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Great Gray Owl Pest Control

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Bats

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We do not provide bat removal services, but we are happy to offer information about bats.

Bats are important, threatened, misunderstood, everywhere and very cool! They are wonderful pest controllers with each bat eating up to 5,000 insects in one night! And in our service area, that translates into lots and lots of mosquitoes that are not biting us if bats are on patrol. Bats are also a protected species and one should never harm a bat. Rather than discouraging bats from your property, consider inviting them to your yard to dine. If bats have set up house in your attic, we do perform exclusion work only in a specific timeframe. Keep in mind that if you have a colony living in the attic, bats have a summer and a winter home and leave of their own accord in the fall. For more detailed information about bats, we recommend you call us to consult or check out Bat Conservation International.

Some common myths about bats: 

  • "Blind as a bat." Bats not only see as well as just about any other mammal, but most bats also use a unique biological sonar system called echolocation, which lets them navigate and hunt fast-flying insects in total darkness. Basically, the bat emits beep-like sounds into its path, then collects and analyzes the echoes that come bouncing back. Using sound alone, bats can see everything but color and detect obstacles as fine as a human hair. 
  • "Bats are flying mice." Bats are mammals, but they are not rodents. In fact, they are more closely related to humans than to rats and mice.
  • "Bats get tangled in your hair." This was a common myth a few decades ago, but bats are much too smart and agile for that.
  • "Bats are bloodsuckers." Well, there really are three vampire bat species (out of more than 1,300 bat species) that feed on blood; only one targets mammals. All vampire bats are limited to Latin America. Oh, and they don’t suck blood, they lap it like kittens with milk. And a powerful anticoagulant found in vampire saliva, which the bats use to keep blood from clotting, has been developed into a medication that helps prevent strokes in humans.
  • "All bats are rabid." Not even close. Bats, like other mammals, can be infected with the rabies virus and some of them are. But the vast majority of bats are not infected. However, a bat that can be easily approached by humans is likely to be sick and may bite if handled. Simply do not touch or handle a bat or any other wild animal and there is little chance of being bitten. Teach children to never handle any wild animal.  

The following video and links are helpful resources about bats.

Instructional books about building a bat house. 

Prebuilt bat houses.

Bats are Important

The Earth without bats would be a very different and much poorer place. More than 1,300 species of bats around the world are playing ecological roles that are vital to the health of natural ecosystems and human economies.

Many of the more than 1,300 bat species consume vast amounts of insects, including some of the most damaging agricultural pests. Others pollinate many valuable plants, ensuring the production of fruits that support local economies, as well as diverse animal populations. Fruit-eating bats in the tropics disperse seeds that are critical to restoring cleared or damaged rainforests. Even bat droppings (called guano) are valuable as a rich natural fertilizer. Guano is a major natural resource worldwide, and, when mined responsibly with bats in mind, it can provide significant economic benefits for landowners and local communities. Read more at Bat Conservation International

Bats are Threatened

The world is a dangerous place for bats. Although they provide vital environmental and economic services, bat populations are declining around the globe, largely as a result of human activity.

Such an example, is the plight of fruit bats which have a brutally hard life in Sulawesi, an orchid-shaped island in the heart of Indonesia. A remarkable 22 species of fruit bats live on the island and some of them are found nowhere else. But their numbers are being decimated by overhunting for the commercial bushmeat trade, and their treatment on the way to market can only be described as torture. Read more at Bat Conservation International

Bats are Misunderstood

Bats are wonderfully beneficial creatures that provide invaluable services to both natural ecosystems and human economies around the world. Yet they are also among the most misunderstood of animals – routinely feared and loathed as sinister denizens of the night. Except in China, where bats have long been celebrated as symbols of good luck and happiness. Their images embellished the palaces, thrones and robes of emperors.

But things are different just about everywhere else, although they are improving through the efforts of groups like Bat Conservation International. When Merlin Tuttle founded BCI in 1982, he recalls some serious skepticism: “Even conservationists looked at me like: ‘Sure, next you’ll try to sell us on the virtues of rattlesnakes and cockroaches." Read more at Bat Conservation International

Bats are Everywhere

Bat conservation is particularly compelling because it impacts us all. If you think that you don’t live near bats or that your life isn’t impacted by bats, think again! Bats are literally everywhere – except for the regions surrounding the North and South poles, and remote islands. Unlike the picture painted by myths and superstitions, bats do not live their lives isolated in dark caves; rather, they interact on a daily basis with the same fields, forests, and waterways that we do. Likewise, their services to the environment, to agriculture, and to human health and welfare are available all around us, sustaining our ways of life. Whether you realize it or not, there is a close connection between bats and people around the globe, and so bat conservation is in our common interest, as the benefit is for all to enjoy. Read more at Bat Conservation International 

Bats are Cool

Yes, bats are definitely cool. More than 1,300 bat species worldwide display an amazing diversity as species evolved over at least 60 million years to survive in wildly varied habitats and food chains. Read more at Bat Conservation International