What is the best material to exclude bats?

Problem with Bats

Bats are a nuisance animal in many parts of the United States.

These animals are known to ruin homes with their corrosive droppings. Either by staining and smelling up the place or by causing severe structural damage to the building.

Bats also spread a number of dangerous illnesses, with the two most notable being rabies and histoplasmosis. One is a dangerous disease that causes paralysis, and the other is a fungus that can permanently damage the lungs. Both these diseases can be lethal, so you should quickly remove the bats from your home before you get infected.

Benefits of Exclusion

Of all the ways to remove bats, exclusion is no doubt the best.

It's the single most ethical way of removing bats from your home, as you don't force anything on the bats. In fact, exclusion works by getting the bats to leave in their own time and securing your home so they can't get back in.

This method is also very simple, and it involves a lot of waiting for the bats to leave.

Exclusion is also one of the only legal ways of removing bats. Poisoning or trapping bats is illegal, as states want to preserve this endangered animal so it can continue eating problematic insects.

That's why even experts use exclusion when removing bats from a home.

Material

One of the best parts of exclusion is that it doesn't require many materials. In fact, the only thing you really need is an exclusion funnel or a similar exclusion device. Any other equipment or material is optional and depends on your home.

For some houses, you wouldn't need any other material except some nails to seal up a few holes. In others, you'd need to replace a damaged wooden board, so that would be the best material for you. In many others, you could do just as well a job with nothing but some caulk and steel wool.

So, there's no best material for exclusion, and it all depends on the entries into your home and how you can seal them.

Exclusion Process

• Search for entries: The first and most important part of exclusion is to search and find all the entries into your home. These are typically small holes and gaps in your walls, ceilings, and floors.
  
  

• Seal all gaps: You should then seal all these entries, save one. How you seal them depends on your home. You could just tighten a wooden board with some nails, replace the board, use a brick, or just put in some caulk and steel wool. Regardless, these holes will be closed, and the bats won't be able to come back in.
  
  

• Install exclusion device: With most of the entries sealed up, it's time to install the exclusion device on the last one. This can either be a funnel, an exclusion net, a one-way door, or any other exclusion device. These will all be effective. Just make sure there aren't any baby bats in the roost when you do this, or they'll get trapped and will die.
  
  

• Wait: With the device set up, you should just wait for the bats to leave on their own.
  
  

• Seal final hole: Once all the bats are gone, you can seal up the final hole using whatever method you used before. Now your home is completely bat-proof.
  
  

• Clean the area: Bats carry diseases, so it's important to clean and disinfect the area. Put on some gloves and a mask to prevent yourself from catching any diseases. Then proceed to remove any nesting material. Finally, disinfect and sanitize the area with a cleaning product of your choice. With that, the bat problem is solved.