Recently I inspected an older home, and when the time came to go up into the attic I immediately spotted something suspicious along the edge of the gable wall.
Something suspicious
It looked a lot like some sort of animal waste, so my next step was to go back to my car for my full respirator mask. Animal feces can carry a multitude of pathogens, and then there’s the smell!
Back in the attic, I started to search for the source of the waste. Then I heard the squeaks… and looked up.
The source of the waste.
Yep, it was a colony of bats. Judging from the piles of guano, they had been living in the attic for many years. The owner had never ventured up into the space.
Not something to mess with!
Bats are very beneficial to the environment (a single bat can eat between 600 and 1000 mosquitos in an HOUR!), but they also can pose a risk of rabies. It can be difficult to eradicate bats from an attic, as they can fit through holes as small as an inch wide.
For more information about bats, including ways to exclude them from your home, please visit the Organization for Bat Conservation.
They are also spread pollin and produce produce. I hope they were left alone.
Absolutely. I told my client that the bats WERE PROTECTED and that they are good critters. They needed to be relocated and then the attic cleaned up, but they should not be “exterminated” because of their benefits.
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback
Thanks for sharing. We need to be more educated about all wildlife. Most people only think of bats as carriers of bad things not about the wonderful good they do.