You may have bats in your belfry, but it probably has nothing to do with a flock of flying, light-hating rodents. The term itself is actually one that means you’re nuts. If you have a fluttering, really ugly bat in your belfry, it could cause you to fall-off the fence; going insane trying to get rid of the little beasts.

Don’t be wacky. These critters actually have a purpose on our planet. They totally love making a 5-course meal out of other pests – bugs – in your home or garden. Their favorite snack is the troublesome mosquito. They can devour up to a thousand of those buggers in the span of an hour. In a way, we’ve been scared to death by fiction that uses such characters as Dracula to give us the shakes. Not to say you’d want to harbor a slew of bats in your attic.

They do have a downside.

Poop

It’s not like you’re going to get your neck sucked in the middle of the night and turn into a vampire. But the stuff they leave behind – in the form of solid and liquid waste – has the potential to get you quite sick if you’re exposed to it.

When you call us, local pest control agent, don’t be surprised if we show-up in something that resembles a haz-mat suit. Inhaling the dissolving dust contains microorganisms that are not compatible with a healthy human lifestyle, especially in a confined space. The poop has to be collected, disinfected and tossed-out in a safe manner.

Detection Leads to a Cure

Not like you have to organize an intervention. You do have to recognize you have a bat issue, though.

And you’ll find that once they settle in, they remember where they live. That means it’s not like to can hand the head-bat an eviction notice and they’ll gather-up the clan and relocate. The months you need to be especially aware of a bat invasion are around the beginning-to-late summer. God forbid any of them give birth to any bat-kids in your home.

Once they find your crawl space, attic or an area of your house to be a great area to settle, they’ll send out the equivalent of a bat-mail out to their buddies, inviting them over to the swell new living quarters they found. BOOM! Infestation.

Handling the Issue

What not to do in this case is just as important as what to do. Forget about trying to get rid of them from around the start of May to the end of August. Why? The offspring that has yet to learn to fly will be left behind. And if you think the bat guano matter is great shakes, think about the inhumanity for just a second. The flightless rodents will die a painful death, stinking-up the area with their carcass. Best bet is to get us, the pest control experts on the horn and have us handle matters. Usually, pros know about this dilemma and how to deal with it effectively.

Extermination? Not so Fast

There are some places in the U.S. where it’s actually illegal to kill a bat. Picture this situation as you sit in Cell Block 33 at the country jail:

“So, Whatcha in here for? I got caught robbing a convenience store – punched the guy behind the register.”

“Really? How long is your sentence?”

“Three years. And you’re here because … ?”

You clear your throat as you mumble, “I killed a bat in my attic.”

Pause until the laughter subsides.

Poison likewise can create more problems than it’s worth, too. Remember, bats control other unwanted pests. It’s not like you want to set them-up in a 3 story walk-up on the outskirts of town. You just don’t want to exterminate them because they do have a purpose.

Want a suggestion? Build a nice little bat cave at the far-end of your property. When we come out, tell us you’ve got somewhere that can move the critters. We won’t think you have bats in your belfry. We know this isn’t Transylvania and we’ve read Dracula by Bram Stoker so we look at it as a comic novel.

More importantly, you’ve have gained some street cred with the pest control experts.