Bat Removal Services in Dallas & Houston

Facts About Bats

• Bats carry numerous diseases including rabies.
• Bat guano (feces) is highly toxic to humans.
• Bat guano can destroy and stain the paint on your building.
• Bats are known to gnaw and chew on wires, resulting in severe fire hazards.
• Bats chew on support beams, threatening the integrity of your home’s structure.
• Bat colonies can grow to comprise of up to 300 or more bats.

Things to keep in mind while dealing with a bat infestation

• Bats can live in a property unnoticed for years; due to a combination of their nocturnal habits and their general quietness, it is easy and even common for bat colonies to build up to huge numbers in a structure before the property owner ever realizes they’re present.
• Bat colonies grow to large volumes; colonies composed of three-hundred individuals or more are a common sight in DFW infestations.
• Bats carry numerous diseases; chief among these is rabies. Although raccoons and skunks are larger vectors overall, bats are the primary transmitters of this disease to human victims. Bats carry a multitude of other diseases, as well, including Ebola and Histoplasmis.
• Bats can transmit disease without ever making physical contact; although rare and only in extreme situations, there have been proven cases of two species of bats transmitting rabies through inhalation of contaminated air. Furthermore, bats’ teeth are small that even if a person is bitten by a bat carrying rabies, he may never realize it until after it’s too late.
• Bat droppings are just as dangerous as bats themselves; guano carries numerous microbes, allows even more microbes to breed, and even if it fails to spread pathogens, it will itself degrade into compounds that are both toxic and volatile.
• Bats are physically destructive; they will chew wiring and support beams, among other things. As their guano degrades into volatile gaseous compounds, exposed wiring becomes an increasingly significant fire hazard.
• Bats are beneficial; although they pose a threat to human health when inhabiting the same buildings together, bats are advantageous to human health overall. They eat enormous quantities of insects on a nightly basis, keeping us safe from them and improving crop yields.
• Bats are a protected form of wildlife; eradicating bats is not only dangerous to your health, but is in fact illegal as well. Texas has a wide-ranging set of laws sheltering bat populations, and some species are additionally protected by federal laws. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE BATS YOURSELF! Call Trapping USA and we will take of the problem for you in a way that is legal, expedient, and effective!

Identifying a bat problem

Bats are among the most difficult animals to identify the presence of once they take up home in your attic or crawl spaces. It is not uncommon for property owners to go years without realizing bats have formed colonies in their attics or walls.

The following are some of the most recognizable indicators of the presence of bats in your home. If you are encountering any of these phenomena, set up an appointment with Trapping USA right away and let us do a free inspection to determine the cause:

• bats flying around of near your property at dusk or dawn
• droppings approximately twice the size of those of rats or mice, especially if found in your attic or crawlspaces
• fluttering, rustling, or squeaking noises that are hard to locate
• loose bricks, unsecured roof returns, and doorway gaps all provide excellent entry points for bats

Many people in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex may not even be aware that bats are present, much less consider the implications of a bat infestation. All too often, people remain unaware of the presence of bats in the area right up to the point they find bats nesting in their very own attic space.

Bats aren’t unusual in Dallas and Fort Worth area properties. They can find their way into attics, crawl spaces and even sheds. All it takes is a hole the size of a nickel for bats to enter. Once they do, they begin to wreak havoc on your property and your health. The diseases carried by bats in the Texas area can be life-threatening. The only way to eradicate the issue is to use a professional bat removal service.

Trapping USA offers bat removal services to Dallas and North Texas property owners using a humane and effective process.

The common concept of bats has them roosting in caves or abandoned mines. As urban expansion continues, however, such remote and inaccessible locales are becoming increasingly less available. Whichever ones aren’t repurposed or destroyed for human projects, become overpopulated due to the sudden absence of those that are.

And so, bats come into human areas. Some property owners choose to avoid bat infestations by adding bat shelters to their properties. These small structures are similar to birdhouses, but built with an eye towards bats’ specific behaviors and needs.

Many more property owners, however, don’t think about bats at all until it’s too late. With bats’ natural habitats becoming more constricted over time, and with the lack of widely available bat shelters, it’s only a matter of time before bats move in. Once they have done so, they become increasingly problematic over time, causing multiple types of damage as well as carrying diseases and releasing large amounts of toxic guano.

Making the situation even worse is that the owner of a property infested by bats can go for years without knowing about it. Bats are generally quiet animals while roosting, only making scrambling, scuffling, or whining noises when disturbed. With bats sleeping throughout the day and only coming out at twilight to feed, it’s especially difficult for business owners to notice an infestation has occurred.

Many bat species are also highly social, meaning that if one or two bats set up shop in your home or business, others are sure to soon follow. With most species, the first bats in a colony to stake a claim in a new roosting area (such as your attic) are the pregnant females. As such, even one bat in your home is a sign you need to call us at Trapping USA immediately. Otherwise, the entire bat colony will move into the space in no time at all.

Why You Need Professional Bat Removal

Bats are riddled with diseases and can also harm the integrity of your home. Because they move around at night, you might notice rustling noises or strange echoes coming from attic areas. It is important to call in a professional right away if you suspect a bat problem.

Even identifying a bat infestation offers a challenge that other animals don’t often pose. Being as flighty as they are, bats will often change their behavior patterns or even die if regularly disturbed by bright lights in the middle of the day. For this reason, it is often beneficial to perform a multi-part inspection in order to determine the exact details of a bat infestation. It is important to establish what species of bat is present, and which behaviors they are making use of, in order to determine the best way to remove them from a property in such a way that they cannot return.

It is vitally important to call Trapping USA as soon as you suspect the presence of bats. Bats are known to destroy wooden support beams and wiring by chewing on them. Combined with their guano droppings, this can create an immense fire hazard in your attic.

Even more significant is the health hazard bats pose. Most people are aware of the connection between bats and rabies, but few are aware of the actual extent of that connection. From 1995 to 2010, there were thirty-six human cases of domestically-acquired rabies in the USA. Thirty of those were due to bat bites.

Trapping USA will perform an inspection free of charge, and we will do so while taking great care not to disturb the bats any more than is necessary. Many bats are highly vulnerable to disturbances of their roosts. Some species have such low fat reserves that they will quickly starve to death if regularly disturbed while roosting, as it puts them in a state of panic. Other species may drop their pups when disturbed, inadvertently killing them. A dead, sick, or injured bat has an even higher infection rate than a healthy one, and is more likely to come into direct contact with humans if disoriented or uncoordinated due to injury or disease. So the last thing you want to do with a roof full of bats is kill them – it is not only illegal, but also extremely dangerous.

We service residential and commercial customers throughout North Texas in towns such as Addison, Allen, Arlington, Carrollton, The Colony, Dallas, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, Irving, Lewisville, McKinney, Plano, Prosper, Richardson, Rockwall, Rowlett and more!