Tag Archives: bat damages

Should I Be Threatened By the Presence of Bats?

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Local bat populations serve a vital ecological importance, which in turn, provides us with several economic benefits as a society. However, when bats get too close, they can inadvertently become a nuisance. If you have notices an exponential presence of bat activity around your house or business, it is important to ensure your property is safeguarded against intrusion and safety hazards.

Continue reading to learn which types of risks nuisance bats pose to you and your property, as well as, how to get rid of them in accordance to local ordinances and best practices.

Louisville Bat Removal and Control Services
Bats should only be handled by licensed professionals.

Disease

The most important reason why you do not want bats too close to your property is the risk of disease. Not only are bats known carriers of the Rabies virus, which once contracted is 100% fatal, they can also possess and transmit several other types of diseases, health complications, and outbreaks. Such risks include Histoplasmosis, which is an upper respiratory disease contracted as a result of toxic spores that grow on bat guano. See our blog, “What is Histoplasmosis?” to learn more about this disease, including who it affects the most and how to prevention tips. Additional risks include lice, mites, ticks, fleas, and other parasites.

Structural Damage

Bats in the Kentucky regions are very small. So small in fact, most can squeeze themselves through an opening as little as 3/8ths of an inch, or .037 inches. To give you an idea of how small this is, consider a dime, which is around .053 inches thick. This means that the tiniest opening in window screens, siding, roof shingles, crumbling mortar, and more, can be an open door for bats to come inside and roost. Furthermore, bats are not solitary, so where there’s one, there’s typically handfuls more. Once inside, bats soil every surface with their droppings, which can result in stains, leaks, wood rot, and all types of costly structural damages.

How to Safely Get Rid of Bats

As mentioned before, bats are important ecologically, which is why they are also protected under law. It is illegal to trap, harm, or kill bats in Kentucky. For this reason, it is necessary to hire a licensed and insured wildlife abatement company that provides non-lethal bat removal services in your town. Coming across a dead, dying, or abandoned bat is also common if you have bats around your property, so you should know how to respond if it ever happens to you. See our blogs, “What to Do If You Find a Dead Bat” and “What To Do If You Find a Bat on the Ground” to be prepared.

Louisville Bat Removal and Control You Can Trust

Call 502-553-7622 to request a free estimate for Louisville bat removal and control, today. We offer a wide range of safe and humane bat removal and control services for both residential and commercial properties within Central Kentucky, at the most competitive prices in town. That means you can get affordable bat removal and control you can trust. It was over 30 years of experience under our belts, you can feel confident in our results.

Property Damage Caused by Bat Intrusions

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Bats are commonly found in residential and commercial properties hiding in dark warm places, like attics and crawl spaces. Why do bats like to use our buildings and homes as their own? The most likely answer is the easy accessibility. Bats are so small; they do not need to chew their way into our properties, such as mice and squirrels. Bats can find access through the tiniest opening in our roofs, desks, garages, attics, and sheds. A temperature controlled environment with plenty of food resources surrounding them is an ideal bat paradise. Unfortunately, these particular spaces fit those criteria quite well.

Louisville Bat Removal and Control 502-553-7622

Louisville Bat Removal and Control 502-553-7622

Structural Damages

The most noticeable structural damages to a home or building where a bat colony has been living is caused by their droppings. Bat colonies can range anywhere from a few bats to hundreds, depending on the space they are occupying. With that in mind, overtime, the accumulation of bat droppings can become extensive. Bat guano and urine are extremely potent and noticeable. In fact, most people realize they have a live-in bat colony when they begin to notice the negative effects of their droppings.

For example, the urine and guano odor will eventually seep through the walls and vents, causing a foul odor in the home. Also, the droppings can accumulate enough to begin saturating sheet rock and insulation, leading to costly repairs and replacement needs. The saturation of the droppings will begin to cause the area to slowly deteriorate, leading to structural instability and weakness. This can even lead to a ceiling collapse.

Health Risks

Not only can the actual structures of a home or building become damaged, the cargo inside can become damaged as well, meaning the people! There are health-related issued associated with bat infestations and exposure to their droppings. There is a respiratory illness called Histoplasmosis that is caused from spreading spores in bat guano. Also, rabies is another common scare associated with bats. Rabies is just as common in any wild animal, not just bats; however, it is always better to be certain and avoid contact at all costs.

Another health threat caused by bat infestations is bat mites. These are tiny insects similar to fleas. They are often confused with bed bugs because they have the same effect and look. If there is a situation where an exterminator has to come back several times to get rid of bed bugs, it is probably not bed bugs at all. Bat mites stick around, so long as there is a colony living nearby. Be sure to get the right information before treating these little nuisances.

Professional Bat Removal Service

Louisville Bat Removal Kentucky

Louisville Bat Removal 502-553-7622

For more information on bat damages or how to repair structural damages caused by bats, call our expert bat removal and control specialist in Louisville, KY today! We are licensed and insured with over fifteen years of experience in the bat control industry. We are truly experts in our field. We use the latest technologies and state of the art equipment to remove bats, prevent bat intrusion, repair and restore damages, and much more. Call us today at 502-553-7622 and speak with a professional bat control expert right away.

A Bat that Roosts Inside Leaves!

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There are countless bat species that are fun and interesting to learn about. But there is one particular species of bat that has earned themselves a reputation for being unique. That is because they live inside leaves of trees and plants!

These bats are call Spix’s Disc-Winged bats, and have many unique attributes that set them apart from other species throughout the world. Continue reading to learn more about this fascinating bat!

Spix’s Disc-Winged Bat

Scientifically named, Thyroptera tricolor, Spix’s Disc-Winged bat is a remarkable Microchiroptera species that was first discovered in 1823 by German biologist, Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix. And one of its most defining characteristics are the disk-like anatomical features on their thumbs and hind feet. Hence the name, “Spix’s Disc-Winged” bat. The discs on their thumbs and hind feet are supported by an internal cartilaginous plate and work like suction cups, allowing them to grip tightly and easily move across smooth surfaces.

Their color of their top coats range in tone, from reddish browns to incandescent blacks, while their underbellies are usually a pale white or yellow color. They are very small bats, weighing an average of 4 grams and growing no longer than 37 millimeters. Regardless of its small size, they are agile flyers and can navigate quite well, but never fly higher than 3 to 5 meters off the ground. Instead, they fly shallow, looking for suitable roosting locations.

And do you know where Spix’s Disc-Winged roost?

Spix’s Disc-Winged bats are mostly native to Neotropical regions of the world, like South America. But since the species is so widespread, it is recognized as a “least concern” on the bat conversation list. However, their population density largely depends on how abundant a region’s forests and lands are with plants and trees. This is because the Spix’s Disc-Winged bat roosts inside curled up leaves (furled leaves)! And without adequate roosting locations, the Spix’s Disc-Winged bat populations cannot reproduce in large quantities.

Yes, you heard right: Spix’s Disc-Winged bat roosts inside furled leaves! They use their concave suctioning disks to cling inside a leaf, head-up. This behavior is unlike most bat species that hang head-down in their roosts. Just another interesting fact about Spix’s Disc-Winged bats! They usually roost up to 5 bats per leaf, all in head-up formation. And every night they hunt, they look for new roosting locations. What’s even more interesting is that, despite their nomadic lifestyle, they live together for years.

Louisville Bat Removal Services

Call 502-553-7622 for prompt and professional bat removal and control in Louisville, Kentucky. We offer a wide range of non-lethal, safe bat removal services, as well as, bat proofing, preventative maintenance, bat cleanup, and even minor attic and crawl space restorations for bat damages. Whether residential or commercial, our DNR licensed wildlife control contractors are fully-equipped to manage any size animal removal need. Call 502-553-7622 for Louisville Bat Removal you can trust.

Learn About Endangered Bat Species

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Bats are miraculous mammals; that’s right, mammals. In fact, they are the only mammal that is capable of true flight! This is just one fascinating fact about bats, so you can imagine just how fun it can be to learn about them. For instance, there are two main categories of bats: Microchiroptera and Megachiroptera. Microbats are the more common nuisance bat, smaller in size and strictly insectivores (excluding the Vampire bat). Megabats are much larger in body size and wingspan, and dine primarily on the nectar of fruits.

Several species of both bats span regions far across the globe, and some species have been around for millions of years. Unfortunately, as a result of man-kind over-development and environmental disease, many species of bats are also now extinct, while many others are endangered today. Continue reading to learn which species of bat are endangered, and what to do if you have bats on your property.

Bats Close to Extinction

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) manages an index of endangered animals called the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In 2009, the red list contained 77 species of endangered and critically endangered bat. But with recent and on-going assessments, it is likely that this number has since increased.

Endangered and Critically Endangered Species Include:

Trident Leaf-nosed Bat Aselliscus tricuspidatus
Broad-toothed Tailless Bat Anoura latidens
Mindanao Pygmy Fruit Bat Alionycteris paucidentata
Borneo Fruit Bat Aethalops aequalis
Palawan Fruit Bat Acerodon leucotis
White-striped Free-tailed Bat Austronomus australis
Golden-capped Fruit Bat Acerodon jubatus
Western Naked-backed Fruit Bat Dobsonia peronei
Madagascan Fruit Bat Eidolon dupreanum
African Straw-coloured Fruit-bat Eidolon helvum
Pacific Sheath-tailed Bat Emballonura semicaudata
Horn-skinned Bat Eptesicus floweri
Clear-winged Woolly Bat Kerivoula pellucida
Southern Red Bat Lasiurus blossevillii
Hoary Bat Lasiurus cinereus
Indiana Bat Myotis sodalist
Fish-eating Bat Myotis vivesi
White-lined Broad-nosed Bat Platyrrhinus lineatus
Mountain Long-eared Bat Plecotus macrobullaris
Black-bearded Tomb Bat Taphozous melanopogon
Little Forest Bat Vespadelus vulturnus
Asian Particolored Bat Vespertilio sinensis

This particular list is only a fraction of endangered and critically endangered bat species. For a complete list, check out the IUCN Red List and type “bats” in the search bar.

If you are experiencing bat problems on or around your property, call a licensed bat removal and control company for safe and humane exclusion services.

Louisville Bat Removal and Control

Call 502-553-7622 when you need affordable bat removal services in Louisville, Kentucky and its surrounding counties. We are DNR licensed and experienced bat exclusion contractors that provide a wide range of services to get rid of bats. Our services include minor attic restorations for bat damages and bat cleanup as well! Call 502-553-7622 for Louisville Bat Removal and Control you can trust.