Need to Know Info - Bat Removal Services for Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City
The beginning of bat removal season varies with latitude, but in the Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City areas it really picks up in late June. This is when our new batch of baby bats are ready to fly. At this point the colony may move to a new roosting area and individual bats are more likely to leave the attic colony area and show up inside the house. Both of these changes in behavior gets the attention of homeowners and trigger calls to bat removal experts.
Diseases in Local Bats
Rabies
There are several disease issues associated with our local bats. The first and most concerning is of course rabies. Though not common we definitely do have bat rabies in our region. Several years ago I had a bat found inside a customers home in Greeneville Tn. test positive. I also had a bat in Bristol Tn. that behaved suspiciously that I suspect may have been rabid, but was released before it could be tested. Those customers had to have rabies shots. There are protocols for dealing with rabies exposures for people who have had a bat inside the house please read our Bat Inside the House Page if this is your situation. Following protocols will allow you to avoid having rabies shots.
White Nose Syndrome
White Nose Syndrome is a disease that primarily affects cave dwelling bats. It was introduced into the US from Europe and has reduced the populations of some of our local bats. Bristol Caverns is host to several bat species. Workers there reported to me that they have seen significant reductions in Little Brown Bat populations. Little Brown Bats have been a common species found in local attics. Currently we see primarily see Big Brown Bats in local attics.
Mexican Freetail - A New Bat in the Area
Our region has a new bat species that has shown up in the last couple of years. Mexican Freetail bats are normally distributed further to the south (their name kind of gives that away) with the northern edge of their range in the Carolinas. However, while working a job in Johnson City a few years ago, I came upon a sizeable colony of Mexican Freetails living in several large buildings in the Legion Street/Tweetsie Trail Trailhead. Mexican Freetails are a cave dwelling form massive breeding colonies. Carlsbad caverns has up to 500,000 Mexican Freetail bats. Sometimes these bats can be seen on Doppler Radar when they leave in the evening.
Our local bat species are more likely to congregate under loose tree bark, individually in trees, and in smaller numbers in caves underground. Our local bat species do not congregate in large numbers like Mexican Freetails. Mexican Freetails can show up in buildings, so may be possible that local homeowners can find Mexican Freetails in their homes. However, I spoke with the bat biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and because we are on the extreme edge of their range we are not expected to develop the massive colonies that are found further south.
Removing Bats by Exclusion is the way to go
The best way to remove bats is by adding a one way door over their exit point. However, the secret to success is understanding bat psychology. Bats consider your house to be theirs. Sealing a single point will send them looking for a back door so the entire home has to be excluded for success and that is exactly what we do. Done right, bat removal is a “total house” process. Every single potential entrance has to be sealed. Adding the one way door over an entrance will only push the bats to a new entry point on the house. You want to have that entry point sealed and have run a one way door on it so that you don’t end up chasing the bats around the house from point to point.
Bat Entry Points
Bats prefer to enter buildings at their highest possible point. This makes bat work risky and often requires special equipment like lifts. I tell customers that if bats would stay closer to the ground the work would be a lot easier and cheaper.
Bat entry points may be very subtle and may not be noticed by untrained eyes. This is problematic, because without sealing all the entry points, exclusion will not be complete. There may not be any clue visible on the exterior that bats are present but, with increases in the number of bats and an increase in the time that they inhabit a structure, their presence becomes more noticeable. Brown body smears may not be as evident if the background color is brown or another non-contrasting color. Brown smears will not be present if the entrance has low traffic or has only been used for a short time.
Bats can be a Neighborhood issue
Bat colonies in our region can shift from location to location. Bats that are forced out of one home can move next door or around the corner to another attic. I did a bat removal job for a police officer in Johnson City a couple of years ago that lived near Boone Lake not too far from Sonnies Marina. (The bats were probably attracted to the area because of the lake.) The year before he called me his neighbor had issues with bats and screened them out. I suspect that his bats had just moved across the driveway. As his project progressed, he saw less and less activity around his house at night. He often walked his police dog after dark when he finished his shift and he reported to me that he thought he started seeing bats around another home a block or two from his house on Harbour View Road. It may be a good idea to let your neighbors know what is happening at your home so that they can protect theirs.
Bats Living in Attics
In late summer the core of our work is bat-proofing homes. In the spring, bats return from hibernation to form maternity colonies. Bats, when they are ready to give birth, are looking for a location where their babies will be secure and will be able to stay warm at night. Attics provide just that and maternity colonies will stay in an attic until Fall when it is time to hibernate. Maternity colonies use the same site every year and are extremely dependable about returning. This year our largest colony had about 75 individuals and 20 - 35 individuals is common. Individuals and small clusters may also be encountered hanging under eaves on the exterior of the home.
This is a young of the year bat hanging on a wall outside its roost in the Johnson City area.
In the wild, bats will roost under exfoliating bark of trees. I suspect that the louvers on attic vents resemble the exfoliating bark plates favored by bats in the wild. Gable vents are a very common entry point for bats. Bat colonies can be found living on the exterior of attic vents or they may get past the vent and live inside the attic. A vent issue is one of the most common scenarios found when inspecting customers’ homes. I suspect that, female bats find the warm air currents coming out of these vents appealing and find shelter under the louvers. Bats do not make a great deal of noise and often are missed by home owners until an individual bat wanders down into the living area of the home, a repairman enters the attic, or large numbers of bats are seen exiting the attic. By this time, quantities of guano can accumulate. Homeowners often go for years never knowing that a colony of bats is living right inside of their home. This is one reason that I encourage my customers to have yearly inspections. If you would like to schedule an inspection, please give us a call.
This was an entry point on an Abingdon area bat job. The brown smear is body oil and dirt. It marks the bat entry point. The white globs are silicone caulk put there by a pest control company that sealed the bats inside the customer’s home before we were called.
Can We Relocate yOur Bats
People ask if we can relocate the bats in their attic. Bats cannot be relocated. Neither Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency nor Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources allow wildlife controllers to engage in this practice. I think that there is a good chance that if a bat were relocated from one end or our region to another (say from Abingdon to Johnson City) it might still come back. Bats are very attached to their roost site and are highly mobile and excellent at finding their way back home. They spend thousands of hours in the air and have excellent “road maps” in their heads. Bats are also migratory. This means that bats move from feeding/birthing areas to winter hibernation areas seasonally. If a bat can find its way from one cave to another back to your home year after year, the odds are very good that it will wind up back to your home once it is released.
Screening corroded by excrement with feces pellets trickling through.
Rabies Transmission
The rabies transmission rate is very low in the United States primarily because of high rates of vaccination among domestic pets. Other less developed countries, where vaccination programs do not exist have much more of a problem with rabies. Authorities in the United States also make active efforts to monitor, manage, and control rabies in wild animal populations that tend to have trouble with this disease. But, in spite of these efforts rabies does occasionally show up. Of people who show symptoms and eventually die in the U.S., bats are more likely to be the cause than other species. This is because bats exhibit what is referred to as a “friendly form” of rabies. Rabid bats are more likely to inflict a small, sometimes undetectable bite on a person who is sleeping, drunk, or in the case of small children, unable to relate to others what just happened. Because of this factor, medical professionals recommend taking prophylactic vaccinations if there is any doubt that a person may have been bitten or in contact with an infected animal.
Rabies is a very serious disease. Rabies is a disease that, if left untreated or is not treated promptly, is fatal. Rabies can be transmitted by bats and bats can transmit rabies to people. The CDC states that:
Bats can transmit rabies through seemingly unimportant wounds.
Bats should not be handled by unvaccinated persons.
Persons who have been in a room with a bat and cannot be absolutely positive that a bite didn’t occur should consider prophylactic treatment if the bat cannot be tested.
If there is a possible contact between a bat a person and the possibility of transmission exist, the bat should be saved for testing.
If you have had contact with a bat and there is a possibility that you have been exposed to rabies you should contact your physician or your local health department.
Histoplasmosis
Histoplasmosis is another disease risk associated with bats roosting in a building. Bat colonies can produce large quantities of droppings called guano. Disturbing the guano can create clouds of dust that are then inhaled. Histoplasmosis is a fungal infection of the lungs that results from these particles. Histoplasmosis scars the lungs; and physicians can see these scars on X-rays. According to the CDC anyone can contract this disease; and many people contract Histoplasmosis and recover. Histoplasmosis is most dangerous to persons with compromised immune systems. Of people who check into hospitals, there is a 5 to 8 percent chance of mortality. This mortality, obviously, does not include people who recover from the disease without hospitalization, and so, is probably high.
Guano pile accumulated on a roof under a soffit.
Guano accumulated under a soffit entry point.
Roost sites
Bats are very dedicated to their roost site and will return year after year. Not only are they dedicated to a specific building they also tend to return to the same spot or spots in the building over and over. Thick blankets of guano develop under roost sites. If the roost sites have been utilized for a long period of time they can also develop crystalized urine stalactites. In the photo above crystalized urine appears as amber colored deposits on a vent screen. Acids in the waste often corrode the screen on which the bats were hanging if it is aluminum. Once the screen degrades, bats can access the interior of the attic.
As time progresses, larger waste deposits can develop. Generally speaking, the volume of guano varies depending on the amount of time bats have been present and the number of bats. Small colonies can have the equivalent of a teacup of droppings while larger ones literally have truckloads of guano. Guano will often be concentrated in small “volcano” shaped piles, but will also be scattered about the attic if spaces are large enough to fly through easily.
Waste accumulation
Often, bats decide to roost in exterior walls or in the layers of a roof. If this is the case, guano may not be visible in attic spaces. Guano will still be present; but it is just not visible in the attic. In these cases, removal of guano might be impossible without tearing out walls or removing roofing. Deposits such as this may be encountered later during construction or renovations. Guano also accumulates on the exterior of a home where bats enter Bats are the only home invader species that routinely leave its droppings peppered on a vertical wall. This is often a good signal that bats are entering a building at a certain point.
Bats Are Protected
Home owners must also keep in mind that the bats that are living in your attic are protected by federal law. It is unlawful to harm them; and killing the bats is unnecessary. A quality exclusion job solves the bat problem for the long term. Exclusion also eliminates other species from the attic that may be there as well.
Small “volcano” of guano accumulated under a roost site in an attic. Screening corroded by excrement with feces pellets trickling through.
The bottom line is that, you need to make sure that bat work is done in a way that is within the law and that leaves you with satisfactory results. Most people need professional help to accomplish this. If you think that you need professional help please feel free to give us a call. For additional information on removal of bats from your home please see our section below on How We Remove Bats from Attics.