Did you ever think that anything like a bat would take up in your attic space? It comes as a shock to everyone we go out on to look over the problem. Bats love the attic space of all homes. And bats are protected by state laws and they do have rules you have to follow to get them out. You can't kill them you have to make them leave without hurting them and still make the home so they can't get back in. Sounds nuts but there is a system and method for doing this. For years we have had to follow a set of rules that would not allow us to do bat control on homes from May 1st to August 15th without asking for special permission on each job we did but as of this year 2010 DNR lifted this control and allows us to make the choice.
Gable vents in the attic space are the next best thing to a bat house. Bats love them they provide shelter to bats the louvers are perfect for getting out the sun and away from other things that may harm the bats. The only downfall is these vents have a very mild screen wire in them on the backside. As the bats hang on this screen and produce feces & urine it eats away at the screen and then you have bats in other areas in the attic. This means more mess to clean up and can cause some real funky smells in your home. Bat feces also called guano can be harmful and you should visit the CDC website and do a search for what humans can catch from bats and the guano left behind from bats.
We price bat jobs depending on how many areas the bats are putting to use and how many potential areas could be used. Not by how many bats you have. Rather you have 10 bats or 10,000 the price is about the same depending on areas of infestation. We use a device we build by hand called a bat valve that will be placed on areas being used by bats that will allow the bats to exit but not come back in. When you use this method you also have to animal proof or bat proof any other areas they might could use but may not be yet. Just to avoid other future entry problems.
Cleaning up the bat guano is however priced by how much is left behind and how hard it will be to remove. Some are simple and only a few hundreds dollars some are very bad and are several thousand dollars. Many times you will need some insulation replaced int he attic. The removal is considered a Bio-Hazard clean up. It is not a healthy job for a technician to perform so they get paid very well for the risk involved in it.
