Bats in the Attic

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Pipistrelles often use the same roosts for hibernation as they do for their summer roost. Other colonies will only use the Summer roost for a few weeks. If they do leave they will be gone by Winter. In Winter they would hibernate elsewhere in trees or buildings.

It's more a colony than a family.

They find the roost just as a bird finds a nest that it returns to year after year.

Mothman

Dimitri Damp Shingle wrote: »

Pipistrelles often use the same roosts for hibernation as they do for their summer roost.

I've always perceived that bats generally don't use domestic dwellings for hibernation because they are too warm. I suppose with the trend towards better insulation that attics/roof cavities may not be "too" warm.

Is there any truth in my thinking?

Many summer roosts are maternity roosts and may be vacated as we head into Autumn.

There are a few explanatory pages on the Bat Conservation website which I've just looked up after typing the above

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Spot on Mothman. The general teaching is that they use our homes in Summers and vacant in Autumn, however many don't vacate. Your theory on insulation may be correct but it had been recorded in old houses as far back as the 70s. Then again, those homes may not have had central heating either.

Just as an aside. Bats in a house are very easily disturbed and if this happens they will abandon a roost. Building work on the house is a very common cause of abandonment. It even happened me. 12 years ago we had a porch added to the house - a fairly small job. There was no real interference with the existing roof structure, although tiles were taken from the back of the house as they would match better on the porch, and new tiles fitted at the back. The bats left for 7 years afterwards. Back with avenge now however! And they are here all year round.

fryup

Dimitri Damp Shingle wrote: »

Spot on Mothman. The general teaching is that they use our homes in Summers and vacant in Autumn, however many don't vacate. Your theory on insulation may be correct but it had been recorded in old houses as far back as the 70s. Then again, those homes may not have had central heating either.

well this is the thing you see, I want to plug the hole this winter once and for all...so how do I know they're all gone...do they sqeek when they hibernate?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Why do you want to plug the hole?

swifts need our help!

bats in a very cold porch may stay over winter but as far as I know the majority vacate the house in the winter. Where they go nobody know

Be sure your sins will be found out! Look what I found on Saturday. These people are in for a major fine and or time in jail

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

:eek:don't tell me they did that with the bats inside

Dimitri Damp Shingle wrote: »

Why do you want to plug the hole?

I know they're harmless for the most part, but.........

They've been there for 5 summers on the trot now and each time the colony gets bigger and bigger, their dropping are beginning to accumulate on the wall and the constant high pitched squeek squeek is beginning to get my nerves.

swifts need our help!

you should put the droppings on the compost heap

yes they expanding foam went up while bats were inside

fryup

did you inform them that they were breaking the law ?

swifts need our help!

no but took it to the top of wildlife conservation. Time will tell

BatCave

Lots of baby bats around here now!

Unfortunately I've noticed a massive rip in the roof felt (not man made!!), opposite side to where the bats roost but even so, I'm going to have to patch it

Immediate thought was a copious amount of copydex or similar. Thinking about that thought the fumes are fairly strong

I like my bats, my Dad liked the bats - I don't want to cause them any stress (but I'm not no way no how letting then into my attic). I have some roof felt - any ideas on how to affix it?

Eddy Hill

Dimitri Damp Shingle wrote: »

Black rats are not a Native species.

fair point but a bit pedantic

well native since 1185 at least , probably has had more generations here than the 'native red deer'
lets not fall out over it
it is still one of our rarest wild mammals

Eddy Hill

Birdnuts wrote: »

Gardai need warrants to investigate many crimes - that was what I was pointing out.

no it was not
you are all over the place:D:D:D

no law enforcement officer needs a warrant to investigate
they need a warrant to enter a dwelling (do you get it yet ?) i.e. as part of the already initiated investigation.


A little example for - I hope I am not over patronising here but its better than the aggressive 'taking down at' that the zealots are over fond off...

so to investigate (unlawful) disturbance to a bat colony in a dwelling
and where entry to the dwelling is necessary to collect further evidence (for e.g. where the occupant of the dwelling could no longer bear the god awful stench of the pooh and pee from a so cute bat colony and or the noise etc )
the investigating officer needs at least reasonable suspicion - not enough evidence to convict - that an offense has taken place . They go before the relevant court judge and swear out their evidence for the warrant ...etc etc

All Wildlife Rangers MUST be accompanied by a Garda when giving effect to a warrant .

Eddy Hill

Dimitri Damp Shingle wrote: »

1. Why go globally? There is no relavence to Ireland other than to plant a seed of a misconception.

2. I have bats in the attic of my bungalow and NEVEr do we get any smell from them. And rest assured my OH wouldn't tolerate any smell!

you are sssooooooo lucky


I have been in enough homes which do have bat colonies and where the stench was/is unbearable (your bats pooh does not smell then , wow !)

you more than infer that bats do not cause smell, that they do not spead disease (amazing!! Bats, alone in all of the mammal species are disease free!!)


talk about the misconceptions!!

best of luck with the pro bat stuff but what they need is people who give the whole story not selected little bits of it ...

Birdnuts

Eddy Hill wrote: »

you are sssooooooo lucky


I have been in enough homes which do have bat colonies and where the stench was/is unbearable (your bats pooh does not smell then , wow !)

you more than infer that bats do not cause smell, that they do not spead disease (amazing!! Bats, alone in all of the mammal species are disease free!!)


talk about the misconceptions!!

best of luck with the pro bat stuff but what they need is people who give the whole story not selected little bits of it ...

I beleive Antartica is bat free at this time of year - fancy a trip!!:pac:

BatCave

I haven't noticed an 'out of place' smell either in my attic or house

From what I've read on the tinterwebs, pipistrelle bats are so small their droppings and urine amount to nothing. Although I'm prepared to be educated!

Unless of course you have thousands, I can see that could cause you to want rid of them, I think I'd feel the same to be honest

Does anyone know what happens to the bats if you block up the entrance whilst they're out? Not that I'm going to and I know it's illegal yadda yadda yadda and I hope you know (from my previous posts) I don't want to

But I'm interested. They're obviously not like birds who would find somewhere else to roost seemingly, but they are mammals and so surely have a keen sense of survival don't they?

swifts need our help!

not all bats leave the roost at the same time so you could block many in. You are also breaking the law. You need to contact Bat Conservation Ireland who will get a local bat worker to visit you.

From experience a man closed a hole on his gable. The next morning he had over 100 bats in the house. He then phoned for help and was cautioned by the police

Mark
N Ireland

Tenbears

If you have bats in your roof in summer then it’s almost certainly a maternity colony. This means all females and they will have young and sometimes hundreds get blocked inside the roost. If they die inside it would be like having a dead sheep in your attic. About half of all the females in a roost will give birth to a single baby each year which they suckle until the young can hunt for insects themselves. The other females will be from previous years and help mind their siblings. Just like any animal, a mother will try everything to get back in to her baby that she will hear calling from inside the roof. However bats can’t chew or dig in or out so the will fly through open windows etc. to the living space of the house. If a colony return in spring to find a roost blocked they will just pick another roost. Bats rarely depend on one roost and so will have a second or third preference roost. Remember bats only choose to live with us because we have destroyed their natural roosts (old hollow trees) and they are an important part of our ecosystem, controlling insects that would otherwise spread disease and destroy crops if not controlled! A colony of a few hundred bats will eat millions of insects each week.

Betty Brown

John Griffin wrote: »

They are protected by law. The best thing you can do is get in touch with your local Wildlife Ranger and they will let you know how to block them out without causing them any harm. The time for blocking them out is in early October and it needs to be done over a few nights. You need to create a valve that allows them out but not back in again.
The best thing would be to just live with them, if they are getting into your living area, you can block them out, your local Wildlife Ranger will help you find where they are entering the living space. They only have one offspring per year and are only in your attic for the summer to keep the young warm. They are most likely between the felt and tiles in your roof and at a gable end. Their sh1t is a dry pellet made up of insect waste and is nothing to worry about. The urine is not worth worrying about and they don't carry any diseases, they don't chew anything other than insects. If you want i can give you the number of your local Ranger, if your from Wicklow then its me!:D

Hello. We've had bats in our attic for a number of years. I've counted them as they enter and we now have at least 30. They would be no problem except that their droppings are sifting--very badly now--into the rooms below. These rooms are only occasionally heated--perhaps twice a week during the winter...so they may well be hybernating there...though we have so sign of them during the winter months. I'd like to talk to a Wildlife Ranger in the Sligo town area. I'd like to get rid o them but do them no harm. Another building nearby has probably an equally large colony, but the droppings in that building are very few. Thanks.

swifts need our help!

Betty how can bat droppings come in to the room below the roost? Are there holes in the ceiling?

Mark

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Betty Brown wrote: »

I'd like to talk to a Wildlife Ranger in the Sligo town area.

County Sligo has 2 NPWS Rangers:

Sligo - East David McDonagh 087-6468413
Sligo - West Robert Lundy 087-2646422

Betty Brown

John Griffin wrote: »

They are protected by law. The best thing you can do is get in touch with your local Wildlife Ranger and they will let you know how to block them out without causing them any harm. The time for blocking them out is in early October and it needs to be done over a few nights. You need to create a valve that allows them out but not back in again.
The best thing would be to just live with them, if they are getting into your living area, you can block them out, your local Wildlife Ranger will help you find where they are entering the living space. They only have one offspring per year and are only in your attic for the summer to keep the young warm. They are most likely between the felt and tiles in your roof and at a gable end. Their sh1t is a dry pellet made up of insect waste and is nothing to worry about. The urine is not worth worrying about and they don't carry any diseases, they don't chew anything other than insects. If you want i can give you the number of your local Ranger, if your from Wicklow then its me!:D

Hello Mark. The building is very old and there are many places where the dropping can filter down....and they cannot be filled in. The place is beginning to smell very musty. The rest of the gang wants to go ahead and fill up the entrance holes tonight after they've left. There is a sizable wood near us and I imagine they will hang out there! Does this seem likely. We won't continue to let them live where they are. I believe it's quite possible that they may hibernate in there since, as I said the 2 buildings are very rarely heated in winter. Please advise as soon as possible. Thanks. Betty

Mothman

Betty Brown wrote: »

The rest of the gang wants to go ahead and fill up the entrance holes tonight after they've left. There is a sizable wood near us and I imagine they will hang out there! Does this seem likely. We won't continue to let them live where they are. I believe it's quite possible that they may hibernate in there since, as I said the 2 buildings are very rarely heated in winter. Please advise as soon as possible. Thanks. Betty

Before doing anything to upset the bats
The immediate advice is contact the rangers. Srameen has given contact details.
Also Bat conservation Ireland
You have lived with the bats for years, and I can understand that there may be a "straw that broke the camels back" situation, but I think you need to see out the process of getting the rangers and/or Bat conservation involved, and your situation will be resolved in the coming months

If holes are blocked up now, you may get 10s if not hundreds of bats flying inside your house trying to get access to their babies which will starve to death and then rot creating much more of an issue than you have now.

Betty Brown

Dear Mothman: thanks for your advice. We certainly DO NOT want to harm the bats and certainly not the babies. We're happy to wait and to contact the folks to get advice. I will contact the ranger! Thanks, Betty

Mothman

Betty Brown wrote: »

Dear Mothman: thanks for your advice. We certainly DO NOT want to harm the bats and certainly not the babies. We're happy to wait and to contact the folks to get advice. I will contact the ranger! Thanks, Betty

Thanks Betty, and if things are not moving forward satisfactory then come back here and we'll see if we can advise you further.

nobbe

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but I have just had a bat flying at me while watching TV. It was a scary experience, as I had no idea what came at me at first...

Anyway, I closed all doors in the house, then opened the front door and opened the door to the room where the bat was in, I didn't actually see it flying out , but I haven't seen it since so I just assume it flew out.

I then started to add up a couple of things:
- I have seen a bat flying in front of the house for years every evening (or maybe in just in the summers). I think it used to be 2 up until last year.
- I finished the mouse proofing of my house today. I put steel wool between soffit and my brick wall, where I had significant gaps. I tend to get dozens of mice in my attic each autumn
- Reason for trying to keep the mice out - I have converted the attic space into a couple of bedrooms and don't need any more company.
- My builders however didn't spot any bats - or maybe they didn't tell.

Now having read up a bit on the topic of "bats in my house" I wonder whether I should expect more visitors in my living space ? Or would it indeed just be the one single bat living here ? Like I said I don't see flocks of bats outside my house.

I guess the only good thing is that my mouse proofing may actually work.

swifts need our help!

never leave a room when a bat is flying. Sit quietly and watch it. when it lands walk quickly towards it, catch it and set in a wall outside.

My guess is by mouse proofing your house you have blocked access to a bat roost. I suggest you unblock any obvious holes that have brownish staining around them.

In my 20 years of bat work I have never had a bat fly at me.

Mark
N Ireland

ronman

hi, my uncle has bats in his attic, we found one dead in the water tank last winter but just last week when the water was off and the tank emptied we found ten dead ones in the tank, we made a cover for the tank and put it on but have no idea how many more bats stil up there, i have told him to leave them be as they no harm but hes old and you no what some old people are like want to kill everything thats no use to them. but hes happy enuf to leave them for now as he prob wont be going near the attic again til christmas and they have done no harm " other than him washing himself and brushing his teeth in water with rotting carcasus in it" he has put 2 mouse traps up there incase there is mice but would i be right in saying bats wont hopefully get caught in them.
how would it have happened that heaps of them drowned as i thought they were good fliers, also next time im there im going to try see if i can find/count them. is there anyone i need to contact to let them no we have bats or are they quite common so no need to.
also i have heard that bats keep vermin like rats/ mice away from a house/attic, is this the case cos if so the bats will prob left alone.

swifts need our help!

This is why all water tank should be covered. In all my years visiting people about bats you would be surprised how many didnt have covers on the water tank. The worst I ever found was a dead starling but a friend once found a dead pigeon.

People should never drink water from the bathroom taps. Have you ever seen the dirt that accumulates at the bottom? Downstairs water is from the mains and clean

I have no idea how they end up in the water tank. Mostly bats keep themselves at the gable end in the eaves or in the cavity wall. I think it's when the young are flying for the first time and they fly in the attic. Maybe they get confused by echlocation being bounced off the water

Mark

fryup

my annual roost has returned to the gable-end of the house...but the thing is there'e blue tits nesting up there as well (using the same gap in the roof) ...so can the two co-exist in harmony??