If I get one more Bat call this year I am going to go Batty! Not complaining but wow! I have excluded / evicted about 2000 this summer alone. Anyone have any suggestions on how to keep that creepy feeling away. Out of all the critters I deal with Bats give me the willies every time. I can usually shake it off but when they come out at dusk and you catch them out of the corner of your eye. They still make me jump. Usually gives the client a good laugh, and I have to laugh to. I do have one question for those wiht more experiance then I.

200 year old log home, I have filled every gap, closed every hole that I can find. And they are still finding holes.
I am thinking with this home I could fill holes until next year and they would still enter. I have evicted about 300 and I am down to between 30 and 50. Is there some thing I could use to evict the rest? A spray maybe? Any suggestions.
Thanks Jon

Trapper Jon,

There isn't a spray or anything of the kind for dealing with this situation. Many people turn away from cabins or at least don't give the same customer expectations due to the building. This can be the same for old buildings that look like swiss cheese where excluding really means residing and reconstruction before you get close to something affordable or reasonable.

Can I ask you to clarify one point? You mention excluding a couple thousand bats this summer, were all of those in open spaces where you could see they weren't maternity colonies? I ask because many folks who may not have done bat work yet may end up on this forum first and it is important that bat excluders who want to solve the homeowners problem, while not harming bat populations in the process.

You may already take this into consideration, just asking for some clarification, since we have much discussion about maternity colonies on this and other forums and summer is a time when exclusion without knowing is a good portion of the colonies that are inspected.

On the cabin, I guess you can keep looking for exit holes and using excluders but if you are saying this place is likely never going to be sealed, you might be losing your money, ending up with an unhappy client and just simply not having a good situation.

Best,

Justin

john,

almost all of my bat work is on log homes and ive gotten pretty keen on them really. how on earth are you coming up with those numbers? ive done quite a few bat jobs this summer but wouldnt even know where to start with coming up with how many bats, and couldnt care less either.

Yes my numbers are guesses, but when you see a house come alive at dark. There are a lot of Bats. Thanks for your imput, so far my client is happy. I may never get the house sealed up. But when I leave they will not be in the attic the way I originally seen them.

Jon

I've got a bat job to do tomorrow.

All my books say September first for exclusions. These folks have been waiting patiently since May. But they remembered when the calendar rolled around and the man has left 5 messages on my machine today!

I may have another coming up soon. A church in town with an attic full of the little winged mice.

I can't say that bats give me a creepy feeling of any sorts. I love to see them fluttering about knowing that the more bats there are around me, the fewer mosquito bites I get.

Couldn't tell you how to close up a cabin without seeing it but placement of bat houses could help. That will give them an alternate roost. Then, if it's legal where you are, moth balls in the attic might help. It wont hurt them but could irritate them into moving.

Good luck!

As far as the moth balls go, I was in an attic that was literally solid moth balls. The bats moved to a part of the house where they couldn't smell them but the home owners came very close to moving out. This was done many years ago by a pest control company who's main office was in Minnesota. They were so bad that we finally ran them back to Minnesota but I can't think of their name, except it began with the letter B. Bud, Scott, Mike, anyone from Minnesota, remember?

That is one smell I can't stand and in this business
You are around them all the time!

Beavis and butthead bugs bashes. . Paul was that it .Moth balls are a 5,000 fine here in Michigan

maybe Adams pest control?

batproof.com maybe?

Had an exclusion at a condo where the owner insisted on putting a bowl full of moth balls in his attic after the exclusion was done even though prop managers were thrilled. I sent them all kinds of warning sheets on the health risks to no avail, currently you can't enter the condo without feeling short of breath, even on the roof I can smell it.

Leave the moth balls or napthalene on the store shelf!

Remember the word liability, the info is out there and so are tons of true stories.

Google health risks of napthalene, or better yet just read the back of the box!!!

Justin

This sounds like a big line of BS to me . I find it hard to believe you have removed a twity bird

And there it is, the reason I don’t come on here very often. BS,,, you can call it what you want. I don’t have to prove myself to you! Really I may be new at ADC, but I am not a lair! I have never removed a twity bird! But as for a tweeding bird many of them. You Twit!

haven't heard of anyone around here using moth balls.

Moth Balls ...Since when did this become a weapon of ADC ?? Can't wait to throw some of them all over someones lawn or better yet, maybe a 5 gallon bucket full sprinkled on a Beaver Dam !! Do Moth Balls come in spray foam ?? Pesky, Don't get excited ... I meant form , not foam !! Bat Spray,Moth Balls, Twity Birds ???

Anyone know of a good moth's ball harvester?

I don't get why ppl even buy them! I've seen them
Used and not work on, bats, mice, snakes,chipmunks,
Squirrels,raccoon,grinners,skunks,bees,pine squirrels, flyers
And any other rodent out there that a customer is having problems
With. Even birds in soffits!

You know why they buy them? Because the internet says it works and there is no misinformation on the internet.

X2 Dave

Ive only seen my customers failed attempts with moth balls. Ive never had a moth job, so no, Ive never used them. Even if I did, moths move around too much to make a lethal hit with one of them balls, then ya got the possability of a wounded moth lurking in the soffits waiting to ambush me.

Nothing worse than a moth goring!

Ah.. moth balls. I did a job about 9 years ago at a bed & breakfast that had a skunk problem. The owner threw several boxes of mothballs into the crawl. He ended up paying me to remove the mothballs, (PITA!)and then of course to trap the skunk. Mothballs are a poor mans coyote urine to "scare off" skunks, and we all know how well that works.

I just got off the phone with a client in Oklahoma (not Tulsa) who told me of a home they did a bid for a bat exclusion on and the homeowner felt the bid was too high and decided to take the matter into his own hands.


The homeowner read up on all the recommended bat harassment techniques on the internet and use a few of them like mothballs, lights and lots of noise. Well the home owner got more then he bargained for since most of the bat colony ended up in the living area of his home and in the sleeping area of his young 4 year old daughter.


That's right the homeowner ended up having to get his young 4 year old daughter rabies shots and still had to have his home sealed up.

http://batremovalpro.com/the-bat-removal-professionals-of-us-canada/bat-removal-home-remedies/

Hey guys, I can actually give an example of mothballs working. ( And of course, by now, I realize that this was probably illegal too. ) Twenty some years ago, when I first started in ADC work I had a dead raccoon in a kitchen wall. The smell was overwhelming. I went in the crawl space and threw about six or eight moth balls down the kitchen wall. Believe it or not, the two odors balanced out each other so perfectly that the drywall guys thought that I had removed the dead raccoon. I put an X on the wall and they came back and got it the following day.

I have also used it to get rid of skunk odor back then. ( Again, probably illegal ) But it did work well. You balance out the odor by adding or subtracting moth balls in a cup or saucer. Has anyone ever tried using mothballs to keep moths out of closets. I'll bet there's an idea nobody has thought up yet!

Cheese and rice, guys!

I'm sorry I mentioned it.

I don't use moth balls for much, and when I do, it's only as a last resort. Why? Simply because I hate the way they smell, too! My gosh! If somebody filled my house with them to get rid of me, IT WOULD WORK!

I only made the suggestion because it IS an alternative. And, whether you want to admit it or not, sometimes they DO work.

Keep in mind, I said "...as a last resort." but if I had a job as was described, where I could not close up all the entry points, and there are still many of those places like that, I would want to consider all my possibilities before I simply gave up and told the customer "Live with it."

If you have a better repellent, then tell us about it. I'm all ears and ready to learn some new tricks. In my defense and Trapper Jon's defense, sometimes repellents are all you can do!

In my state the label is the law and if you put mothballs in a consumers home and they reported a problem you would be fined unless the label is for BATS ! Just saying!

Exactly.

Muddawg - Other folks including myself are just trying to keep new folks to the industry from going down a road that could legally damage them. Most sole proprietors couldn't handle the legal hit, myself included.

I think the statement of yours I quoted is untrue. Sometimes you have to explain there isn't a way to solve this issue within the legal and biological constraints given, and thus you should walk away and be honest about it. I'm not saying your dishonest, lets be clear about that.

What I am saying, is when I look at a situation that cannot be solved without resorting to things that are illegal, unlabeled or thought to maybe work, I'm not putting my name on them and taking anyones money.

That is how I live and work, I wouldn't want someone to come to my house and say, "i think if you pay me $175.00 and I put this bag of moth balls by your soffit, these things will likely leave."

Again, just trying to be sure the new guys don't go down the moth ball trail!

Justin

People tend to forget that mothballs are a pesticide because they are a relitively common household item. However, they are regulated. You must be licensed....and you must follow the label.

[quote=Robb Russell]

I just got off the phone with a client in Oklahoma (not Tulsa) who told me of a home they did a bid for a bat exclusion on and the homeowner felt the bid was too high and decided to take the matter into his own hands.


The homeowner read up on all the recommended bat harassment techniques on the internet and use a few of them like mothballs, lights and lots of noise. Well the home owner got more then he bargained for since most of the bat colony ended up in the living area of his home and in the sleeping area of his young 4 year old daughter.


That's right the homeowner ended up having to get his young 4 year old daughter rabies shots and still had to have his home sealed




I can see this same thing happening tonight . Just left a log home that was Plained for bat removal today . I got there with a good supply of matching calk . I had to drive 1 1/2 north to . I get there and she tells me she needs a contractor to replace the trim on the house . I'm thinking what trim its a log home . She also has a pestcontrol company on the way to spray repellant . Ok now i know whats up she talked the spray guy and got sold a line of bs .I'm thinking great there's goes today's video on log homes . But anyway I just soaked it up and composed myself thinking that's fine that's what Im here for .I have other jobs that need work just wish I hadn't waisted 4 hours . She did give 120 bucks so atleast I'm not out the gas to . Funny thing is she fresh out of the city and is looking to have her ten acres brush hogged of before the twp gives her a ticket for having weeds growing . I'm like what your out here in farm country off a dirt road . Wait till the shooting starts . She's looking to have a windmill because the whole country is going green now you know . I would get a windmill to but not buying this reason why thing

Pesky, you should have paid her for not letting you do that bat job. Traveling an hour and a half every day because she still has bats doesn't sound like any fun at all. ( Of course the bat spray guy will probably learn a lesson on this one )

I just gotta ask again; why would you get a windmill?

On a log home...with a 5 year? Paul is right...dodged a bullet there.

I only went one year on that house because of the thing falling apart . there's no attic so the bats just fly in one side and out the other . No the spray guy covered his rear end before he got there because she needed the trim replaced by a contractor . And seeing there's really no trim how would you replace it . A wind mill with a 12 v system is cheap so you just have 12v lights in your house that run off the windmill or the battery .

Received a call last night, I am down to about 20 bats. The chimney on this home has been a real issue with getting the house buttoned up. BUt I am working on it!

Jon

They play follow the leader.

Pictures of the only few bats left in around the house.

Jon

Ditto what Robb, Justin and DaveK say. Moth balls are not a solution.

Who is using moth balls? Not me, all I asked is i there was any chemical that I could spray around that I was not aware of. And all of a sudden I am being told I am using moth balls, or am I missing something?

Jon

Trapper Jon,

You are just a victim of Muddawg mentioning moth balls, not your fault, don't sweat it, everyone including me just got off on the tangent as we
feel it is an important issue too often mentioned.

Best and thanks for sharing the pics, nice little group!

Justin

Ok I was wondering, Anyway thank for looking that little group was on the outside. I have been working very hard to get them out of the house. It has been a job, but it needed to be done.

Jon

It is interesting....people want to use an insecticide (mothballs) on a mammal such as a bat. It's kinda like using mosquito spray to keep cars off the driveway.