Do It Yourself Bat Removal

Although bats provide the environment with a natural way of eliminating pests, bats in your home can potentially cause health issues. When removing bats from your home, caution should be used. If you have a maternity colony of bats in your home, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recommends waiting until August to remove the bats. Young bats incapable of leaving your home will cause their mothers to find a way back into your home. Once the pups are old enough to fly, you can exclude the colony permanently from your house.

Things You'll Need

• Leather gloves
• Shoebox
• Stiff cardboard
• Duct tape
• Pen
• Caulk
• Chimney cap
• Bird netting
• Staple gun
• Bat house

Show More

Instructions

Removing One Bat

• 1

  Protect your hands from potential biting.

  Isolate the bat in one room of your house. Close off all doors in the rooms of your home. Put on your gloves and gently approach the bat with your cardboard box.

• 2

  Place the shoebox over the bat. Slide the stiff piece of cardboard under the shoebox to trap the bat.

• 3

  Provide a tree if the bat won't fly out of the box.

  Release the bat outdoors only if the bat can fly. Hold the shoebox in the air and remove the cardboard. Alternatively, you can place the shoebox in a tree and allow the bat to cling to the tree before flying away.

• 4

  Enclose a bat in the shoebox if it seems ill or injured. Tape the shoebox closed and puncture holes in the box with a pen. If you were bitten by the bat during capture or accidentally get saliva from the bat on mucous membranes (e.g., the mouth), call animal control or your health department, suggests the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bat Netting Exclusion

• 5

  Watch along the roof of your home for bats leaving in the evening.

  Watch the bats leaving your house for several nights to pinpoint exits. Place family members around your home 1/2 hour before sunset and continue to watch the bats for an hour after they leave to hunt, recommends the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

• 6

  Don't provide access back into your home.

  Seal any entry holes, with the exception of one, with caulk. Use a chimney cap to close off your chimney if you have one.

• 7

  After you've sealed all entry points except one, take bird netting of 1/4 inch mesh or smaller and fit the netting over the open entry point on your home. Staple the netting one foot from each side and a few inches from the top of the entry point. Allow the netting to hang open at the bottom of the entry point. At least two feet of netting should extend from the bottom of the entry point.

• 8

  Keep the netting on the entry point until all bats have left. This can take up to a week. Take the netting down and seal the entry point with caulk.

• 9

  Set up a bat house, suggests Bats Northwest. This will allow the bats to stay away from your home while providing them an alternative place to stay.