How to Get Rid of Bats Lockport NY

Steps

1. First, make sure you really do have bats. If you see them fluttering in and out of their home shortly after sunset, they are probably bats. If they are active in daylight, they are not bats, they are birds.
2. Look up some information on the kinds of bats that live in your area. Contact your local animal control agency for help.
3. Don't try to kill the bats or destroy their home yourself. Keep in mind that since they are mammals, bats can carry rabies. Most bats are completely harmless to humans, but if you attack them, they might bite.
4. If you can stand it for a few months, leave them where they are until the end of the summer. This will give the baby bats a better chance of survival. Consider moving the bats into a special bat box and putting the box outside in a safe place.
5. Attract the bats away from your house by installing a bat house. Go to the local animal feed or hardware store(or online) and purchase a bat house. Install the bat house as high in a tree as you can, facing the morning sun. Be sure the tree you pick is far enough away from your house, but still within the general vicinity. If you can't buy one, make one with 1/2 to 3/4" thick unpainted, unstained pine planks. The bat house usually measures about 12" tall x 10" wide x 4" thick. The opening is on the bottom of the house where the floor would normally be, and measures about 9" x 2 1/2". The top should cover the house completely with a little bit of overhang on all sides, and be slanted about 40 degrees back to front to allow rain run off.
6. To further make your home unattractive to them, consider purchasing a product to convince them. There are a variety of products available on the market that make bats irritated or otherwise uncomfortable without harming them. Options include the Transonic Pro for ultrasonic coverage, and other roosting barriers such as netting.

Tips

• Bats only fly as low as the top of the lowest light level of your home. So if you have spot lights set up in your yard, they'll only fly as low as the highest point where the light shines.
• Bat netting is the best way to exclude them. Once they have left all openings should be permanently sealed.

Warnings

• Don't mess with bats barehanded. They might bite and they might carry diseases.
• Bat dung is not healthy, so be sure you put the bat house somewhere where it's away from human contact if at all possible.
• Don't kill them. There's a lot of things that you can do to make sure that the bat goes somewhere else. If you'd rather not be anywhere near it, then get a professional to come and take the bat and clean up the place where it nested.

Sources and Citations

• Minnesota DNR article: Removing Unwanted Bats
• Contra Costa County Office of Education article: Removing Bats From Your House
• Organization for Bat Conservation article: Problems with Bats
• University of Florida article: Bat Exclusion and Control

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