Little brown bats, sometimes referred to as small brown bats, are the indigenous bat species found in and around the Charleston, SC area. Little brown bats have a typical lifespan of over 10 years, and some have been captured as old as 30 years. These bats weigh less than half an ounce and have a wingspan of eight to eleven inches. Little brown bats and Large brown bats are the only 2 bat species that routinely use buildings for their maternity colonies. If able, they and their female offspring will return to the same roost every year.
Why does all this information matter if you live in or around the Charleston, SC area?
Because little brown bats like to roost in buildings! This can cause major concern for home and business owners in the Lowcountry. Bats in attics can cause major damage. This damage can result in a business or homeowner having to pay for a complete attic restoration because of the build up of bat guano and urine. Breathing in the particulate from bat guano can cause several severe upper respiratory diseases. Bat exclusions from attics is one of the most frequent calls we get for wildlife removal in the Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Because of their small size, little brown bats can get in areas as little as an 1/8 of an inch. That means there are many areas on most buildings where a little brown bat can potentially find its way in. Bats can get into attics through gable vents, roofline gaps, builders’ gaps in eaves, as well as many other small openings. Where one bat goes, the rest of the colony will follow.
Once bats are in the attic, they develop a behavior pattern where they now consider your home their home. If you come home from work and you are locked out, you aren’t going to go buy a new one. Bat behavior is the same… they are going to try and get back in! You can exclude bats out of one opening, but if you haven’t had any other openings on the structure sealed, they will find their way right back in.
If you discover bats in your attic, it is imperative that you have an experienced wildlife control operator perform bat exclusion work as quickly as possible. You don’t want the build up of bat guano and urine to make your structure uninhabitable.
Excluding bats from a structure is probably the most difficult and challenging call we get as wildlife control operators, especially for the uninitiated. I have been excluding bats from homes and offices in and around Charleston, SC for 20 years and I know firsthand the challenges that come with bats in attics. When I do an assessment for a home or business owner, I never rush. I comb over the entire structure looking for entry points and potential new entry points. Once I identify that the client has bats in the attic, I come back at dusk and do a bat watch. The purpose of a bat watch is to see where the bats drop out of the attic. This way you know where to hang your bat excluders once you have finished the preventative seal up. Once we finish sealing up all other potential bat entry points on a structure, we hang the bat excluders over the bats’ active entry/exit points. We leave the bat excluders up for several nights of good weather, so they have time to exit. If the seal up has been done right and the bat excluders are working properly, the bats should be unable to reenter the dwelling. After several days we go back and do a second bat watch at dusk. The purpose of the second bat watch is to make sure that all the bats have been excluded from the attic and that they aren’t coming and going from anywhere else on the building. When all the bats have been successfully excluded then we go back and do any attic restoration that may need to be done and then fog the space with enzyme to remove the scent and health hazards from the bat guano and urine.
At Feather Fighters Wildlife Removal we have 20 years’ experience in identifying little brown bats in clients’ attics and effectively excluding bats from thousands of homes. Our proven system for excluding bats from attics works and we stand behind our work. If you have bats in your attic and want your wildlife issue resolved properly the first time, call Feather Fighters Wildlife Removal today for a bat exclusion assessment.