ANNUAL WILDLIFE CONTROL ISSUE: Becoming A Bat Man

Bats are creatures that incite strong emotions. The most common response to seeing bats, especially in or around a residence, is fear. Fear is a great incentive to seek help. Most people don’t want bats flying around their home. Many are uninformed about bats and a frightened bat in a confined space may elicit much fear. Those who need help will call you and you need to have answers for them.

However, how do you start in the bat control business? The first step is to find out if you have bats in your area. You can call the Department of Conservation in your state to see if they receive many calls about bats. I have found that my area, St. Louis, has specific areas that have large bat populations. Also, be aware that certain types of construction create desirable bat habitats. The primary type of building that is desirable to bats is older brick construction with wood trim. So, if you know of a place in your area with this type of construction, this would be a good place to start.

In my town, we have three primary ZIP codes that offer this type of habitat and this is by far where most of our bat work is done.

GETTING STARTED. If you know that your area has bats, a good place to start is to contact local city halls, fire departments, police departments and emergency services. Such departments often receive calls in the middle of the night from homeowners who report bats inside houses. You need to establish a system so that you can be reached at all hours of the night to go on bat control calls.

When I get such calls, I find out first if the bat is confined to a room or roaming the house. If someone can watch the bat until you get there, it will help the situation for you. If you can’t visit the account immediately, have the homeowner put a towel under the door to confine the bat. When you get to the location, enter the room and try to find the bat. Many times, it will be visible.
Depending on how high it is, either grab the bat (with your hands covered by good gloves) and put it into a container or use an extension pole with a glueboard. This works well when necessary. (To remove the bat from the glueboard, use some vegetable oil and it will come right off.)

CASE STUDY. I once received a call from officials at a bank with a bat inside. The instructions were clear to ask for a specific person and not to say anything to anyone else. I went into the bank, found my contact and she led me to look straight above one of the teller’s heads. Sure enough, there was a bat above her all morning but the manager had failed to mention it to her. I captured the bat with my extension pole and had it out of the bank in a matter of minutes. Then I inspected the building to see if there was any evidence of an infestation and there was nothing. It was a one-bat job. It is amazing how many opportunities like this are available to PCOs. 

There are times when you may have a light near a door that stays lit and draws insects. Bats go there for dinner; the door opens and without detection the bat enters the home, only later to surprise the residents that live there. These one-bat calls can occur year round.

THE RIGHT TIME OF YEAR. Bat infestations are typically noticed in late April or early May. Signs of this type of problem are noise (a loud screechy sound), movement in the walls of a house or piles of droppings below the entrance of the infestation.

The first thing I do when it’s May through August and I receive a bat call is to walk the perimeter of the building looking for droppings. Bat droppings are about the same size as mouse droppings — the only real difference is that bat droppings turn to powder when you squeeze them and mouse droppings don’t.

When you find an entrance or exit, keep looking to see if there is any more evidence of other entrances on a structure. An inspection around dusk many times will give you a good idea of how many bats there are and where they are coming from. The droppings will usually tell the story. I talk to the customer and let them know where the bats are getting in and have them watch the area. Doing so can really get the customer “on your side” because it confirms what you told them about the bats.

I like to educate my customers as much as possible because it benefits me in the end. The main reason bats are moving in to a structure is to breed, so from late May to the third week of August it’s best to leave the bats alone until the young bats are big enough to fly. This way you are not sealing them in the structure and creating a nightmare you won’t soon forget.

The two main species of bats that enter structures are the big brown bat and the little brown bat. As the names suggest, the basic difference in the two is their size.

The main treatment is to seal the building everywhere except where they are entering the structure. There you can place either an exit tube or a bat trap. I leave tubes up for around two weeks, remove them and seal that spot. Many structures need more than one tube or trap to a building because there can be multiple entrances. The tubes allow the bats to leave and they cannot get back in the structure. Bat traps need to be emptied daily until no more bats are found.

MORE BASICS. Bat work requires ladders; there is no way around it unless you can rent a lift to do the job. The only tools you need are a caulk gun (the cordless battery-type works great) and a putty knife. I use foam backer rod sometimes to fill bigger gaps if necessary. Make sure you caulk it in so you don’t have it falling out with a weather change. I seal any gaps more than 1/8-inch wide to keep bats out of the building. Remember, bats can flatten themselves to get through a small opening.

In addition, I guarantee only the areas I treat. Some people don’t want to pay for the whole house to be done, so be clear on where and what you’re doing and put it in writing on both the bid and the work order. My guarantee is for two years, but I feel if the repair makes it two years, you will not need to go back to the account unless someone removes the caulk. Use good caulk. Most of the time I use clear caulk so it looks the same as it did before I came. If the surface is high off the ground or a very dark structure, you can purchase a specialized caulk that goes in a special gun called a sausage gun. It works great but can be messy to work with.

Bat work can be rewarding and profitable. You too can be the local “bat man,” just like I’ve become in my area. Good luck! 

The author is president of Holper Pest & Animal Solutions, St. Louis, Mo. He can be reached at jholper@pctonline.com.