Bats

If a bat is flying around inside your home or business, there’s a good chance there are more living in the attic, walls, or roof.

Although bats provide a very important role in our environment (a single bat can eat up to 3,000 insects, including mosquitoes, in one night), they can also be dangerous if they roost in buildings or come into contact with people.

In Iowa, most bats are a protected species. However, if they enter a human-occupied building they may be physically removed from the building.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Bats commonly reside in building walls, attics, or between the roof and the ceiling. Droppings and dead bats can cause severe odor, damage, and contamination of property, which makes removing bats from a house all the more important.

Bats typically sleep in tight corners and underneath insulation, so detection can be difficult.

BAT CONTROL

If you find a bat in a room someone has been sleeping in, you can carefully attempt to capture the bat. Contact Iowa Department of Public Health to have the bat tested for rabies and removed.

Next, get a building inspection performed by a pest control professional to determine bat access points, colony size, and amount of damage that may have been done.

Typically from May to August, there are young present that are unable to fly. Once the young bats can fly the only way to prevent future bat issues, as well as remove current ones, is to seal any void that is larger than a dime in the structure and install bat exclusion devices that allows the bats to leave, but not re-enter. After all the bats are removed, clean-up can begin.

Occasionally property insurance will cover removing the bats, cleaning up the feces and any dead bats, as well as replacing any damaged insulation material. Insurance will not cover sealing up entry points.