Content:
- Bats: When Creatures of the Night Find a Way Inside
- Causes of Bat Infestations
- Symptoms to Look for in Bat Infestations
- Natural Home Remedies and Bat Repellents
- Other Precautions to Take When Handling a Bat Infestation
Bats are the ultimate bug repellent of the night. They can make a great addition to anyone who lives near swamps or other bodies of water. Despite how good they are for keeping mosquitoes and other bug pests away, they still pose a risk to you, your family, your home, and even your pets/livestock. This means these cute little vampires of the night are best left in their caves or bat boxes. So, which are the best natural bat repellents?
Bats can carry many diseases and parasites that are very hazardous for everyone’s health including pets and livestock. From rabies to histoplasmosis to as many as 60 different types of diseases, bats can really pack a fatal punch with just their presence alone. Histoplasmosis is a major concern for many people since it is often confused for the flu due to the similarity of symptoms.
Keeping these little nocturnal creatures away from your home, shed, barn and other areas of play will become your major priority when dealing with a bat infestation. You may feel a little lost on where to even start, some people often feel conflicted since they don’t want to hurt the bats.
Don’t worry! This how-to guide will help you find the right natural bat repellents, help figure out the cause of the infestation, how to detect one, and get your home free of their siege in no time at all.
Bats: When Creatures of the Night Find a Way Inside
As you may already know, bats are a nocturnal species of mammal. They love dark cool places that have plenty of access to their favorite prey – insects. While many would often associate a bat infestation with caves, it turns out they do love other places. Those places are your home’s attic, walls, barn, shed, or anywhere else that provides them their desired living environment.
Bat infestations can be a real pain to deal with for many reasons. Since bats like to return to their favorite nesting spots it makes dealing with them an almost never-ending battle. This is why you need to immediately deal with any bats as soon as possible.
While this may seem like bad news, bat infestations are fairly easy to deal with once you make all the necessary home adjustments and repairs. Beyond hiring a professional exterminator or making a call to animal control, there are ways where you can handle the bat problem on your own. All it takes is to simply learn this little creature’s habits and which methods work to keep them away.
Causes of Bat Infestations
Understanding how to get rid of bats is but only one part of the whole equation.
First, you will need to understand how these little night squeakers even got there in the first place. Remember bats are very small creatures so they can hide in plenty of odd places.
- Any and all holes in your home’s exterior that are at least ¾ of an inch or bigger. These will be the entry points for your uninvited bat colony.
- Rooms that are unused, including back rooms, bedrooms, closets, pantries, underneath staircases, attics, basements, sheds, barns, children’s playhouses, and so on.
- Old furniture such as freestanding closets, dressers, couches, chairs, desks, etc.
- Chimneys and similar structures in and around your home.
- Any loose or missing tiles in the ceiling or floor of your home that meets the ¾ of an inch entry point requirement.
- Lack of or missing screens for windows and doors.
- Any unclean corners inside your home.
Symptoms to Look for in Bat Infestations
To determine a bat infestation you will need to look for certain “symptoms” of one.
These key cues will also tell you roughly how big of a bat infestation you might be dealing with as well.
- Dusk, dawn, and nighttime squeaks or scratches coming from the attic, basement, unused rooms or walls.
- Strong odors emanating from certain areas of your home, this will most likely be the smell of guano and bat urine.
- Seeing piles of guano in certain areas of your home.
- Seeing white streak patterns along the walls of a certain area in your home. The white streaks are bat urine.
- Seeing bats in and around the vicinity of your home during the night and early morning hours.
- Dirt and grease covering the walls of your home or in areas where you have seen bats.
- Rub marks and scratch marks around any holes or cracks in your home or surrounding buildings.
Natural Bat Repellents and Home Remedies
No one really wants to harm an innocent creature that is helpful.
However despite your feelings on the matter, a bat infestation has to be dealt with, this is where many wonderful natural bat repellents and home remedies can help you and the bats.
1) Cinnamon
Bats dislike strong smells.
Cinnamon just so happens to be one of the spices that irritate bats enough that they will leave on their own.
2) Eucalyptus and Mint Oils
You can find eucalyptus and mint in both oils and gels. Both are effective in irritating bats to the point that they will leave.
Gels are great for slathering around entry holes when you don’t have the time to immediately seal them. Oils are great for spraying around their roosting sites.
3) Phenol
Bats and many other creatures strongly dislike the smell of phenol. All you need to do is get some white phenol and drench the area as many times as you can.
This will make the place unbearable for the bats to roost.
4) Aluminum Foil
Bats for some reason really dislike aluminum foil.
Whether it is for its shiny reflective surface or its annoying crinkly noises, either way, the bats do not like it.
5) Balloons Filled with Helium
A humorous but effective way to keep bats out. All you need to do is purchase some mylar balloons, fill them with helium and leave them in the bats’ old roosting places.
This will keep bats away since it puts a lot of obstacles in their way thus irritating them.
6) Mirrors
Looks like vampires aren’t the only ones to dislike mirrors, turns out bats don’t really like them either.
The reflective surface of mirrors is a real irritant to many bats.
7) Shiny Christmas Decorations
When you aren’t hanging them on the tree, you can give your old shiny Christmas ornaments a second purpose. Hang these shiny baubles where ever you have found bats.
This trick combines the shiny reflective surfaces with obstacles so that the bats refuse to use your home as their bat cave.
8) Home Repairs
There are many home repairs you will need to make both during and after you have solved your bat infestation problem.
The major repairs to make are:
- Use sealants to prevent the bats from entering. Sealants such as nets or hardwood boards are a great way to keep the bats out. Before you place the sealants make sure you clean out their roosting site thoroughly.
- Closing all holes and cracks in the exterior and interior walls and ceiling of your home. Bats will crawl into any crack or hole they find so it is important that you seal all of them. If you have any broken or cracked tiles you should replace them immediately.
- Check valves will help you get rid of the bats by only allowing them to exit and not reenter your home.
- Installing bat houses outside your home. Preferably you should install these bat houses either in the woods near your home, if applicable, or anywhere that is away from your house.
Other Precautions to Take When Handling a Bat Infestation
When it comes to handling a bat infestation you will definitely need to be careful and take all proper precautions.
It is not only the bats you will need to worry about. There are many varieties of bat repellent that can also be harmful to your health as well.
When handling any bat infestation there are a few things you will need to be aware of first.
- If you choose to do the clean-up yourself, make sure you wear a long -sleeved clothing and a mask to prevent exposure to toxins and disease. When it comes to bat infestations you will be dealing with pesticides, bat guano, bat urine, dust, and other types of chemical repellents, all of which are bad for the human body to inhale.
- To encourage your unwelcomed bat neighbors to live somewhere else, try installing some bat houses nearby. This is so that the bats can still give you the bug repelling benefits without all the trouble of them living in your home. It is recommended that you do this after you have sealed and repaired your home’s exterior of any potential bat entryways.
- When it comes to dealing with a bat infestation you will need to do a bit of yard work. It is recommended to remove any and all dried up trees, old junk, and debris in the yard.
- Some states have strict regulations regarding pesticide usage, while many states have laws against harming bats in any way due to many species being endangered. So before you choose a toxic method of bad repellent, make sure you know your local laws and regulations regarding bats and other wildlife.
It is often recommended that people do not use pesticides since these toxic chemicals negatively affect not only wildlife but also pets, livestock, and people. - Locate any and all still water sources. Once you have done this proceed to either cover them or remove them away from your home.
- Many bat repellent guides will tell you about mothballs as an effective tool against bats. This is not entirely true. Mothballs degrade over time and the chemicals used in them are often toxic for people to inhale in closed spaces, which is where bats love to hide. Mothballs tend to be only a short-term bat repelling solution at best.
