A Bat Infested Condominium

01.21.2006 - Do you like photos of bats in flight? Sure, we all do! They're hard to get, because bats fly at night, and cameras don't work as well at night. In fact, most people only get to see stray bats here and there, fluttering about vaguely in the dark dusky sky - or flashing around a street lamp. It's not often that folk get to see a swarm of bats. Thus, it can be hard to get photos of bats on the wing. Unless of course one is sitting on the roof of a condominium in which a thousand bats are going in and out. Then it's easy to photograph lots of bats. I like to look at the shots of the bats on the wing. They move so quickly, it's sometimes hard to tell what's going on. In these photos, I can often see exactly how they approach a hole in which they are attempting to land, and how they turn in mid-air. I can see the bones of the fingers with the membrane of the wing stretched out. I can see how they use their hind membrane for balance and maneuverability. Bats are neat, as are most creatures, it's just that they're often a little harder to observe.

On this night I worked to remove a colony of bats from a condo. As is often the case, the building has a barrel tile roof. Bats, such as the Brazilian Free-Tails in this photo, love such roofs. In particular, they love such roofs when the builder did not install any metal flashing end-guard at the edge of the tile. Some people refer to this as bird stop, and it's constructed out of any one of several materials, including metal, clay, concrete, and more. If the tiles remain open, they're vulnerable to bat habitation.

In this photo, we can clearly see that the bats have been bringing back brown grains of rice, probably for use at a future bat wedding, and depositing them on the roof. Most of this rice they store inside the roof itself, where it cooks and gives off an ever-so-pleasant aroma. Finally the owners of the condo could take it no longer, called the condo association, and had me come out to remove these bats. Remove them I did, but not before I snapped some nice photographs of these fine specimens doing what they do best - bombing buildings with the heavenly remnants of a million pesky Florida insects. With bats, you win some, you lose some. I say you win more than you lose. Bats are dandies in my book.

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Having bats in your condominium is not something that will make anybody happy. Bats tend to occupy condominiums because it is often the case that these buildings have Spanish barrel tile roofs (or simply barrel tile roofs). Bats such as the Brazilian Free-Tail love these types of roofs. These are attractive to bats because the design allows for a lot of nooks and crannies in which bats can reside.

If you have bats in your condominium, don’t panic. They won’t attack you. While they won’t try to hurt you, having bats living within your condominium can result in significant health issues. The waste that they release can be terrible smelling and even toxic. The presence of bats also attracts insects, mice, and many other pests.

Removing Bats from Condominiums

There are several options available to you as you seek to remove bats from your home. You can choose from products directly designed for this purpose or you can develop homemade means of removing bats. We do recommend that you seek professional assistance from a wildlife control company or an expert as you work on removing bats from your condominium.

If you opt to do this work on your own, you could place wiring over areas where the bats are living. Of course, you want to do this at night when the bats have exited the condominium and have gone out to forage or when they are temporarily migrating. There are exclusion devices that can be bought at stores to place at locations where the bats enter. These exclusion devices allow bats to leave but prevent them from coming back in.

After getting the bats out with the exclusion device or with your home-made approach, you need to do something to ensure that bats don’t find their way back into your house after you remove them. At this stage, you now need to seal all the possible entry points. To ensure that all the bats are out, it is recommended that you leave the exclusion devices on your property for about seven days. To seal up entry points, you can use such things as caulk, plastic screening, polyurethane foam, or metal sheeting among other great options. These will ensure that bats have no way to get back into your property.

Final Words

We are not going to convince you to like bats, but they are great for the ecosystem. The presence of many insects in or around your condominium serves as an attraction to bats. It is even more attractive to bats when you throw in the added benefit of a Spanish barrel tile roof.

Bats in your condominium are not the end of the world. As a matter of fact, this is very common in Florida. If you have a feeling that there are bats in your property, go ahead, and contact a professional wildlife control service so that they can inspect your property and remove the bats as is necessary.