While the team at Elite Wildlife Services is happy to provide you with humane bat removal services, it's always nice when we can keep them out of your house in the first place. In addition, once you've paid for creature removal the last thing you want to do is see them return.
Here are a few tips for ensuring bats will want to find places other than your attic to build their next home.
Prevent Bats by Blocking Entry Points
The easiest way to prevent a bat problem is to block their access to your home. Bats can use relatively small holes to get into your space.
Start with window screens, chimney caps, and draft guards beneath attic doors. You'll also want to caulk electrical or plumbing holes. Yes, bats don't always get into the attic: sometimes they fly in through an open door or window, too!
Check out this page from Bat Conservation International to see all the surprising entry points that bats can use to get into your house.
Avoid Using Lights to Discourage Bats
Motion lights are a great security measure, as are porch lights and entry lights. We're not discouraging you from using those.
Some people try to shine huge spotlights on their attics to keep bats away though, and this is a bad idea. This is because the lights will just attract more insects. While the light may annoy the bats a little the concentrated food source will more than make up for the inconvenience.
As for the lights you have to have? Swap out white lights for yellow ones. They attract fewer insects, which means even fewer food sources.
Other Repellent Devices
Most repellents simply don't work very well. For example, expensive audio repellents don't always do a good job of keeping bats away. Scent-based repellents are more likely to upset the people who live in the home than the bats.
Fortunately, once you've closed off access to your home you should be safe. There's nothing wrong with having bats near your home as long as you don't have them in it. After all, they'll keep the mosquito population down in your yard, and they don't hurt anything so long as they're staying out of human habitats.
If you do get bats in your home, well, you know who to call. We'll help you get rid of that bat colony, and will take steps to ensure they don't come back ever again.
