It’s the time of year where many people enjoy a nice, warm fire. Is there anything better than enjoying a good book or movie, drinking your favorite hot beverage, and enjoying a crisp night with a friend or loved one?

All those plans could be halted if there are bats in your chimney. If you have a feeling you have unwanted guests, do not panic. Bats in a chimney do not have to be a headache.

At CP Bat Mitigation, we specialize in removing bats from your Omaha house and property, whether they be in the barn, the attic, or in your chimney. Call us today or go online for a free quote request.

Why Are There Bats In The Chimney?

Your chimney is a perfect place for bats to roost. While you might see a way to enjoy a fire on a cold night, bats see a warm and safe place to sleep during the day. Female bats who are raising young are looking for a secluded and elevated place.

Bats live throughout the world, particularly in warm and tropical climates. The only continent where no bats live in is Antarctica, as it is too cold. Bats live in colonies, some growing into the millions of bats in size.

Before a colony of bats roost, they look for a place that is safe from predators, where they can hang upside down during the day, and where they are protected from the elements. Many times, that location is a cave. 

However, as there is more and more interaction with humans, bats are finding their homes in human homes. Whether they find a place in your barn or your chimney, bats are looking for similar things as you in a place to call home

How To Tell If Bats Are In The Chimney

To find out if there are bats in your chimney, you want to look for a few tell-tale signs. You will use your eyes, ears, and nose. An obvious sign you have bats in your chimney would be seeing bats flying in and out of your chimney. Stand outside your home at dusk and watch the top of your chimney. Bats typically leave in groups at dusk to hunt for food.

You will want to listen for the sounds bats make. Listen for squeaking sounds coming out of your chimney, particularly in the evening or early morning. You might also hear rustling sounds as they move.

Finally, you will want to smell for their guano. Guano is, for lack of a better term, bat poop. While guano can be a fantastic fertilizer, it has a very distinct and pungent odor. You might not see the guano as it can get stuck to the walls, but you will smell it when you are close to your fireplace.

Check out our tips for investigating a bat infestation.

How To Remove Bats From The Chimney

Once you have seen, heard, and smelled bats, you can be pretty sure they are in your chimney. Now that you know, you want to do several things.

First, Find The Entry Point

It is essential to find out where the bats are getting into your home and chimney. Bats do not need much space to enter, less than half of an inch. Thankfully, bats will not manipulate a hole to make it larger for them to fit.

Typically, bats look for areas around the roof or siding, open spaces around vents or pipes, anywhere that two places meet at a point, damaged windows or siding, or broken or missing bricks.

If you know where they are getting in, you will want to close that hole up after the bats are gone. Do not seal it while the bats are inside; doing this can cause many other problems you do not want to deal with later.

Second, Remove The Bats

While you might be tempted to try an array of things to remove the bats from your chimney, please pay careful attention to this list of don’ts.

• DON’T light a fire to “smoke” them out. You risk burning the bats or your home.
• DON’T use bat repellents. These flashing lights and sounds alone do not work to keep bats away.
• DON’T use poisons of any type. Whether you intend to poison the bats or the air around them to repel them, the use of poisons is illegal in most states. Furthermore, killing bats is illegal, so steer clear of any method intended to harm them.
• DON’T use traps. Traps are ineffective as you have no idea how large a colony is. There might be hundreds of bats in a colony. As you catch one, another bat will have a pup or two to replace that one.

The only way to safely and humanely remove bats from your chimney is through exclusion. After the bats are gone, you will want to seal your home to keep them from returning.

The best way to exclude bats is to call a professional, like CP Bat Mitigation. We specialize in removing bats safely and effectively.

Third, Seal Your Home

After the bats are removed from your home by exclusion, you will want to ensure they can’t get back into the chimney. You have several good options when it comes to sealing the entry point. A quick trip to your local hardware store will yield expanding foam, hardware cloth, wire wool, and more.

Four, Clean Up

Once the bats are gone, you will want to spend some time cleaning up everything they left behind. There could be guano, food droppings, and even dead bats left behind. Invest in some heavy-duty cleaning supplies and get to work cleaning your chimney and areas around it.

Call CP Bat Mitigation Today

Bats are essential to our ecosystem, even if they can be a bit annoying. If you want to evict a colony of bats from your chimney, call CP Bat Mitigation today. We will serve them their notice and ensure they don’t come back.

You will be enjoying a fire and a warm cup of cider or cocoa before you know it.