Bat exclusion

[Pegasus]

We love bats but they need to move out this fall while there are no babies to leave behind and they have time to find a new home before the weather gets cold. Tried contacting the nearby university extension office and they only suggested that we contact a pest control service. Reached out to folks we know but no one has dealt with this issue. We would like to proceed in the most humane way possible.

 

Any recommendations or experience?

[Stacia]

I would try contacting Merlin Tuttle's Bat Conservation group.

http://www.merlintuttle.com/

 

They could possibly answer your questions &/or point you to some local, humane experts who could help.

[Renthead Mommy]

Do you know where they come in?  Are they in your attic? 

 

If you can seal off all but a few areas, do that.  Then take a attach a glove with the fingertips cut off to the opening.  The fly into the wrist part of the glove and out the fingers.  But they can't get back in the fingers.  After a few days making sure they are all gone, seal up the last holes. 

 

 

 

Do not band on your patio umbrella that has been closed while you travel for three weeks if you think their may be one in there as there had been before you left for vacation.  Banging on it does chase them away.  It just freaks them out and then when you open the umbrella they fly out crazy, smack you in the face and then you spend the evening in the ER getting rabies shots after they have scratched your above your eyebrow or something. 

 

That was my mom last night.  I am hoping I can change her ringtone on my phone to the Batman theme...

[birchbark]

My bro-in-law works in pest control. They deal with bats exactly the way Renthead Mommy described, except with a specific device rather than a glove. It is expensive to have done though, at least several hundred dollars.

[tm919]

We've had almost every critter. The flying squirrels really taxed our ability to get rid of them ourselves, so  we paid a specialized service to come out, plug all the little holes, then install specialized gates. They used the same type of gates for bats, regular squirrels, etc. They left one way out but it was a one way door, the critters couldn't come back in. Then they would come back a couple of weeks later, uninstall the gate, and plug that hole. The real problem is probably, cleaning out their mess. 

 

edit: like the PP, I have to say it as EXPENSIVE to have it done by someone else.

Edited August 24, 2016 by tm919

[Pegasus]

I think we are in trouble. We do not have little holes. We have long narrow ventilation slits running the full length of the gable along the garage and attic spaces. They cannot be sealed up. These are where the bats have taken up residence.

[Amy in NH]

You can install screen on the inside of the louvres.

[Pen]

Maybe provide them a bathouse away from your house since they are good insect hunters.  We used to have bats, and now don't but we now have a lot more mosquitoes, so I wish I'd done something to try to help the bats with new acceptable housing.