Bat Prevention Tips: How To Keep Bats Away



If you have a bat on your property, you may soon find yourself hosting an entire colony of them. Although bats won't chew wires or other items, they will leave their waste everywhere and that can build up, seeping into boards and other items in your home and weakening them. Bats also expose you to potential health concerns, making it crucial to keep them away from your property. There are some easy things you can do to reduce the chances of a bat choosing your home as residence, although it is hard to discourage them from making your trees or other areas of your yard home.

Home Repairs
The only way to prevent bats from entering your home is to make sure that there are absolutely no entry points available. You will need to thoroughly inspect the entirety of your house from top to bottom, making it a point to look closely at the roof edge as well as where the roof meets vents, your chimney, fascia boards, and loose tiles. Keep in mind that bats can fit through a gap just a ⅜ inch wide so check everything. Bats tend to prefer entrances at least 8 feet from the ground, but there are always exceptions. Some people have found it helpful to do these home repairs at night with a headlamp as you can watch for bats flying out of various openings and find weak points that way. Don't be afraid to contact a professional for help with this method of bat prevention as they will be able to do an effective job and work safely on ladders.

While making home repairs, you want to look at your property as a whole and make sure that you aren't providing bats with any other shelter. This means paying attention to your shed, tall trees, and other tall items on your property.

Remove Potential Food
You can also help prevent bats from staying on your property by taking away their potential food sources. This becomes slightly complicated since bats don't usually eat items you have lying around like pet food or garbage. Instead, they tend to feed on insects, so you can keep bats away by limiting the number of insects you have on your property. Try to get rid of standing water as this attracts mosquitoes and other similar bugs. You can also try minimizing the bright lights on your property as these will attract insects that the bats feed on. When it comes to lights, however, some people suggest leaving them on since bats are nocturnal and will not like them. This method as a preventative technique has not been proven effective and few experts recommend it.

In the case of bats that eat fruit as part of their diet, it can also help to keep your yard clean of fallen fruit as this can attract these bats. Fallen fruit can also attract other insects that insectivore bats may feed on, making it worth cleaning them up no matter the type of colonizing bat you are concerned about.

Natural Remedies
A quick search online is all it takes to find numerous home or natural remedies that will supposedly help keep bats away from your property. Mothballs, which are made from naphthalene, are one of the most popular suggestions. These may be slightly effective in the short term, but they are not worth the risk as a preventative method. Even using excessive amounts of mothballs wouldn't solve your problem and because they are carcinogenic, they pose a serious health risk.

Mothballs and other natural remedies for bats all need to be constantly reapplied as they dissolve or their scents fade. This means a lot of work for you as a homeowner for minimal results. Most experts agree that you can try green tea, human hair, predator urine, peppermint, or cinnamon, but you shouldn't expect results and you shouldn't waste money on these prevention methods.

Store-Bought Repellents
There are multiple bat repellents for sale on the market and it can be tempting to turn to one of these instead of going through the effort of sealing up your home against their entry. The sad truth, however, is that these repellents are not typically effective. You can try some, but don't expect great results as they are usually just a waste of money.

Ultrasonic Machines
There are also ultrasonic noise machines for sale as bat prevention and these are just as ineffective as other repellents. The idea is that these machines will produce a noise that is above the hearing range of humans but within that of bats, annoying the mammals and causing them to leave. Not only does the sound not deter the bats at all, but many people find that they can actually hear it and that can cause extreme frustration and annoyance.

Read the How to get rid of bats page for helpful information and to learn more about Bat Prevention Tips: How To Keep Bats Away

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