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Professional Bat Trapping Serving Orlando & Central Florida

Bat Repellent or Deterrent



This is a photo of an Evening Bat hanging from a tree. It's just resting. This isn't normally what bats do. They usually crawl into tight gaps and hide, all snug inside an enclosed space. This is why they love human dwellings so much - because they can often fly into small gaps - under fascia boards, eaves, vents, etc and then find a warm, dry, snug space to roost in. They don't really hang out upside down in trees like this.

If you do have bats in your home, and want to keep them out, or perform general bat prevention, I must inform you that there's absolutely no effective bat repellent or deterrent in existence. Here are the various ones that I've seen people unsuccessfully try:

Do Mothballs Keep Bats Away? No they do not. They're not registered for use in application for bat repellent purposes, but they don't work anyway. Mothballs are the generic "one product cures all" solution that I see for sale all over the internet, for any possible animal. Raccoon problem? - mothball-flake-raccoon-away! Squirrel problem? - Squirrel-Scare-mothball-powder! Etc. These products are bogus. As usual, I'll repeat the line I've had to repeat so many times. Go ahead and try them first, then call me when you see that it doesn't solve the problem.

Do Ultrasonic Sound Devices Get Rid of Bats? The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning against these fraudulent and ineffective devices. Once again, this is yet another cheap "cure all" device that online retailers love to sell. People get suckered in, and I've been to countless houses that have these things running - sometimes up to a dozen of them, and the animals DO NOT CARE. These devices don't keep animals at bay. You can find whole essays online about what crap these things are, right next to hundreds of websites selling them, along with secret diet pills, magic wrinkle creams, and tiger whistles.

Strobing Lights - no.

Ammonia Soaked Rags - no.

Coyote or Fox Urine - no.

Look. Any time you see some sort of magic device for use on mammals, please think: mammals are mammals, like you or me. They're not insects, for which an easy solution (pesticide spray) exists. If I sprinkle some moth balls at the door to your house, or stick a little box in your living room that makes some noise, are you going to move out of your home? Because that's what it comes down to for animals. If they're living in your attic, that's their home, and it's not so easy for them to abandon it and find a new place - space is limited, many animals territorial, and when an animal finds a great spot like your attic, it KEEPS IT, regardless of what little tricks you throw at it.

Bat control is a specialty task. It's not a simple thing that you can solve for $29.95. The bats must be properly removed, all of them, in a lawful manner, and all of the entry points through which they can enter a building must be completely sealed. The droppings should be cleaned - fully removed, and the area decontaminated. If you are serious about having the job done correctly, then call a professional bat removal company.



Bat Repellants
If you have noticed that there is a bat in your home, there is a good chance, in fact, we would like to bet good money on the fact, that there is going to be a whole colony of them up there. That’s the thing about bats – there is never just one of them.

One of the things that you may turn to in order to save some money and get rid of the bats is a repellent of some description. There are a few out there that promise to work, and just a couple of minutes spent on the internet will provide a wealth of results. The only problem is that these rarely work, if ever and some of them are actually not safe to use.

Mothballs – many people use mothballs to prevent many animals and pests that enter the home, and with bats, there is no exception. Just remember however; a bat is a mammal. We are mammals. Would you move out of your home because someone put moth balls down? No, we didn’t think so. The same applies to bats. These mothballs have no effect on the bats, and you are just wasting your time and money.

Bright lights – in theory, using bright lights would effectively work to keep bats away from your home, but at the same time, it could prove to be a double edged sword. These bright lights will attract insects, which are the bats primary source of food, so by using these, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Loud noises – much in the same way as you would use bright lights to remove the bats, loud music or noises can be used. For some, this has been proved to be effective, but for others, this has shown to be a completely useless exercise. The same can be said for high pitched, ultrasonic noise devices; they have been shown to work at first, but after a while, it would seem as if the bats were becoming immune to the noise.

Naphthalene crystals – This is something that has been shown to be effective as a preventative method for bats, but comes with many negative side effects that you are probably going to want to avoid at all costs. For example, many humans find that they have a great sensitivity to these crystals, and some believe that it can be rather dangerous to pets and humans. Also, you will find that you hate the smell of the stuff just as much as the bats do, which can make life at home somewhat unbearable, especially if you are in close proximity. Just as a last note, this is found in moth balls!

When it comes to bat repellents, you will often find that none of them actually work, and certainly not as well as they propose to. If you think about it logically, if any of these methods actually worked properly, there would be no wildlife experts necessary to remove the bats themselves. Also, there wouldn’t be such a high demand for the various bat removal methods that are available to home owners. Anything that may work for a short period of time will eventually become useless; either because the bats got used to whatever you were using, or because they didn’t actually work in the first place.

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