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How To Get Bats Out Of Your House Without Killing Them

Tiny brown bat crawling on a wooden surface.
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When you find bats in your house, what is your first reaction? Do you start googling “bat control services?” Do you Youtube “DIY bat control?” Or are you awestruck, not knowing where to begin?

We know the feeling. Figuring out your next step can be daunting, especially while hearing the bat or bat colony through your walls and attic.

Let us start by saying that there are many correct and safe ways to catch a bat. You can do it yourself, but we highly recommend that you research all possible options first before deciding how to proceed. Of course, professional bat control in Omaha is always a recommended option as well. While bats might make you nervous or scared, they are very gentle and intelligent creatures that deserve proper care and handling.

Below are some methods and tips you could use if you have bats in the house, what to do, and how to get your home back to “normal.”

The “Towel Method”

You have seen or heard bats in the house and don’t know what to do. Well, if you decide to go the do-it-yourself route, using a towel to cover it up while it’s in a low place would be your best bet. If you’re wondering how to get a bat out of your house, this is one option.

The first thing you would do is wait for the bat to drop down to a low place (preferably somewhere where you can reach without difficulty). Once the bat is in a low spot, take a towel and gently cover the bat; Be careful when picking up the bat in the towel. Wrap the towel gently on the bat, making sure to be firm enough not to let it go but not firm enough to hurt it.

Once the bat is in the towel, you can transport it outside. Putting a towel over the bat might disorient it a bit, making it more difficult for it to take off again. However, it will make it easy to transport the bat WITHOUT injury to it.

The back might be making some noise while it is within the towel. That’s totally normal; don’t freak out! The truth is, the bat might be just as nervous as you are as it is trying to figure out what is going on. If it is moving around non-stop, it might make you a bit uneasy, but rest assured that it is nothing out of the ordinary and the bat will calm down as soon as you remove the towel from over it.

How To Help A Fatigued Bat

In any situation, whether using a professional bat control service or not, there is a chance that the bat will become frightened and fatigued during the control process. If you are doing it yourself and you noticed that the bat has put up quite a fight and seems tired once you remove it, one thing you can do is put the bat as close to a tree as possible.

Usually, a fatigued bat will have a hard time moving around, but if you leave it close to a tree, it will eventually find its way up the tree and make it easier to fly again. Bats have a hard time taking flight from the ground.

One-Way Doors

If you have bats in the house and don’t know what to do, you can always take a more extended (but still effective) approach: installing one-way doors. One-way doors are mounted on vents and in any other openings in a home that allow bats to leave the house but provide no way for a bat to return.

The “one-way door” method makes it an easy and low-cost way to get rid of bats without running the risk of anyone getting hurt. Usually, you leave a one-way door/valve in place for a couple of days to ensure that all bats are out of the home.

The two cons of this method are that it can take an extremely long time if you are dealing with a bat colony in your home and can separate mothers from babies in the process. While you might not want bats in your home, bats in the outdoors are necessary: they keep bug populations under control.

If you decide to use this method, make sure that it is not maternity season for the bats in the area. If a mother is separated from her offspring due to the one-way doors, the baby bats more than likely will die.

What If There Are Multiple Bats?

If there are multiple bats or a bat colony in your home, the best advice would be to call a bat control service. The more bats you see in your home, the harder it can become to remove them yourself.

It can be, and if you are working with more than one bat at a time, it can multiply the chances of a bat getting injured. Also, a trained professional will be able to assess how many bats you have in your home and how long the process of removing them should take.

If you are untrained, it can be challenging to identify what type of bat is in your house. These details are essential as some bat species in the United States fall under the Endangered Species List.

For this reason, it is good to familiarize yourself with local and federal laws and with the species of bats in your home. Killing an animal on the Endangered Species List can damage the environment and can lead to penalties or worse. That is why calling in a professional bat control service can be extremely important if you are not confident in removing a bat on your own.

When In Doubt, Give Us A Call

Luckily, we have lots of experience in removing bats and bat colonies from homes. So if you are not confident in successfully removing the bats in the house, we can take over for you and put your mind at ease.

Not only will we do a thorough and effective job, but we will also make sure that the bats are removed in a safe, non-lethal way. At CP Bat Mitigation, we care about our clients and will come back in a couple of weeks to check out the home and make sure that your home is still bat-free.

If you have bats in the house and don’t know what to do, call us to answer any questions you may have or schedule the services you need.

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