The Life Cycle And Reproduction Of Bats A Comprehensive Overview For Omaha Residents
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The Life Cycle And Reproduction Of Bats: A Comprehensive Overview For Omaha Residents
Each season of the year brings its flavor to the year. In the spring, we enjoy budding flowers, trees, and the return of life after dormancy. The summer follows with strolls and fine dining in the Old Market neighborhood, visits to the zoo, and other outdoor activities. The fall brings cooler weather, the beauty of leaves changing, and visits to the pumpkin patch. Winter rounds out the year with cold temperatures, snow, and evenings spent sipping hot chocolate near a cozy fire. As our area experiences seasons, bats also have seasons in their lives.
Understanding how bats develop and respond during each growth phase is helpful if you wonder why bats are around your house or in your attic. Secure bat control in Omaha from CP Bat Mitigation if you have bats in your home or infesting your property. With over 32 years of bat removal experience, our family-owned and operated company serves the Central Midwest by providing humane mitigation services. As our name suggests, bat removal is the sole focus of our company, not an add-on service. We pride ourselves on being an industry leader in bat removal services.
With bat mitigation experience in over 13,000 projects, we know a thing or two about bats. You probably found this article because you have a bat problem and need answers. Therefore, we wrote this article to help you understand this unique flying mammal and what you can do to protect your property against a bat invasion.
Professional Bat Removal: Keeping Your Family Safe And Healthy
Bat removal in your Omaha home begins with a request for your free bat inspection. The reason why we provide a free investigation of your Omaha property is that each situation is unique. A trained, licensed technician will check your attic, roof, and exterior to locate attractants, entry points, and bat hot spots. We produce a custom quote that includes removal costs, clean-up, and the warranty. Upon approval, we schedule the service.
Humane bat control begins with sealing up all entry points except one (in most cases). On the one entrance left, we attach our exclusive exclusion device that allows bats to exit your house but cannot reenter. Emptying your home of bats may take six to eight weeks, depending upon the size of the infestation. Once the bats are gone, we remove the device and seal the remaining entry point. Afterward, we can clean and sanitize the area to remove the guano and protect your family from future airborne fungal spores.
If you need bat pest control near you, CP Bat Mitigation is your answer. Contact us today.
The Bat Life Cycle: From Birth To Maturity
Bats are the only mammal capable of sustained flight. Because bats are the only mammal that can fly, they are in scientific order (Chiroptera), which means “hand wing.” If you are a little foggy about biology, here is a definition of mammals: mammals are animals that bear live offspring, produce milk, and grow hair.
In the fall, when leaves turn golden brown, temperatures decrease, and bats begin to mate. During this season, the male bats form harems of five to ten female bats to impregnate. During the winter, the impregnated bats hibernate, delaying fertilization due to slower metabolism, lower body temperature, and slower breathing.
With spring comes an abundance of food and a resumption of activity for the bats. During this active and abundant season, the females release the sperm held in utero to allow fertilization of their egg. The females leave the harem and migrate to form nursing colonies with other pregnant females. Because food is accessible, the embryos can develop. Around May or June, each female gives birth to a pup. Big brown and little brown bats in Omaha produce only one offspring annually; however, red bats, also in our area, may have up to four pups annually. During the gestation and birth timeframe, the males stay away from the nursing colonies.
Maternity Season: Protecting Bat Mothers And Their Young
When a pup is born, a small pouch near the mother’s tail protects the maturing baby bat as it matures. The mother can travel with her child tucked away in the pocket; however, they often leave them in the nest. The mother nurses her pup for a month or longer until it can hang onto branches or ledges and fly. After six weeks, the new bat ventures from the nest to forage for food and live independently from its mother.
There are several reasons bats need to be protected:
- Bat reproduce slower than other wildlife
- Urban sprawl reduces nesting opportunities
- White-nose syndrome is killing many bats
Unlike many insects that produce hundreds, even thousands of eggs annually, most bats deliver only one offspring yearly. So, bats do not reproduce in droves like insects or rodents.
As communities grow, trees and other natural habitats are removed or overrun by humans limiting locations for bats to roost. Forest fires due to human incompetence, lightning strikes, and poor forest management are other factors that decrease roosting areas and affect the bat population. Although wind turbines may produce clean energy, they kill many bat species as they migrate to find nursing colonies to raise their young.
White-nose syndrome is from a fungus that attacks hibernating bats (particularly the little brown bat species) and decreases their ability to maintain a warm body temperature and energy. This disease, which appears as a powdery white substance on the bat’s face, wings, ears, and tail, is particularly deadly for female bats because their weakened bodies are no longer strong enough to endure the gestation period.
Bats need protection. Although the federal government passed the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1956 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973, not all bat species are covered. These legislative acts underscore the necessity to protect bats and their offspring.
CP Bat Mitigation provides professional bat removal in Omaha. Our mitigation process protects bats while also removing them from your home. We understand that attics can be roosting areas where nursery colonies form for female bats to hibernate as they prepare to produce their pups in the spring. Therefore, we carefully handle those situations to preserve the prospective mothers’ and future pups’ lives while removing the threat from your home.
Every Bat Needs A Home, Just Not Yours
Inspection
Inspecting your home helps us identify where bats are in your house and how they got inside. We use this information to create a customized control plan for your home.
Service
Our control process is unique to CP Bat Mitigation. It involves sealing entry points and installing an exclusion device to safely and humanely remove bats from your home.
Follow Up
We don’t stop working until your bat infestation is gone. We’ll follow up with you six to eight weeks after our initial service to make sure our plan is going as planned.
Humane Bat Deterrents: Tips For Bat-Proofing Your Property
No one wants bats to roost in their attics because bats create a health hazard. Bat feces is known as guano, and although it is known as a plant fertilizer, it may contain a fungus that causes histoplasmosis that becomes airborne as the feces dries. Although some do not react to the floating fungal spores, others experience flu-like and life-threatening symptoms.
Bats are known for carrying rabies. While it is true that bats can transfer the disease, only about 10% of the population are infected; however, no one wants to take a chance and contract the disease bats in the attic.
Before bats enter homes, they begin to roost on the property. So, the first step is to deter them from staying at your location by doing the following:
- Remove dead trees
- Trim trees
- Eliminate wood and rock piles
- Cap chimneys
- Seal attic openings
These simple steps will help bat-proof your property.
Another way to control bats in the house is to reduce the insect population around your home. You can accomplish this by removing items that hold water and ensuring that gutters, ditches, and puddles drain. Also, keep the yard free from pet feces, food, and trash. Bats will stay away if you remove roosting locations and reduce the insect population on your property.
Partnering with a company like CP Bat Mitigation, which provides pest control for bats near you, is a big part of keeping bats away from your home.
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