To me the principal of bat exclusion is a simple concept in terms of knowing you are needing to vent the bats through one way equipment at the right time of year, while sealing the building properly during and after.
Where the rubber meets the road like anything in life the actual scenarios will vary a ton and having some hands on ahead of time will save you some of the costly mistakes that most will make including myself when I started.
Bats are only getting higher on the list of priorities for state and federal protection as WNS moves across the country. Every year I hear from other operators and from state and fed agency folks about some of the facts being used that show there are many that either don't care about the outcome or they simply never had any opportunity to learn to do it right
When you first startup many of us are looking at every dollar as though it should only be spent on equipment or essentials and often folks believe training isn't an essential.
I would advocate that anyone starting up think about the multiple values of trainings by Eric, by NWCOA, by your state associations or by your state agency.
Paying for a training can help you shorten your learning curve, canssave you from some heartburn with clients and the bats themselves that will cost you money.
I flew from NM to take Eric's course and have never regretted that decision.
Did I learn everything about bat exclusion so that every situation has been easy or went as planned?
No, and no training by anyone will do that.
I'm going to an acoustic workshop training next week in (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) all in I'm over $2k with travel. Am I rich? Nope not even close but the training will allow me to bid on more survey contracts and other scientific research into bats that will benefit my company.
Could I have bought the equipment and learned on my own? Yup, and I'd not know a ton of things that will save me money and from looking like I'm not well educated on the use.
We all talk about a concept of paying for our education, meaning losing money or almost losing money on a job we took thinking x=y when really x=j.
Can you be successful without training? Of course you can, training is an option that you can select to hopefully shorten the learning curve.
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If you decide to jump in like many do, have a conversation with some bat folks in your state, other nwcos, bat biologists, G&F bat folks, etc.....
In the case of this statement in talking right to throwback, being in CA you have some serious bat professionals that have been around 15-25+ years and they know the massive number of species in your state and what their maternity seasons are.
This is one of the needed pieces of info to avoid problems for your homeowner and for the bats you are trying to exclude.
We have pups as early as April here in NM and have had pups as late as August 25th. I'm talking non volant (flying) pups that would be trapped inside walls if not accounted for and timing of exclusion adjusted.
Every year the number of bids we give to people who hired someone who made the homeowners bat problem worse grows.
This following stand out in the last couple of years.
1) two pieces of bat guano were on a living room table below a tongue and groove ceiling. Management company hired the local guy who said he does hundreds of these. He came and during the day foamed the soffit joints where the bats were evident, this was after he tore down the ceiling board and dropped massive amounts of dead bats, live bats, and guano all over these folks floor. He then shop vacuumed the debris, replaced the board and left.
That night the folks got there and were awakened by 32 live bats flying around inside. The owner a retired man with a heart condition ran around catching bats many of whom bit him while he was grabbing after them in an attempt to escape. He received post exposure shots and he called a company we knew that referred him to us the next day. We ripped the foam out as we could hear the live bats behind the walls still.
He and his wife say that night and did a bat watch and saw 2-300 bats emerge from the foam closed holes.
We did a proper exclusion two months later and they had no issues in the meantime as they didn't have an inside the house problem.
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One I'm doing this spring I looked at two years ago and bid at the time. They hired a local pco who hung loose bird net in an attempt to make a barrier to the bats getting into the house. The result was where there were no interior bats prior, his net caught the first bats to emerge and the remaining members of the colony started flying inside the by emerging through gaps in the log cabin, result a potential exposure and a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) of client. They finally decided this year they'd trust that someone else who does this for a living was worth trying.
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So I don't bias this to my state there are first hand stories I've had where folks are doing large 5-600 bat exclusions during summer months when maternity season is in full swing, there are others whre G&F and dept of ag (pesticide enforcement) are getting involved due to operators are spraying various products on or into colony areas into drive bats out it kill them both of course illegal. No legal registered toxicants.
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I say all of this to say proceed as you would with any animal species but If you can either in your area or elsewhere get some time with someone at least talking through exclusion.
Eric, Ron S and many others have provided valuable advice on here over the years and I remember those points as I see various scenarios.
Even with training anyone can fail to apply it properly or simply make a mistake we all do, just .02 or maybe .05
Justin