Bats 

Important members of the wildlife community

Bats are important members of the wildlife community and serve the ecosystems they share in many ways.

• The common little brown bat of North America is the world's longest lived mammal for its size, with a life-span that sometimes exceeds 32 years.
  

• Worldwide, bats are important natural enemies of night-flying insects.
  

• A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquitoes-sized insects in just one hour.
  

• A colony of 150 big brown bats can protect local farmers from up to 33 million or more rootworms each summer.
  

Bats can become a problem for the homeowner when they enter buildings in search of roosting sites. Bats typically enter structures by following air currents and odor cues. They will often need removal from a living space of a structure or from more secluded areas such as attics and basements. Occasionally, this involves the removal of an individual bat, but in most situations, a colony of bats must be removed. In either scenario, non-lethal control measures should always be used.

The use of pesticides to kill bats increases the risks (particularly of rabies) associated with bats falling to the ground and being handled by children or eaten by pets. Moreover, if pesticides are utilized for bat control, the applicator may be in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). (NPCA is not aware of any pesticides that are currently or, after the re-registration process, will be labeled for bat control without obtaining a special use permit from USDA-APHIS -Animal Damage Control or a public health agency for extreme circumstances.)

One pesticide, naphthalene (mothballs), may be placed in confined areas to repel bats, but this practice is of limited value.

In the past, mechanical techniques using glue boards, snap traps on the ends of poles, filed-off nails driven into the ends of broom handles and tennis rackets have been used to kill bats. These techniques are not recommended. Their use may only incapacitate bats, increasing the risk of human contact with injured bats.

A bat management program is often needed to address a perennial bat problem. At Pestech^® we employ a comprehensive management approach consisting of four steps:

1. Inspection
2. Physical exclusion and/or capture
3. Clean-up
4. Follow-up

Once a bat colony has been removed, the roosting site may require clean up to remove guano and urine that have accumulated during the occupancy. Anyone working around bat waste should wear dust masks or respirators capable of filtering out a particle size of 2 microns to avoid inhalation of dust or fungal spores (Histoplasrmosis spp.). The spores from this fungi can cause lung infection leading to irreversible lung damage. Clothing should be disinfected and laundered after service is completed.

Bats are often persistent in seeking to re-enter a roost.

Returning bats may congregate around sealed entranceways. Follow-up inspections will identify missed access points or new openings. At Pestech^®, we emphasize ongoing maintenance of the building for successful bat exclusion.

Ideal bat roosts are in environments that offer high temperature, low air movement, and a lack of light. Modifying these conditions may help in dispersing a colony. For example, the installation of soffit vents, roof vents, and fans will increase airflow. For large commercial spaces, the addition of lighting and less crowded storage of stock help to keep bats out of the lower region of a large warehouse.

Summary

Non-lethal control of bats is the most economical and humane method for managing bat populations. Care must be taken not to harm these animals while excluding or removing them from a building. Displaced bats are capable of re- establishing new roosts outside man-made structures where they can continue to play an important ecological role in the environment.