When July arrives, it’s the time of year when the bats get ready to birth the next generation. Having awoken from their long winter snooze in April, they spent the following months mating and then returning to their colonies ready for the maternity season. Female bats will eat vast amounts of insects to build up significant fat stores to prepare for the months of feeding their young. However, it is in July that female bats will give birth, nursing their babies until in August the little ones are forced to fend for themselves – it’s a cruel world for a bat.
Therefore, if you find a bat in your attic, it’s almost certainly a female bat.
In Oregon, there are over 15 species of bat, each with a different lifestyle pattern. However, most follow the basic lifecycle outlined above. Some species are listed as conservation concerns; however, that’s not any consolation when there are bats flying around in your attic.
So, what can you do?
Can You Remove Bats During Maternity Season?
First of all, it can be challenging to get rid of bats from your attic during the maternity season. For one, it is illegal, as bats are a protected species, due to their ecological role eating insects and pests. On occasion, there might be a special reason to remove bats during the maternity season, but for the most part, this isn’t the case.
Generally speaking, getting rid of bats involves preventing their return after they leave in the evening. This is achieved by blocking any holes or entrance ways, as opposed to removing them by hand. However, as bat colonies can contain around forty females each with a baby, preventing the mothers return will leave forty pups crawling around looking for food. Eventually, they will die, and you’ll be faced with a dreadful stench, as well as another source of an infestation.
Nor, do you want a desperate bat flying into your house looking to get into the attic. Mothers are incredibly tenacious and will try anything to return to their young – as you’ll discover if a baby bat escapes from the attic and into your house by accident. They will call their mothers, who will frantically search for them.
Therefore, be patient. Avoid prosecution and fines, as well as further problems by waiting until the end of the maternity season.
How to Get Rid of Bats
Once the end of the maternity season arrives, you can proceed with the removal. You can do this by yourself, or contact professionals, like at batremovalattic.com.
They will come and perform an inspection of the attic, examining the eaves, ridge caps, and other areas of possible entry. You can also keep watch at night, to see where they are entering. Bats don’t need a lot of space to squeeze through, so it helps to have an expert who knows what they’re looking for. They’ll set up exclusion devices, which allow the bats to exit but prevent their re-entry. Finally, you can seal up all the entry points, and avoid a repeat occurrence the following year.
