Why Bats In Pearland Should Be Left To The Professionals
Bats are one of the most misunderstood animals around. Myths about these flying mammals abound, and because many of the beliefs about bats cast them in a negative light, the majority of people would likely tell you that they either don’t like or are actively afraid of bats.
Bats may have first gotten their bad name from the books and movies that associated them with vampires. Of course, there are bats that are called vampire bats, and these bats do drink blood. However, these bats don’t turn into actual vampires, and they don’t even kill the animals they get their meals from.
Another common myth about bats is that they are blind and only use echolocation to get around, which makes them likely to fly into your hair as they mistakenly think you’re food. First of all, bats are not blind. In fact, their eyesight is adapted to be able to see in extremely dark conditions, sort of like night vision goggles. Secondly, although bats do use echolocation to help them find their food, the last thing they want to do is fly into your hair. If you are in an enclosed location, such as a cave, with bats, they may accidentally fly close to you or get tangled in your hair as they try to get away from you. However, in most instances, especially when you’re outdoors at night, the likelihood of getting attacked by a bat is extremely low.
As you can see, bats have gotten a bad reputation, much of which is no fault of their own. As with most animals, there are both good and bad things about bats. Knowing both the good and the bad can help people make smart decisions when they come upon a situation with bats.
If you have a large bat population around your property, it helps to know when to take action and when to let it be. If bats get into your house, you need to know the laws about bats and what your best course of action is to protect your house, your family, and the bats. When you don’t know what to do, remember one thing: when it comes to bat removal in Pearland, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. Learn more about why that’s the case below.
Why Bats Are Great For The Ecosystem But Harmful For Homes
Bats are interesting creatures. The only mammals that can truly fly, bats are in a class of their own. There are over 1400 species of bats in the world, with just over 30 of those bat species residing in the Pearland area.
The Bat Species You Might See In Pearland
Mexican Free-Tailed Bats
The Mexican free-tailed bat is the most common bat in Texas. These bats migrate from Mexico in early spring, stay in Texas to breed in the summer, then migrate back to Mexico in the fall.
Mexican free-tailed bats can fly up to 99 miles per hour. They live in large colonies with hundreds of thousands or even millions of members and have life spans of up to 18 years.
Feeding on a variety of insects, Mexican free-tailed bats eat about two-thirds of their body weight in insects each night. While this may not sound like very much when you think about one small bat, in a large colony, it adds up to hundreds of tons of insects eaten every night!
Big Brown Bats
Big brown bats are another common bat species in Pearland. These bats are year-round residents of our state and like to roost in cavities, such as tree hollows, which makes them one of the species most likely to be found in your home.
Like Mexican free-tailed bats, big brown bats feed on thousands of insects each night. They can live up to 20 years and live in colonies that can grow to hundreds of members.
Evening Bats
Evening bats are small, migratory animals. They can be found in Pearland and may end up in homes in our area.
Evening bats have a short life span compared to other bats, only living up to five years. They feed on insects. While male evening bats tend to be more solitary creatures, female evening bats build colonies together that can range in size from a couple of dozen bats to nearly 1,000 bats.
The Benefits Of Bats
Bats are an extremely important part of our ecosystem, both right here in Pearland and the world at large. As was mentioned about the three bat species above, many bats eat insects, and they don’t just eat a few. While bat colonies vary greatly in size, from a couple of dozen to tens of millions, each colony eats a sizable population of insects every night. Added up, this amounts to hundreds of tons of insects being taken out of our Texas ecosystem each night.
Government studies have found that bats save several billion dollars in pest control and crop damage throughout the United States each year because of the insects they eat.
Furthermore, just imagine if we lost our bat population and those insects were able to remain and continue to reproduce. We would soon be overrun by damaging, harmful, and annoying insects.
While the benefit of all-natural insect control cannot be overstated, that’s not the only benefit of a healthy bat population in our ecosystem. Bats are also helpful pollinators and seed dispersers. Although we don’t have fruit bats in Texas, we do have a couple of species of bats that eat nectar. These bats are important pollinators.
The Dangers Of Bats
Although bats have been given a bad rap for a variety of reasons that are completely unfounded, they aren’t completely innocent, either. While there are many benefits of a healthy bat population, there are also a few reasons to be concerned about bats. These concerns are specifically related to bats getting into your Pearland home.
First, bats – or any other animal for that matter – simply don’t belong in your house. You don’t want to share your house with insects, spiders, rats, or mice, and you don’t want to share it with bats, either. When bats find an appropriate area in which to live outside, even if it’s on your property, it’s a good thing. In fact, if they are on your property, you’ll reap the benefits of a low insect population. However, when they get into your house, it’s another story.
The major issue with a bat infestation in your home is the waste bats leave behind. Bat droppings are called guano, and these little mammals produce a lot of it. If bats choose to roost in your attic, that guano will build up over time. This can be harmful to your home and harmful to your family.
Bat guano is harmful to your home. Not only will it stain and damage the areas where it collects, but it can also become quite heavy over time. In fact, in extreme cases, with a large infestation or an infestation that has been present for a long time, bat guano has been known to collapse ceilings.
Bat guano is also harmful to the health of your family. The main concern with bat guano is that it can carry a fungus called Histoplasma. When the droppings become dry, they can release fungal spores into the air that can be breathed in. This leads to the potential for you or your family members to contract histoplasmosis, which is a serious respiratory disease. While some people will experience only mild flu-like symptoms from histoplasmosis, others can become seriously ill.
Another concern when it comes to bats being in your home is the possibility of encountering a bat with rabies. Although it is extremely rare for bats to have rabies, rabid bats have been found in Texas, and it’s not something you should take lightly. If you come into direct contact with a bat, even if you’re not sure if you were bitten or scratched, it’s best to consult a medical professional just to be safe.
How To Tell If Your Pearland Home Has Bat Activity
Because bats can be so problematic when they get into your house, you want to make sure they don’t end up inside your four walls. However, it’s not always easy to tell if your Pearland home has bat activity. Although bats are not as small as the insects that can get inside your house, they still aren’t huge, so it’s possible for them to get inside without being noticed. Furthermore, they don’t typically get into parts of your house where there is a lot of activity going on. Instead, they’re most likely to end up in your attic or wall voids, where they won’t encounter people or pets.
Knowing what signs to look for that indicate bat activity can help you identify a bat problem in your home as quickly as possible. Identifying a bat infestation as early as you can will help you prevent serious damage to your home and can help you minimize the threat to your family’s health. Look for all of the following signs when trying to determine if bats are in your Pearland house:
- Listen for noises that you usually don’t hear. Bat sounds in your attic are often the first sign people notice of a bat infestation. Bats can make scratching or scuffling noises as they move around. They also make squeaking noises that you might mistake for rodent sounds. You are most likely to hear these sounds in the hours between dusk and dawn, especially when bats are leaving to go hunting and then when they are returning to your house after being out at night to look for food.
- Look for bat droppings. Guano will usually be found in your attic, but if a large enough bat infestation is present, you may start finding it on windowsills, porches, or other areas located below the infestation. Bat guano is dark in color and has an elongated pellet shape. These pellets tend to crumble when touched.
- Sniff around for an unpleasant odor. If you start noticing a strong ammonia scent, you may have a bat problem. Bat waste gives off a strong odor.
- Look for bats themselves. This may seem obvious, but it bears mentioning. If bats have gotten into your walls or attic, it’s likely that one or more will end up inside your living area at some point. If you find a bat in your house, there’s a high probability that others are also in your house. You can also go outside at dusk to see if any fly out of your attic on their way to an evening hunt.
Ideally, you’ll never have to encounter bats in your house, but it’s wise to know what signs to look for in case they do get inside.
Why DIY Bat Removal Is Never Recommended
If you’ve noticed any of the signs of bat activity in your Pearland house that we discussed above, you need to know what your next step should be. It can be tempting to grab a spray can of some unknown chemical or some sort of tool to use defensively and head to your attic to try to get rid of the problem yourself. However, this is not recommended. In fact, it is highly cautioned against.
Removing bats from your house is a job that should not be done through do-it-yourself methods. Instead, it should be tackled by seasoned professionals who know the best way to handle bats, who have the right equipment to do the job safely and effectively, who know the laws concerning bat removal, and who can make sure the entire bat population is removed from your house and can’t get back inside.
If you try to remove bats from your house on your own, several things can happen.
- You could get injured. Whether from a bat bite or scratch or simply from working in a location like an attic, the chance of injury is great.
- You could get sick. We’ve already established how dangerous bat guano is. If you spend time in the area where most of the guano has accumulated, you not only have a greater risk of inhaling spores, but you also will kick up guano dust, which can put the rest of your family at greater risk.
- You might not get rid of the entire problem. Bats are social creatures that typically live in groups. If you manage to get some of the bats out of your house, there may be others you don’t find. Furthermore, if you don’t take care of the entry points they are using to get in and out of your house, they’ll simply continue to return.
- You might harm bats that don’t need to be harmed. While Texas law does allow bats that are in a house to be killed, these animals are highly beneficial to our ecosystem and should be dealt with in a humane manner whenever possible. DIY bat control methods don’t typically allow for humane bat removal.
If you find bats in your house, the best thing you can do is call the professionals at Modern Pest Control.
Your Solution For Bats And Other Wildlife Activity In Pearland
When bats become a problem, bat control specialists for your Pearland home are ready to assist you from Modern Pest Control. Our bat control services are designed to humanely remove the bats from your house and make sure they can’t get back inside. This ensures the safe removal of the bats so that they can continue their important work of reducing insect populations while ensuring the full protection of your home from the problems bats can cause when they get into a structure.
Through the use of one-way doors, bats are able to leave your home. When they try to return, they’ll find their entry points blocked. Once we are certain all of the bats are out of your house, we’ll make sure that all entry points are fully sealed so that a new bat infestation does not occur.
As great as bats are when they are out in the wild, bat control in Pearland is sometimes a necessity when they get into homes and other buildings. The pest professionals at Modern Pest Control have over 70 years of experience solving bat and other wildlife problems. If you have bats, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, or other wildlife getting into your house, we offer the humane wildlife control and exclusion services you need to protect your home and family.
Modern Pest Control has the decades of experience you want when facing a pest problem while remaining up-to-date on the latest methods and techniques that provide the most effective results. You can trust us to provide quality service that does the job right the first time. Whether you’ve discovered bats in your home or other wildlife or pests, we can help you protect your family and your home from the dangers and damage caused by these animals. Get in touch with us today, and we’ll get you on your way to a bat-free, wildlife-free, pest-free home.