I just finished up a bat exclusion yesterday. A two story duplex apartment house with full attic. A three story house for all intent and purposes. The roof line at the top was at least a 10 12 pitch. Bats were roosting in at least two chimnies and inside the walls in several spots where the siding was gapped, rotted or just falling out. Facial boards showed sign of critter travel in three corners and a couple other spots. Plus two squirrel holes in the crown moldings on the outside corners. It would take 11 different excluders including two three inch ones for the squirrels before the job was done.

Well, started it out Tuesday morning and put excluders on two chimnies through the lower roof line. One was no problem to from my step ladder on the standing seam tin roof. The second chimney, on the back side of the house required my 20 foot extension ladder on top of that same standing seam tin roof. Still, as the pitch was near flat, it was no problem as far as the ladder. The chimney itself was a good 10 or 12 feet tall. Still, I was confident and not the least bit nervous, until... I pulled my screen to make sure it was tight against the far side of the chimney when I felt the whole thing rocking. "Whoa!" Now, the nerves started to tingle. Carefully, I finished that one and eased myself back down the ladder. There was a couple of spots that begged for a little foam while I was up there and a window to be sealed across the top.

Back on the ground, I had three excluders to attach to the siding itself and back on the ladder to cover some holes in the corner crowns and one in the sofit itself. On the back side of the house, just off the living room, I fouond one of the squirrel holes. On the other side of the house next to the kitchen, I found another. Here I tried an experiment. I fashioned a couple excluder valves from 3 inch PVC and screened them in just as I would for a bat.

It worked! Yesterday morning, I went back to find two squirrels bad mouthing me from the fence. The lady who lived there told me of their efforts and angry chittering they kept up well into the night because they came home to find someone had changed the locks! Then, on to the scary part. One ladder succured giving me access to the porch roof. The other extension ladder I secured on the porch roof to gain access to the top of the house. It didn't end there. I had to fashon some stage bucks to nail to the roof so that I could climb to the peak where the third and final chimney stood chalenging me. With one foot bracing against the chimney and the other on the very peak ridge line, I just could reah the chimney top.

I was up so high that I one point I looked around and marveled at the view. I whispered to myself, "My God." and a voice behind me said, "Yes?". I'm not afraid of heights but on shuch a steep roof, so high up knowing that if I slipped the only thing to catch me was a concrete sidwalk, I'll confess to being a bit nervous!

Finally, the bad part was over and I had but one last excluder to put in place. The only thing bothering me about this one is where the second ladder had to be placed on top of the porch roof. Carefully I climbed and with a screw here and one more there, I was DONE!

The total job had taken me 10 hours on site and a couple hours at home building stage bucks but I got it done. I feel certain that there will be larger jobs in my future, but attop three stories, with 11 different excluders, this has been my biggest bat job ever!

Good to know you didn't get busted up Muddawg! With each and every difficulty, I try to come up with a solution which would have made the job easier and faster. Maybe some ridge hooks would have helped you get to the top? Who knows, just throwing it out there.

After reading this excellent article by Muddawg, can anyone see how a fur trapper fits into this picture? Yeah, me neither. ( Okay, maybe that part about admiring the view ) Good story, Muddawg!

We had a family unit of coyotes killing alpaca's a couple nights a week. Took a week for me to catch 2 adults and 5 pups still in a family unit learning how to hunt and kill. The killing stopped and the stomach contents of all animals had traces of alpaca hair/meat in their stomachs and intestines.

The farmer had another local advertised (non fur trapper background as I know the fella) Nuisance trapper on the job for a week without any results except a few coon, oppossum fired traps and dugout traps. Guess he didnt know much about dirt sets and snares nor had any such devices to use.

Can anyone see how a non fur trapper fits into this picture?

Once most non fur trapping background individuals get into a non urban/structural setting their efficiency goes way down unless they have several years of field experience under their belts or have learned from another.

Sign reading, location selection and field experience is priceless in rural farm land settings.

Good narrative Muddawg. We have done a few jobs similiar to that over the years also. We never know what is ahead of us in this line of work.

Bob, I can only hope that the alpacas around here don't get attacked by coyote. The only trapper I know of around here with any coyote experience is me. And I certainly wouldn't trust myself to nail the whole family in a week like you did.

I am slowly trying to teach one of our techs how to do basic fur trapping and he's starting to get the hang of it. This year I showed him some basic beaver trapping but no coyote calls yet.

Muddawg post was to long for my ADD brain but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Preach it Bobby J!!!!!!!!!!!

Like he's after jaws that Bob he's not playing with them coyote they go to eating alpacas in his area .

I'm pulling out to go to trappers convention this morning but when I get back, I've got yet another bat job to go do.

After tackling that monster with the steep roof, I'm looking forward to the next one!

"Bring it on!!"

I like steep roofs,,,,, easier to get up under the dormers and transitions to make a 100 percent seal..........
(but I also was a steep roof roofer for yyyeeeeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrssss,...)

I like the long falls and landing on my head; it makes it easier to understand VVViiiinnnnnkkkkkeeeeee!

I like not steep roofs

SAFTEY HARNESS!!!!! $100 or less. I tie off to the chimney. I have ridge hooks with wheels. Roll the ladder up to the peak, flip it over, you have a secure ladder. I tie off my harness to the ladder. Cougar Paws roofing shoes. $100 with replacement soles for $15 a set.
I don't like heights period! But that makes me extra careful.

Well, what I've figured out about ADC work is this; All the experience from other jobs I've had in the past are helping me now!

I've worked as a roofer before with my cousin who owned his on roofing business. Shingles, metal, tar and rubber and even foam, I learned a little about all of it. Some that we covered had enough pitch to them that they were more like walls than roof tops. I learned a great deal about scaffold, staging, walk boards and toe catches.

My experience as a carpenter helps when the critter has been evicted and they need someone to plug the holes.

My experience as a plumbmer helped me to figure out how snakes were getting into a ladies bathroom when the floor had no gaps or holes and the heating ducts were intact.

Education is great but NOTHING can take the place of good old fashioned hands on experience!

But I will check into them "Cougar Paws". Thanks for the tip!

Muddawg, from those of us who hire help, you're exactly what we all want and never find.

Bat work is certainly a challenge at times. Sounds like you were thorough on the bat-proofing, but one issue that would never fly around here is not removing the squirrels that were using the structure. Some guys have decent luck with excluding squirrels (one-ways) but I've only been able to use that method for squirrels one time in 23 years. It was a brick home with no wooden or aluminum areas they could chew back in. Our squirrels will chew through wood, aluminum, and even lightweight screening. I do a lot of squirrel work following up other companies that don't seem to understand squirrel behavior.

If you included info in your guarantee stating damages due to other animals is not covered, at least you won't have to eat a return visit. If anything other than bats are using the same structure, it is my standard procedure to eliminate them before the bat work begins. I've had homs with raccoons, squirrels, and birds all using the same structure, along with a colony of around 80 bats. Had to start with the biggest critters and work down to the bats. Owners are advised of the process, and the reasoning, and always approve.

You mentioned wooden crown mouldings and wooden fascia, both are likely places squirrels will get back in (chewing). I even include tree branch trimming as part of squirrel work, leaving only a power line as potential travel route.

Ron, while my warranty only covers species by name if I see squirrel damage, grey or flier, it's a full exclusion or not at all and trapping if squirrels are present.
Again while my warranty expressly limits liabilty inb the event of a non covered species re opening the structure I've grown tired of both the return visit your not covered discussion and the Plan A/Plan B sales pitch. It's more of a straight up this is your problem you have a complicating factor and this is what I am going to do to fix it.

Classic example of more than one species using a structure. Inspected this one a few days ago for a bat problem. There are 6 lower gable ends with squirrel holes chewed in them, and bat guano at 3 of them. Squirrel nests, nuts, and bat guano near the holes inside the attic.



The house is an integral part of the "canopy travelway" through the city for squirrels due to the tree limbs laying on the roof on every side. I'll trim all the branches back about 15 feet from the home after removing the squirrels. Then the bat work begins. Typical structure where the towable lift is worth its' weight in gold.

Ron,,,, Classic!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most often I see this area of exposure after a new roof is installed,,,,,
......

I finished this job yesterday!

I went back, removed all my excluders and sealed all the places as small as a dime and up where anything could get in. I did a second inspection to make certain that no new entries were started.



And I suggested that very thing. I wanted to get the squirrels out first THEN deal with the bats. But the lady who lived there was adimant about getting the bats gone NOW. She was armed with a hammer, tennies racket, bug spray and verious kitchen utensils and promised great bodily harm to any bat she saw. I feared for the bats and saw it to be in their best interest to get them out as soon as possible.

No problem on the garuantee. I told the realty company that hired me that unless some repair was done, and it would be a LOT of repair, that they could expect bats and squirrels back as soon as next season. The house is in bad need of new siding all around, some window repair, sofit and crown molding repair or replacement, brick work around all chimneies and some roof work would be good.

This house is a special case. You have a tenant complaining to the realtor, the realtor complaining to the owner and an owner who's not gonna spend one dime extra to fix anything.

Yeah, I do a lot of trimming limbs and such, too. I also have come up with a neat way to keep squirrels from traveling a power line. I put spinners on the line itself.

Spinner: I split a peice of 1 1/2 PVC pipe and trim the cut and corners so as not to snag, drag or hang. The spinner should be about two feet long so that the critters don't just simply jump over it. Then, carefully, I slide this onto the wire and push it away from the house. Then when "Hammy" the squirrel, comes be-bopping along, he steps on the pipe and it spins under his foot and he can't get by it. The inside of the pipe is slick and will spin easily on he power line. The outside of the pipe is smooth and slick so little paws can't get traction on it.

They work well. I watched one afternoon as a squirrel jumped right on it and slipped. He hit the ground with a thud! What was so great about it was the owner of the house was standing there watching with me. I was his Hero at that moment!

Man, I wish one of you bat guys lived near me. I recently up an early 1800s farm house, two story four brick thick. The roof has been replaced within the last 5yrs with metal roof. At the very highest peak I counted 19 just before dark leaving the lair. I've been checking in on bat houses but they look pretty content with their living conditions now.