After nearly two decades working in wildlife control, I can tell you that most bat problems don’t start when a homeowner sees a bat flying through their living room.
They started long before that.
The bat flying around your bedroom at 2:00 in the morning is usually the moment you discover the problem. The real problem may be a small gap along the roofline, an unprotected ridge vent, a deteriorating area of siding, a construction gap, or another opening that bats have been using to access the structure.
And one of the biggest misconceptions I see is this:
Getting the bat out of the living space doesn’t necessarily solve the bat problem.
That’s why prevention and proper exclusion are so important.
How Do Bats Get Into a House?
Bats don’t need a giant hole in the side of your house to get inside.
One of the things that surprises homeowners most is just how small of an opening a bat can use. We generally look for openings approximately the size of a dime or larger when inspecting a home.
And there can be a lot of them.
Rooflines, soffits, fascia, siding transitions, roof returns, vents, chimneys, flashing, utility penetrations and construction gaps are just some of the areas we inspect.
A home can look perfectly sealed from the ground while having dozens of potential vulnerabilities once you get onto the roof and start looking at it through the eyes of a bat.
That’s part of what experience in bat control teaches you: you have to learn to see the house differently.
One Bat Doesn’t Always Mean There’s Only One Bat
We receive a lot of calls that start with:
“We had a bat in the house last night.”
Naturally, the homeowner’s first concern is getting that bat out.
That’s important, but I also want to know how it got there.
Was a door left open?
Did it come down a chimney?
Could it have entered the attic and eventually found its way into the living space through a wall void?
Are there signs that bats have been using the structure for some time?
Not every bat inside a house means there is a colony living in the attic. But I also wouldn’t assume an indoor bat is an isolated incident without investigating why it happened.
Signs You May Have Bats Around Your Home
Seeing a bat inside is the most obvious sign, but there are other things homeowners can watch for.
You may hear scratching, squeaking or movement in the attic or walls, particularly around dusk or early morning. You may notice staining around an opening along the roofline. Guano may accumulate below an entry point or inside an attic. Sometimes homeowners simply begin seeing bats consistently flying from the same area of the house around sunset.
And sometimes there aren’t many obvious signs at all.
That’s why a proper bat inspection involves much more than standing in the yard and looking at the roof.
Why DIY Bat-Proofing Can Create Problems
I am a big believer in homeowners taking care of their properties, but bat exclusion is one area where understanding timing and animal behavior matters just as much as knowing how to seal a hole.
If bats are actively using a structure, simply finding the opening and sealing it can create a much bigger problem.
You don’t want to trap bats inside the structure.
You also have to consider maternity season. Female bats may be raising pups that aren’t capable of flying yet. Closing adults out at the wrong time can leave young bats trapped inside.
A professional bat exclusion isn’t about plugging the hole where you saw a bat.
It’s about understanding the entire structure, identifying the potential entry points, allowing bats to leave appropriately and then preventing them from getting back inside.
What Does Professional Bat Exclusion Look Like?
When we inspect a home for bats, we’re looking at the building as an entire system.
Where are bats currently entering?
Where could they enter next?
Are there construction gaps?
Are the ridge vents protected?
What condition are the soffits and fascia in?
Are there gaps around flashing, siding, chimneys or roof transitions?
Once we understand the structure and the bat activity, we can develop an exclusion plan.
Depending on the situation, one-way devices may be installed at active entry points so bats can exit but cannot return. Other potential openings are sealed using materials designed for long-term exterior exposure.
After the bats have had sufficient time to exit, the exclusion devices can be removed and those remaining openings permanently sealed.
The goal isn’t simply to get rid of the bats that are there today.
The goal is to prevent the same problem from happening again.
What Should You Do If You Find a Bat Inside Your Home?
First, don’t handle the bat with your bare hands.
Keep children and pets away from it and limit its access to other areas of the home if you can safely do so.
There’s also an important health consideration. If there is any possibility that a person or pet had direct contact with the bat—or if a bat is discovered in a room with someone who was sleeping or otherwise unable to reliably determine whether contact occurred—you should contact the appropriate medical or public-health professional for guidance before releasing or disposing of the bat.
From the wildlife-control side, I also recommend asking the next question:
Why did that bat get inside in the first place?
Removing one bat solves tonight’s problem.
Finding and correcting the entry points can solve the problem for years to come.
Prevention Is Easier Than Dealing with an Established Bat Problem
If you own a home in Nebraska, especially an older home or one with a complicated roofline, periodically looking for exterior deterioration is one of the best things you can do.
Watch for loose siding, deteriorated sealant, gaps around fascia and soffits, damaged vents, unprotected openings and other changes to the exterior of the structure.
Homes move. Materials age. Weather takes its toll.
An opening that wasn’t there five years ago may be there today.
And bats are exceptionally good at finding those openings.
Almost 20 Years of Looking at Homes Through the Eyes of Wildlife
I’ve been working in wildlife control since 2007, and one of the biggest things experience has taught me is that wildlife problems are rarely solved by treating only what you can see.
You have to find the why behind the problem.
Why are the bats there?
How are they getting in?
What about the structure is allowing it?
And what can we do today, so the homeowner isn’t dealing with the exact same problem next year?
That’s the philosophy we’ve built Bats to Rats Wildlife Control and Prevention around.
We’re not interested in repeatedly removing bats from someone’s living room.
We want to help homeowners understand their homes, solve the underlying problem and create a long-term solution.
If you’re seeing bats around your home, hearing activity in your attic or have had a bat enter your living space, Bats to Rats can inspect the property, identify potential entry points and help determine the appropriate next step.
Bats to Rats Wildlife Control and Prevention
Serving Lincoln, Omaha and surrounding Nebraska communities.
