Bat Houses

Over the years, we’ve received a fair share of questions about bat houses. The most common ones are “Will adding a bat house draw them out of the house?” or “Can you seal the home and install a bat house to keep them around?”

Most of the time, the houses are ineffective. This can be due to a variety of factors from location to temperature. We’ll highlight why bat houses aren’t a solution for bat exclusion.

What are they supposed to do?

The main theory of a bat house is to deter them from entering your home or structure. It’s thought to provide a small space for bats to comfortably reside with nearby food and water source. Bats then take care of insect pests like mosquitos.

Why bats rarely use bat houses

If bats aren’t using the bat house, more than likely it was incorrectly constructed. On the other hand, it could be constructed perfectly and placed in an unfavorable location.

A perfect example is Sugarloaf Bat Tower in the Florida Keys. A very large bat house was constructed for mosquito control. Over the course of 80 years, not a single bat lived in the tower.

When given the option, bats will most likely choose an attic over a bat house. They want to live in a home or structure that is warm, dry, and safe. This is why exclusion is the most important part of preventing bats from entering your home. Bats can easily squeeze into any space the size of a quarter, and make your attic their new home. Any potential entry points near a bat house will most likely be exploited.

The downsides of active bat houses

Most recommendations for placing a house state that attaching it to your home is more attractive, rather than mounting it onto a post or in a tree. Home-mounted ones are most successful due to the warmth homes produce. However, this is also attracting them to your home and enticing them to search for entry points.

Moreover, bats are common carriers of rabies. If you have children or live in a neighborhood with children, the risk of someone being bitten is higher. In addition, guano (bat droppings) can contain histoplasmosis which is fatal to humans.

While we don’t recommend placing bat houses on your property unless your home is sealed by a professional, The National Wildlife Federation outlines a step-by-step process for constructing one.

Preventative Measures for Winter

As it gets colder outside, many animals are in search of protection against the elements. We’ll talk about how to secure your home for winter to prevent animals from gaining access to your home.

Last winter, we wrote a blog about animals and their hibernation habits, but not all animals in Pennsylvania hibernate throughout the entire winter.

Inspections and Sealing

First and foremost, we recommend a general inspection be performed of the home. This helps us identify any weak spots or openings that would allow an animal to gain access to your home or property. Some animals such as squirrels, mice, and rats can gain access through a hole the size of a quarter, or enlarge the hole to get inside.

Vent Guards and Custom Screening

Commonly, animals gain access through vents. Most gable end vents have light screening installed but this allows animals to chew through. Moreover, squirrels and raccoons will chew through, gaining access to your attic.

Securing Pet Food and Garbage

Securing any pet food and garbage also prevents animals from being attracted to your home. Opossums are attracted to pet food and are often caught using pet doors.

Additionally, any bird feeders should be emptied as they have migrated. Ultimately, unsecured food will attract other unwanted animals to your property. Making sure that all doors, especially shed and garage doors, are tightly closed also prevents animals from getting into unwanted places. Sometimes, a damaged seal on a garage door or entry door is an easy point of entry to your garage.

Chimney Caps

Chimney caps are another recommended method of protection. Not only do chimney caps prevent animals from entering, but there’s also a variety of benefits achieved from installing a chimney cap. Fire prevention, moisture damage prevention, and downdraft reduction are all additional benefits.

During a job we completed a few years ago, a family opened the damper to start a fire and the damper had gotten stuck. A squirrel came down their chimney and was unable to climb up.

We recommended a chimney cap, however, we manually shut the damper upon the customer’s request. But later that week, the damper was opened for another fire and became stuck again. Another squirrel ended up in their fireplace. Ultimately, they ended up with a chimney cap installation!

Your Local Animal Removal Experts

We’re licensed by the PA Game Commission and follow all of their guidelines for trapping and removal. If you experience any of these issues throughout the winter, give us a call or use our contact form.

Types of Bats in Pennsylvania

There are a few different types of bats in Pennsylvania; if you see a bat it is most likely a little brown bat or a big brown bat. Bats are protected and heavily control bug populations near their roosting (nesting) sites.

Bats are also common carriers of rabies, and great care must be taken throughout the removal and repair process.

About Little Brown Bats

Little Brown Bats are the most common bats in PA. Their fur is golden, red, or olive brown featuring a darker face. Their feet and wing membranes are black.

They prefer to create their nests, or roosts, in buildings, trees, woodpiles, caves, or manmade structures.

However, their populations are dwindling due to white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome is a fungus that attacks bats during hibernation periods. The disease is fatal for bats but it does not affect humans.

About Big Brown Bats

Big brown bags have brown, glossy fur. Their wing membranes, face, and feet are dark brown to black. They are much larger than little brown bats, their wingspan stretches up to 13 inches!

Big brown bats can migrate hundreds of miles, and their larger size allows them to hibernate in lower temperatures compared to other Northern American bat species.

Big brown bats hibernate in similar conditions as the little brown bats.

Hibernation

Bats enter torpor, or hibernation when their body temperature is able to drop to near freezing. A bat’s heart rate drops from 200-300 beats per minute to 10 beats per minute. Moreover, they can even go for a few minutes without taking a breath.

In torpor, bats’ energy consumption is reduced by 98%; this allows them to remain in torpor for a few hours or even up to a month in winter. If bats wake up or are disturbed often, they burn through the fat they have stored for the winter before springtime.

Bat Removal

With new developments and construction, bats may be forced out of their homes. However, they reintegrate themselves back into the new environment, making your home their new home.

Additionally, the most common signs of bats in your home are chirping or rustling sounds. As nocturnal animals, these noises likely occur in the evening, late at night, or early in the morning. They also leave grease-stained appearances on components near their entry points.

As mentioned before, bats are protected and there are restrictions on the timing of removal. Depending on what season it is, we can place one-way doors along with sealing secondary entry points, which ensures bats can leave, but not return.

During the summer, we cannot place one-way doors until the young are large enough to fly if a maternal colony is present. We can seal secondary entry points, but primary entry points must remain open.

Repair and Remediation

In addition to sealing entry points, we also offer other methods of exclusion. Chimney caps, custom screening, and vent covers are all preventative services we offer for bats and other animals.

We also offer cleanup of bat droppings (guano). Guano is hazardous due to the potential presence of histoplasmosis, we use HEPA-filtered vacuums and PPE to prevent transmission.

Give us a call or use our contact form for the removal and repair of different types of bats in Pennsylvania!

EPM Threat to Horses from Opossums

Opossums and your horse’s health

One disease that horse owners in North America (particularly on the east coast) should be aware of is EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis).

EPM is a neurological disease that can be difficult to diagnose due to varying symptoms. Moreover, it is important that owners are aware of the disease as it can be fatal if it goes untreated.

Furthermore, this particular parasite attacks the brain and spinal cord. Ultimately, it causes devastating and long-lasting damage to the nervous system.

Luckily, Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis is treatable and horses recover well if it is treated promptly. Additionally, most horses show improvement after a few weeks of treatment.

How is EPM Contracted?

The primary cause of EPM is opossum droppings. Furthermore, horses contract the disease from eating contaminated feed or grazing.

What are the symptoms?

EPM presents itself subtly or severely. It can present symptoms similar to several other neurological diseases in horses. Common symptoms shown are:

Changes in gait, lameness
Abnormal sweating
Problems balancing with lifted hoof
Incoordination (worsens going up or down slopes)
Muscle atrophy, usually over shoulders
Paralysis of muscles of the eyes, face, or mouth, evident by drooping eyes, ears, or lips.
Mild depression
Trouble swallowing, dropping feed.
Leaning on a wall for balance
Loss of sensation along the face, neck, or body.
A drooping lip or repeated facial twitch
Change in vision
Dropped feed or trouble swallowing
Head tilt
Drooping ear
Changes in behavior, including throwing the rider

How is EPM prevented?

As there are no preventable vaccines for EPM, the most effective preventative measure is to keep opossums away from horses and their feed. Ultimately, we recommend keeping feed covered when not in use and removing any garbage as soon as possible.

If you have a problem with opossums on your property, particularly if they pose a threat to your horse’s safety, don’t hesitate to call us for professional opossum removal.

Animal Poisons and Repellents

There’s a large market for various types of animal repellents and deterrents but most are not successful or effective. We always recommend trapping and physical removal of animals as the most effective way to ensure the animals do not return.

We’ll go over a few different repellents and explain why we find them ineffective.

The Different Types of Animal Repellents

Ultrasonic Devices/Noise Makers

These devices produce different sound frequencies depending on the animals they are intended to repel. They use frequencies higher than 20 kHz/kilohertz or lower than 20 kHz. On some devices, the user can adjust the frequency.

The sound is intended to irritate pesky critters and prevent them from creating their living spaces close to where the noise originates from.

The issue with these is that they can be audible to certain individuals depending on their age and hearing sensitivity. These noises can also disturb your household pets or nearby household pets. It’s also not a humane method, some scientific studies have shown that animals react to a rise in body temperature rising or seizures. Then, the animal may pass in an enclosed space which leads to a tricky animal extraction.

Ultimately, scientific studies completed on ultrasonic devices have no control group; there is no concrete scientific evidence to back up their efficiency. Many customers we have talked to mention they have tried the ultrasonic device and it did not solve their issues. On some occasions, we have seen bats hanging off of ultrasonic devices!

Sprays/Powders

By looking at the low reviews of many different repellent sprays, one can see that these are ineffective. Most liquid repellents are used for types of gardening and planting. Repellent sprays are supposed to make the animal so uncomfortable in a space the animal would normally be comfortable at that they leave and find a new residence.

One of the biggest issues with sprays is that you will need to continue purchasing them and they do not keep animals away permanently. Often, the offending animals keep returning to the areas they find to be optimal living spaces hoping the repellent has worn off. More often than not, the repellents are ineffective even for short-term use.

To keep animals from returning, we always suggest physical removal of the animal and exclusion to keep the animal from returning. By sealing off potential entry points around homes, sheds, decks, etc then the animals are not provided with an opportunity to exploit the area.

Poisons

The most common issue we see with poisons is that animals will often die from the poison and become trapped in a small area. They emit a foul odor and depending on where they wedge themselves, it’s a costly repair. Especially, small rodents like mice and rats that often become trapped in walls after ingesting poison.

If this does or has happened, we do offer the removal of dead animals.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, we always recommend the physical removal of all animals followed by exclusion and remediation. Give us a call or use our contact form if you’re noticing animals in or around your home!

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