Flying squirrels, bats, guano...oh my

We started to notice some activity coming in and out of the vents over our garage. 

By activity, I mean Guano. We had acquired new tenants living in our attic.

Kelly and I googled the issue and tried a few homemade remedies.

First, we considered bat boxes- different to find and then one of us would have to climb a tree to nail it. Even after that, there is no guarantee the bats would move out of the attic and into the boxes. 

Next, we sprayed the entry point with a water hose and out they came. 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 

11, 12, 13,14, 15,16,17,18 ,19, 20....

21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 

28 bats

Sure, bats are beneficial, they eat all the bugs each night and tons of mosquitoes at night. 

The attic is a different story.

I called a few wildlife removal experts and based on their similar comments we had to move fast if we wanted to evict these squatters. Apparently bats are federally protected, May 1 through August  is maternity season for bats. A time they roost in attics and crawl spaces to care for their newborns.

That's sweet and all but our place is not a nursery for bats.

So we some pleading, we were able to have the wildlife removal experts come to our house on May 1st and install one-way bat exclusions. 

Here's a photo of two of the bats that they were able to locate.

The rest were hiding in nooks and crannies.

After the diagnosis, we learned the bats were coming in 3 different gable vents. So naturally, we had to take care of all the entry points otherwise there was no point.

The experts hung plastic one-way doors which allowed the bats to leave the attic and never re-enter. 

We waited one week and the experts returned to finalize the process.

They removed the one-ways and hung up new screens on the outside of the gable vents. 

Glad our tenants are gone...or so we thought. 

Days later we found one bat whose wing had gotten stuck in the screen. Guess he didn't get the memo to get out of the attic like his friends. RIP.