Having bats in your home, or anywhere around your home is a very stressful thought to have. Bats are spreaders of a wide variety of diseases, and they are also capable of causing large amounts of damage to properties and homes. These critters are able to squeeze into the tiniest openings and gain access to many areas. Continue reading to learn more about the signs that may show that you attract bats to your home.
Why are bats attracted to my home?
One of the first questions that you may be asking is why bats would want to be in your home in the first place. This can be answered by examining the primary focus of most nuisance animals. Like other animals, bats are primarily interested in having a warm place to stay and raise their young ones, as well as easy access to food. If your house provides a warm and safe place to live, bats will likely flock to it. These places can usually be found in the attic of homes, the garage, or in other areas. Beyond the shelter component, bats are also very fond of living in places that have access to a wide variety of easy food sources. This is particularly the case if your yard has a high population of insects, as bats can chew through many hundreds of insects a night.
What damage do bats cause?
You might be wondering if bats are even a big deal to have around your home. Bats are nuisance animals for two major reasons: disease and damage. The diseases that bats spread have the potential to cause severe illness, and even death in some cases. The diseases can be spread by coming into direct contact with a bat through a bite or a scratch, coming into contact with their feces or urine, or by ingesting something that bats have infected.
Beyond disease, bats can cause a large amount of damage, particularly when they have access to an entire attic. Bats leave their droppings everywhere, which contributes to most of the damage they cause. Their droppings are corrosive, causing metal to weaken and fracture, potentially causing large repair bills. In addition, their droppings destroy and stain insulation, necessitating a pricey replacement.
Large Insect Populations
One of the most apparent signs that you may be attracting bats to your home is if you have a large insect population around your home. This will be very obvious if you are looking into your yard and property during the evening and you notice a very heavy insect population. Bats are notorious insect-eaters, as they eat a wide variety of insects that humans generally consider to be pests. Mosquitoes, moths, beetles, and crickets are some of the most common insects eaten by bats. If you have large populations of these insects, this could be a very good sign that you are attracting bats to your home.
Entrances in Your Home
Another very obvious sign that you may be attracting bats to your home is if you have easy access into your home for nuisance animals. Much like rats and mice, bats can squeeze into the tiniest of entrances. This means that even small holes, gaps, and cracks can be exploited, leading to an invasion by enterprising bats. One of the best ways to see the entry points of your home is to view certain areas of your home with the lights off during broad daylight. This is especially useful in the attic, as you will be able to see daylight in many of the weak points of your home that may be attracting bats.
Bat Signs
One of the most apparent ways to see if bats are being attracted to your home is the sign that the bats themselves leave. This is most obvious in the case of the droppings that they leave everywhere they have been. Bat droppings are also known as guano, and they are relatively simple to identify. Similar to rat and mice droppings, bat droppings are small and darkly-colored pellets. It may be hard to determine whether bats, rats, or mice are the culprits behind the droppings you found, but another sign that points to bats is if the droppings are in a big pile. A great place to check for bat droppings is in your attic. If bats have gained access to your attic, it is very likely that they have left bat droppings all over your insulation in your attic.
How can I get rid of bats?
If you noticed any of the signs previously discussed, the probability of you having bats in your home is very high. Even if they are not in your home yet, they soon could be. A great way to take care of existing wild animal infestations or to prevent any future ones from occurring is to hire a professional wildlife removal service to perform removal and exclusion services, such as Nuisance Wildlife Pros, to perform removal and exclusion services. Not only will these experts remove pre-existing bats from your home, but they also are able to seal up any entry points in your home, preventing any future bat infestations from occurring.
