Bat Repellent

[whackywaxer]

I have several Bats that like to hang out in my barn ..they like to sleep during the day in cracks around the entrance door....I stuffed a couple of mothballs in the space and they still crawl in there. I bang on the door very time I walk by thinking they would move out .....no luck. Does anybody know of a repellent or a method to chase them away ....I don't want to kill them if possible...they eat mosquitoes.....should I call the JOKER

 

[Brad54]

Put up a bat house on the outside of the building, in a shaded area. They'll find it and move in.

But just to give them a friendly little nudge, after the house is up, in the evening, when they're out eating, get a can of GreatStuff spray foam insulation and seal up the cracks they're hiding in.

-Brad

 

[Joe B.]

I too think the new home would be the answer. I wish I could get some here to take care of our skeeters.

 

[Shadowdog500]

+1 on a bat house. those things eat a ton of mosquitos, you dont want to completely get rid of them. we have several that have been eating mosquitos in my back yard for years.

Chris

 

[Buford T. Justice]

Plus if you get caught killing them you'll be in deep turds as they are federally protected. And as others have have said, bathouses work great and they are bug eating machines.

 

[wssix99]

I'll pile on my vote for a bat house. They will also keep the general insect count down on your property and will move out of your barn if you give them a nicer place to stay. Just block up the holes they are getting in with screen after you put up a bat house.

 

[jabberwoki]

Mate the bat house is the go i`d love to have bats!! Don`t kill em!

 

[donnie]

To get them to go into the bat house put a little bit of raw hamburger in the bat house as it rots it attracts many bugs the bugs attracts the bats.

 

[yevangelis]

no kidding we could use some more bats around here.
if you wanna build it yourself a bat house is basically a box with a slit in the bottom and some bark nailed to the ceiling for them to grab. if youre fortunate the family will grow...

 

[VWandDodge]

Put up a bat house on the outside of the building, in a shaded area. They'll find it and move in.

But just to give them a friendly little nudge, after the house is up, in the evening, when they're out eating, get a can of GreatStuff spray foam insulation and seal up the cracks they're hiding in.

-Brad

Note for the bat houses -- they need to be higher than 10' from any obstacles and the drop, glide, and then fly off. My dad installed one on his house but no bats too up residence. He did some checking and learned he didn't have it high enough.

Just something to keep in mind, but like everyone says, keep them around.

 

[Garage5.9]

make the bat house look like the bat mobile

 

[Gary S]

Bats are your friend. You want them to stay, not go away. Do whatever you need to do to convince them that you like them.

 

[James E]

Just out of curiosity, is there a chance that building a bat house will just attract more bats and the ones in the OP's barn will stay put?

A guy I work with has them in his attic and asked this very question this past week. We were all afraid that adding bat houses near his house would make the bat problem in his house worse.

 

[Don 18]

Unfortunately the answer is to seal all the holes that a bat can get in and put one way doors to the entrances they are using. If you just spray foam the hole, they will find another way into the space, and if you seal it up tight without a one way door then the bats will be trapped in the space. If you find a dead bat don't handle it directly and have the local health department check it for rabbies.

They can fit through a hole as big as your thumb.

Bats are good, but rodent droppings are not.

 

[demographic]

As there's several people on this thread that are interested in having more bats in the area there's THIS page which gives a load of bat house plans.

Personally I like the little flying mammals.

 

[rikmeister]

so vampires are a protected species. learned something new today. what about werewolves?

 

[redrunner]

Put up the bat house, I have built one for the conservation board here and put it up for them.

To get them to move out use a hand sprayer and bleach, we mixed it about 1 part bleach to 4 parts water. We spray it on the area they want to hide in when they are away, spray other likely areas they may move into as well. They will find a new place to live.

We were at a Boy Scout camp that had a building the bats loved. I have a vet friend who was there and had us spray the building. Pine logs with the bark still on cut and put on the walls and ceiling. We sprayed the place down with the bleach the first day we used the building. The bats wanted out right now! The previous group said the bats were a nightly show as they came out. They had as many as 6 to 8 bats flying around all night. After the first night we left the doors open and the next day no more bats. When we left after 2 weeks we hosed it down again and the bats never returned that entire summer.