4 Signs Bats Are Hibernating in Your Home This Winter
Winter is knocking on the door in Michigan, and that means animals of all shapes and sizes are looking for somewhere warm to hibernate. Bat species like the big and the little brown bat like to hibernate in the attics and walls of homes during freezing winters. If you notice one or all of the following signs, you could have a colony of hibernating bats in your home.
1. Fluttering Noises in Your Walls or Attic
In general, bats stay still as they hibernate, living off their own body fat reserves and expending as little energy as possible. But if temperatures fluctuate, as they sometimes do in Michigan during winter, bats will wake up and move around.
Sometimes, this happens if there is a sudden spike in temperature that wakes the bats up. You'll then usually hear bats fluttering around in your attic, looking for food. On the other hand, if temperatures drop sharply, then bats hibernating in an attic will often move into the walls, closer to the warmth of the house. You'll hear the bats fluttering and scuffling as they seek a warm place inside your walls.
2. Squeaking
Bats use echolocation to fly around in darkness, and their high-pitched calls range from 9 kHz to 200 kHz . This means that most of the time, humans can't hear bats squeak. But if bats awaken from their hibernation during winter due to temperature fluctuations, you may still be able to hear them communicate with each other as they squeak within their roost.
3. Piles of Droppings (Guano)
Bat droppings look like grains of rice, much like those of rats but smaller. If you enter an area where bats are hibernating in your home, you may see piles of bat droppings. This is usually how you can tell rat droppings from bat droppings. Bat droppings will pile up underneath the spot where bats are roosting whereas rats leave scattered droppings.
4. Brown Stains Around Exterior Entry Points
Unlike other animals, such as rats or possums, bats won't make their own entry point to gain access to your home. Instead, they'll search for an existing point of access, such as a crack in a wall or a hole in your roofing material.
If you see a crack or hole in your home's exterior and there are brown, oily stains around it, then this is likely to be the access point bats used to enter your home. These stains are a combination of body oils and other excretions such as urine and feces.
Can You Remove Bats From Your Home During Winter?
If you discover bats hibernating somewhere in your home during winter, you might be uncomfortable with their presence. But winter isn't a good time to remove bats from their hibernaculum. They won't survive the cold temperatures and the lack of food.
Don't worry. Hibernating bats are rarely active during winter so you are unlikely to encounter them.
The best thing to do is to contact a pest control service. They can then perform an inspection of your property to locate the bats and their entry points. Once the pest control service has finished the inspection, they can then set out their plan to remove the bats humanely when spring arrives. Once the bats have left your home, you can set about sealing up all possible entry points.
Have you discovered bats in your home in Waterford, Michigan? Then you need the professional guidance and assistance of Anteater Pest Control Inc. We'll perform a free inspection to locate your bat problem and come up with an effective plan to remove them in a humane manner.
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