Most people find out they have bats the same way: a scratching sound over the bedroom ceiling, a stain on the attic insulation, or one bat flying around the living room one evening. The next question is always the same — how do we get rid of them and keep them out? The honest answer is that keeping them out is a building problem, not a pest problem, and it gets solved with a ladder, a flashlight, and carpentry.
How Bats Get In
A bat doesn't need much. Gaps as small as 3/8 of an inch are enough, which is smaller than most homeowners picture when they go looking. On a typical Genesee County house, the openings we find are almost always in the same handful of places:
- Gaps where soffit meets fascia, or where the soffit returns at a corner
- Unscreened or poorly screened ridge vents and gable vents
- Chimney flashing that's pulled loose from the roof, and open chimney flues
- Loose, lifted, or storm-damaged siding, especially at the top course
- Roofline junctions — dormers, valleys, and anywhere two planes meet at an angle
The tricky part is that a house usually has more than one opening. Finding the one you can see from the driveway and calling it a day is how a job fails. We inspect the whole envelope and document every gap before anyone touches a caulk gun.
Bat Proofing Is Carpentry
Once we know where the openings are, the work looks like any other exterior repair. Soffit and fascia get repaired or replaced. Gable and ridge vents get proper screening. Chimneys get capped and reflashed. Ridge-vent details that were never installed right get corrected. Loose siding gets refastened and sealed.
That's a point worth sitting with, because it explains why a lot of homeowners end up calling twice. A spray or a repellent doesn't fix a 3/8-inch gap under your fascia. Closing the gap does, and it stays fixed.
One-Way Doors: Letting Bats Out Without Letting Them Back In
You can't just seal a building that bats are living in — they'd be trapped inside, and you'd have a much worse problem in your walls. So the sealing happens in two passes.
First, every opening that isn't in active use gets closed. Then one-way exclusion devices go over the active entry points. A bat can push out through one of these to go feed at dusk, but it can't get back through to come home. After a few nights, the roost empties on its own. Then we pull the devices and close those last openings permanently.
Nothing is poisoned and nobody handles the bats. They simply leave and find somewhere else to roost, and your house is no longer an option.
What's Left Behind in the Attic
A colony that's been in an attic for a few years leaves guano and urine behind, and that does real damage. Insulation gets soiled and stops performing. Moisture works into decking and framing. Drywall stains and sags.
We can take care of the insulation. Soiled insulation comes out and new insulation goes in as part of the repair, so the attic does its job again. Before any of that, we'll show you what we're seeing up there and tell you honestly what it needs.
Verifying the Exclusion Held
Buildings move over time, and any weak spot will show itself. We come back and check the work — that the devices came off cleanly, that the seals are holding, and that there's no sign of new activity. That follow-up is part of the job, not an add-on.
What We Do and Don't Do
We want to be straight about this. Proven Construction is a general contractor. Our part of a bat problem is the building side of it: inspection, sealing, exclusion, the carpentry that goes with it, and replacing soiled insulation. We never handle the bats themselves, and if your situation ever calls for a licensed wildlife control operator, we'll tell you.
What we're good at is making sure that once they're out, they stay out.
Hearing something in the attic? Take a look at our bat proofing and exclusion service, contact us for a free estimate, or call (810) 956-5766. We'll inspect the house and tell you honestly what it needs.