If you’re like most people, finding bats in your attic is a scary prospect. After all, bat urine and feces can damage your home, and some bats can transmit rabies. However, it’s important to remember that bats are also an important part of our ecosystem and should be respected as such. With that in mind, here are a few things you should and should NOT do if you find bats living in your attic.

You May Have Bats In Your Attic If…

There are a few telltale signs that you may have bats living in your attic:

• You hear scratching or scuttling noises coming from your attic, especially at night.
• You see bat droppings (which look like small, oblong pellets) in your attic or on the outside of your home.
• You notice a strong, musty odor in your attic (this is caused by their urine and droppings).
• You see holes or cracks in your home that bats could use to enter.

What NOT To Do If You Have Bats In Your Attic

If you suspect that you have bats in your attic, it’s important to take action to prevent damage to your home. However, there are a few things you should NOT do:

• Don’t touch the bats or try to remove them yourself. Bats are protected by law in many states, so it’s important to contact a wildlife removal specialist to help you remove them lawfully.
• Don’t use pesticides, poison, or glue traps to try to get rid of the bats. Not only is this inhumane, but it can also be dangerous to you and your family.
• Don’t seal up the holes or cracks that the bats are using to enter your home. This will just trap the bats inside, where they will die horribly and cause even more of a mess.

What TO Do If You Have Bats In Your Attic

If you have bats in your attic, the best thing to do is to contact a wildlife removal specialist. These experts can evict the bats from your home humanely during the appropriate time and seal up any holes or cracks to prevent them from coming back. Typically the removal service involves setting up one-way valves at the bats’ entry points into your home so that the bats can leave their roost but cannot return.

Here in New Jersey, wildlife removal specialists can perform bat exclusion during these “safe dates”: April 1 through April 30 and August 1 through October 15. However, you can contact an expert at any time to have them inspect your home and schedule your bat exclusion service.

Bat Removal in New Jersey

Bats are an important part of our ecosystem, but that doesn’t mean you want them living in your attic! If you find bats in your home, contact our wildlife removal specialists at Horizon Pest Control to have them safely and humanely removed: (201) 447-2530.