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Bats

Teach30

I know these are a protected species but does anyone know if they can be removed from a house?
They are living in the and around the concrete blocks of the house. We can hear them moving around and see them flying in and out during summer months. Its an extremely old house and they get in through old cracks that have appeared naturally over time around the windows. There is a huge amount of them no exaggeration. They can be very easily heard when in bed at night, it’s not very nice.

We are driven mad in summer when they come into house in the evenings if a window is left open any bit. The major problem however is the smell. It’s extremely overpowering particularly in the mornings and it’s really getting us all down. It’s embarrassing. It’s permeating the house and put us off having visitors around and worried about the health effects.

Any recommendations appreciated.

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New Home

Right, I have to put my mod hat on. I'm locking this thread and editing dome posts, may I remind everyone that it's not permitted to suggest or encourage illegal behavoir. Also, in case people have forgotten, this is the Nature and Bird Watching forum.

Teach30

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It's utterly absurd.

There is the square root of precisely zero chance that I would be cohabiting with any bat.

Exactly. Very easy suggest contact the experts when you’ve have no personal experience of living with large numbers of bats. The smell is literally nauseating, particularly bad early morning - you get used to it throughout the day. It’s embarrassing when people visit.
<<snip>>

[Deleted User]

o1s1n wrote: »

Just had a look at the legalities and you're not actually allowed to fill in gaps to prevent them from accessing their roost in your property. You seem to just have to live with the problem, end of.

I know they're protected but that's absolutely insane. :eek:

It's utterly absurd.

Living with bats

Here are some ideas for ensuring happy co-habitation with your bats:

● Ensure that your water tank is covered.
● Place a polythene sheet on the attic floor where bat droppings regularly accumulate and gather up at the end of the season. Bat droppings are dry and easily swept up. They make great compost !
● Ensure that the attic door is not left open to prevent bats flying into the living space of the building.

Bats will only enter your living space accidentally. Common reasons are that bats mistake an open window for a roost entrance, or follow an insect through an open window. In some instances young bats exploring their roost will squeeze down through cracks around piping from an attic.

There is the square root of precisely zero chance that I would be cohabiting with any bat.

New Home

Again, the advice is to contact the experts, they might have other, newer suggestions on how to deal with them, which you won't know unless you contact them.

Teach30

New Home wrote: »

I've had bats, albeit not that many, but if I had a protected species under my roof I'd contact the experts and I'd do my best to help protect it, not make things worse for them because it inconveniences me. It's like when people say they love swallows and housemartins but they get rid of the nests as soon as they appear because of the guano.
Maybe bat conservation might suggest you put up some bat boxes elsewhere to entice them there, but I don't know, I'm not the expert.

Inconvenience is putting it very lightly. In reality conservationists will tell us We have leave them there, in which case we have to live with the smell permeating the house. There is a large number of them living in holes around house windows and cavity blocks. All good until you have you Have your 70+ mother trying to get them out at night. Driven demented from them.

They haven’t used bat boxes for us anyways, obv preferring comfort of house.

New Home

Effects wrote: »

They return to nests in my barns every year. I just have a plastic sheet set up each year to catch the guano.

Fair play, you're the living proof that there are alternatives.

Effects

New Home wrote: »

It's like when people say they love swallows and housemartins but they get rid of the nests as soon as they appear because of the guano.

They return to nests in my barns every year. I just have a plastic sheet set up each year to catch the guano.

New Home

Teach30 wrote: »

If you have any valid suggestions as how to deal with their continuous year on year habitance of the house let me know. If you had genuine experience of how bad the smell of their droppings is you might have a more sympathetic tone.

I've had bats, albeit not that many, but if I had a protected species under my roof I'd contact the experts and I'd do my best to help protect it, not make things worse for them because it inconveniences me. It's like when people say they love swallows and housemartins but they get rid of the nests as soon as they appear because of the guano.
Maybe bat conservation might suggest you put up some bat boxes elsewhere to entice them there, but I don't know, I'm not the expert.

o1s1n

allenview wrote: »

Had a major problem with bats in holiday home in west , stood outside at dusk to watch where they were exiting from,.
They were coming out between slates and sofitboard where there was the tiniest gap where you would imagine nothing would get through , I lost count after 45 had flew out, I went all around under the roof with a couple of cans of expanding foam and had no problems , I had put up some bat boxes a day before hand as I knew they would return before dawn .

Just had a look at the legalities and you're not actually allowed to fill in gaps to prevent them from accessing their roost in your property. You seem to just have to live with the problem, end of.

I know they're protected but that's absolutely insane. :eek:

Effects

I knew a guy in Kilternan who had a problem with them after the nearby forest was felled.
He was advised to put a gate on the entrance where they were getting in and out. Then when they had all flown out at night, he closed the gate.
Took about a week until they all moved on elsewhere.

allenview

Had a major problem with bats in holiday home in west , stood outside at dusk to watch where they were exiting from,.
They were coming out between slates and sofitboard where there was the tiniest gap where you would imagine nothing would get through , I lost count after 45 had flew out, I went all around under the roof <<snip>> , I had put up some bat boxes a day before hand as I knew they would return before dawn .

Teach30

New Home wrote: »

So what you're proposing to do is something you know you shouldn't be doing. Excellent. I don't dispute they are a nuisance to you, but there's a reason they're protected.

If you have any valid suggestions as how to deal with their continuous year on year habitance of the house let me know. If you had genuine experience of how bad the smell of their droppings is you might have a more sympathetic tone.

allenview

New Home

So what you're proposing to do is something you know you shouldn't be doing. Excellent. I don't dispute they are a nuisance to you, but there's a reason they're protected.

Teach30

New Home wrote: »

How do you know what they're going to tell you unless you contact them?

Previous experience in a different building. They don’t allow you to move them/destroy them as they are protected. They will monitor them for their own records and keep visiting to check you don’t touch them.

New Home

How do you know what they're going to tell you unless you contact them?

Teach30

fiacha wrote: »

Have either of you contacted BatConservationIreland for advice ? The link is in post #4.

This is from their site and may explain them appearing in rooms:
If bats are regularly found flying in the dwelling part of a house it may be that there is a crevice where pipes or wires come down from the attic and bats are getting in that way. They only need a gap of 1.5x2cm to squeeze through. Just stuffing up the hole with newspaper or cloth should fix the problem.

Bat Conservation Ireland won’t let you get rid of them. Have never contacting them because they are will only come out and tell us we have to leave them there - they are protected afterall. Ours are posing a health risk. The smell of their droppings is atrocious. I can hear them living inside the walls/shutters upstairs and downstairs. Very old house. Will be blocking the holes once they fly out at night but when you hear them trying to get back it it’s frightening. Difficult to block holes upstairs at night - more dangerous than anything.
They literally attack the windows when returning.

fiacha

Have either of you contacted BatConservationIreland for advice ? The link is in post #4.

This is from their site and may explain them appearing in rooms:
If bats are regularly found flying in the dwelling part of a house it may be that there is a crevice where pipes or wires come down from the attic and bats are getting in that way. They only need a gap of 1.5x2cm to squeeze through. Just stuffing up the hole with newspaper or cloth should fix the problem.

celticbhoy27

Carbon copy mate. I'm pulling my hair out at the moment. Over last 5 days I've had 4 in the house. One this am and two the previous day. Was window open last night so that accounts for dude today. The other two I have no idea how they got into living area. My wife and kid are petrified. Paranoid to pull a curtain now with them - thats where found the two yesterday morn

Teach30

celticbhoy27 wrote: »

Did you ever sort your bat problem teach? I'm in same boat

No still living with them. They are in the house at night mostly during summer. No chance of ever leaving a window open. Had two during the week flying around bedrooms, was up til after 2 trying to get them out. This happens too regularly. In the end had to use a tennis racket to stun them and then put them out. Couldn’t sleep with them flying around.

celticbhoy27

Did you ever sort your bat problem teach? I'm in same boat

fiacha

You won't know until you talk to them.

I have read of situations where roost "boxes" where built within the building which allowed the bats to keep using their normal entrances but solved the problem of droppings collecting in the attic.

Bats will continue to return to the same summer breeding roost year after year so you would need to seal every possible entrance in order to keep them out. Not really practical on an old building.

Maybe contact BatConservationIreland first and see what they suggest.

Teach30

fiacha wrote: »

Lifted from the BatconservationIreland website:

Thanks, we are afraid if we let them know about the bats they will refuse to let us move them. We have heard they are very hesitant to move large numbers.
It’s would be near impossible to remove the bats from where they are by hand and it’s a listed building so that adds to problems.

fiacha

Lifted from the BatconservationIreland website:

If you have a problem with a smell from a bat roost in your house you can contact your local National Parks and Wildlife, Conservation Ranger for advice on what to do. Their number is a locall one 1800 405000.