Part 2 - ACTION

Okay, so now that we have discovered that we have bats, it is time to take action.  What is the first thing you do when you decide to get rid of bats - read about it on the Internet!  Both Matt and I pride ourselves in being of the DIY variety so we thought this was something we would be able to tackle on our own.  According to the Internet all we had to do was find where the bats were getting in and out and then place a piece of screen over that area.  Three sides of the screen should be sealed up leaving an opening where the bats can get out but can't find their way out.  Easy enough - we can handle that.

Once all bats are gone, there is a clean up process but WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!  Bat poop has some sort of fungus in it that when disturbed sends spores everywhere which, when inhaled, can cause histoplasmosis.  Don't breath them in, wear a HEPA filter mask and spray them with a bleach solution.  So, once the web started talking about HAZMAT suits, we decided it was time to call in the professionals.

I have a small confession for you, by this time the entire family had developed a cough which I was convinced was the histoplasmosis setting in and when Matt and I discussed the budget for this, we were willing to pay much more than what our bat experts are charging us.  There is just something creepy about bats and then add in a lung condition and I wanted these suckers GONE!

So, we called the bat guys and they came out to our house.  They found two areas in our home that could serve as access points for the bats.  They sealed up one of the areas and then put this cool little screen thing on the other area.

 

So, you can see that the bats climb down the screen to get out but they cannot find the opening to climb back in.  Well, we have crafty bats because they are still getting back in. 

 

Every evening at dusk Matt and I go out to watch the bats and every evening at dark we are discouraged because the bats are still there.  So, then we call the bat guys and they have to check the perimeter of our roof again and seal up any new holes they find.  So, crafty bats + old house with lots of cracks and stuff leads to us still having bats.

 

The bat guys are working hard to get rid of them and have been very patient with us but I just want the bats gone and the attic cleaned up so we can move on to spending our "house budget" money on something more fun than this.