Sprinkle the powder at the roosting point or directly to the bats then they will go away. Cinnamon powder is also non-toxic. So, it is safe to be applied in your house.
18. Eucalyptus
The idea is to disturb the bats by using smell. You can use eucalyptus oil, or gel to make the bats away. Apply the eucalyptus on the roosting point or around the room where the bats reside.
19. Set Up A Bat Box
What is bat box? Obviously, it is not one of Batman’s gadgets. Bat box is a box that is made for one purpose, to make the homeless bats a new home to stay. The bat box will tempt the bats to leave your house as they find the box is more habitable for them. It’s quite a convenience, but you have work to build one. People who live in wooded areas already use this to keep bats away from their house. You can build one on your own or ask other people to build it for you such as local post control or wildlife removal service. Set the box on tree line near your house so the bats will find the box.
20. Ask for The Professional’s Help
Well, it is obvious that if none of these methods work, you will need the professional help. As they already know how to get rid of bats, you can just sit back and watch how they do their job. They can help you getting rid bats from your attic or even from one of your rooms. However, please note that find the experienced because there’s a big chance the inexperienced one will fail and the bats will cause more damage to your house.
Well, those are 20 methods on how to get rid of bats. Tell us if we miss something.