Bats in the Belfry

All,

My brother has experienced an invasion of bats (3) into his home. The little critters have managed to sneak in from somewhere. They are in the first floor rooms.

Does anyone know of any way of removing/driving away the little flying mice? Anything electronic that would say "drive them batty"?

Blast: C4 is out as an option since my brother would prefer to keep his house from looking like a gazebo or bohio.

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

Thanks

Air rifle

A Net that's on a pole (like one for fishing.)

Call a pest control person that deals with these problems.


Bug Bomb the home, Raid corp. makes these things; you can find them at most stores. (use 3 or 4 of them at the same time.)

"...Air rifle..."

Works for me, as long as the little suckers are hanging in the attic where you can get a clean shot while they are sleeping. We once had some living under the vinyl siding on our stick house. Several days of pressure washing convinced them to move elsewhere...

Watch in the evening to see where they leave the house then board up the hole so they can't get back in. Bats eat thousands of mosquitoes so they actually do more good than harm. Put up some bat houses so they will stay and control your mosquito population.

Bat houses are a good idea. An attic full of guano is a bummer...

I too would build a bat box and place it near where they are gaining egress to your brothers house, then observe when they are coming and going and where it is exactly. Board up or seal it up and hopefully they will use the provided bat box as a new home, if not move on to greener pastures. Having a pet bird now I know what a PITA cleaning guano can be, but on the bright side most larger pet stores that stock bird supplies have cleaning compounds that aid in removal.

-Bill Liptak

LOL, the request makes me think of the bat scene in the movie "The Great Outdoors" with John Candy and Dan Akroyd.

Bats should be real sensitive to ultrasound deterrents. If it were me, I'd build my old trusty dog blaster, which used 3 40 watt piezo horns driven by an amp running a sweep gen from 15K to 25 Khz.

You should be able to find something similar (but less effective) on the net. Try and find something that pulses, because continuous signal would probably prevent them from being able to fly to escape.

The alternative would be a wire handled fly swatter???

How about a cat?

-Blast

That's my plan as well. If they are trapped, I let them wear themselves out and put on a pair of leather gloves. Take them outside, give them a stern talking about "my house, your house", and let them go. I have to figure they are listening, even if they don't understand. :P

They can squeeze through an incredibly small gap. I had them get into my home when I was a kid several times. You'd hear it flapping around in the dark but when we turned on a light it would land. Then we held a box under it an knocked it down into it with a broom.

Funny thing, I was filling in for my wife for adoration this Thursday when a bat started to fly around inside the church. I opened a few windows in hopes he'd find his way out and tried to ignore him, but he kept making dive bombing passes at me. He finally decided to land way up by the ceiling over the choir loft. When the organist showed up to practice I told him about it and his response was "Again?"

Bats like it where it is dark, how about some bright lights?

Concerning the use of an air rifle. Our first house had a rough, unfinished basement and we had mouse problems that I tried to fix with a pellet gun. The difficulty was that if you wounded one (the vitals on a mouse are a small target) and he ran off and died somewhere, it really stunk-up the house. Newlywed wife was not impressed with that house at all.

Mike

Just make sure they're not Venezuelan Vampire Bats before going at them with an Air Rifle.

Yeah, but the stink goes away after a couple of weeks. I discovered that once after plugging a mousehole with steel wool. Mouse tries to eat its way thru that, dies back in the wall someplace. Odor goes away, so does mouse...

Just be sure of your aim...

Some bats are on the protected list so you may want to check with the local game warden before you start shooting.

My dad got bit by a bat last Friday morning. Lucky a friend was able to to catch the bat, as it was withing seconds of getting to the outdoors and freedom. A fast trip with my Dad and the bat to the health department when the bat was shipped out for rabies testing. The results came back Sat AM, and were negative, thank goodness. We were not looking forward to possible rabies shots. The 5 shot series beats the old 19 shot series, but I understand it's not a lot of fun.

Garlic? Crosses? These all work.

Little bitty wooden crosses? Silver BB's???

Kiddie play. Why screw around? I'm positive it was a plain old bat. No self-respecting vampire would get anywhere near one of these.

Less than half of one percent of bats have rabies. Be careful, but not paranoid.

Most bats can't take off from the ground, so they need to crawl up something so they can get airborne. If you remove a bat from the house (a coffee can and a flat piece of cardboard works well), place it on the ground beside a tree, or on a wide branch. A bat on the ground doesn't mean it's rabid.

Bat homes are usually never empty, so if someone says to just wait until they fly out at dusk and then seal the opening, you will be trapping bats inside.

Otherwise: How to Get Rid of Bats: http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-control/how-to-get-rid-of-bats

See what they like and then don't provide it.

Sue

Hmm, sounds like my ultrasonic doggy/vermin blaster is marketable technology.

If they turn into vampires, I would go with my old standby, hydrogen tri-flouride. Just don't plan on having a house afterwards.