Bats, here in the Sonoran Desert, provide a great service. They eat mosquitoes, flying insects, and some even go-to-ground and capture centipedes and scorpions. Bats roost by the 10s of thousands under several of the bridges here in Tucson. In fact, recently, until it caused too much congestion, docents from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum were present in the evenings at one or two of those bridges to explain, to interested families who stopped by at dusk, just how beneficial bats were to our environment. The number of those interested, however, became too much for the available parking and now, if you still want to stop by at dusk, you can see the thousands and thousands of bats almost form a cloud as they darken the sky on their way to hunt for food, but without a knowledgeable docent to identify the type of bats you are seeing and educate you on their life and feeding habits. Your alternative, of course, is to take your family to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and engage one of the docents in conversation. (I am sure they would be happy to give you the same information.)
We are blessed to have over a dozen kinds of bats here in the Sonoran Desert and as stated, they provide a great service, keeping the insect population-especially mosquitoes, in check. However, as the title of this blog suggests, sometimes things, in regards to bats, can “go from Bat (play on words) to Worse.” This can happen when bats decide to take up residence around a home or business in large numbers. When this happens, once they have set up residence, their guano and urine begin to imprint that area and it becomes a magnet for other bats, a home for the current population and it can create a real nuisance.
1st Response Wildlife has a lot of experience in helping businesses and home owners with their bat issues. (A previous blog discussed the potential for diseases bats carry and/or spread-rabies, etc.) Techniques for removal, challenging their return after a night of hunting, and encouraging them to choose somewhere else to roost is offered as a routine service. Sealing points-of-entry and educating the business or homeowner in things that can be done to keep bats from returning are also part of the service that 1st Response Wildlife provides.
Some homeowners, businesses, and even environmental agencies choose to accommodate bats in their area by providing bat houses, strategically placed to attract and house bats. Below is an example of a bat house placed by the environmental agency responsible for one of the sanctuaries in Cochise County. Bat houses are common in environs where temperatures are not as consistently hot as those in the Sonoran Desert and, if you like to have bats around and want to have a bat structure away from your home or business; it would be wise to research both construction and placement before, perhaps, buying one on the internet.
Bats can enter through very small spaces and, while you probably cannot see them sleeping in those areas in the daytime, tell-tale droppings (guano) will alert you to their presence. Again, if there are only a few bats, their benefit to reducing mosquito and insect population may offset any issues they may cause. However, when you get a family that grows to nuisance size, it is probably time to give 1st Response Wildlife a call to come and help you encourage your bat family to move elsewhere. Below are two pictures. The first shows where the wall of a home meets the roof line as an example of how small an opening a bat needs to land and crawl up out of sight for its place to spend the day sleeping.
The second picture shows significant bat droppings (guano) that has alerted the homeowner that they have more than a few bats living up under the eaves and it is time to call 1st Response Wildlife.
Pictured below is a Pallid bat with a centipede followed by a Pallid bat with a green cricket (courtesy of
http://www.animalseatinganimals.com/2011/08/what-do-bats-eat.html).
Pallid bats are one of the few bats that choose to land, rather than chase and capture insects in flight. While they capture scorpions, crickets, grasshoppers, centipedes and other types of insectc-and the occasional lizard, on the ground, they will take their prey to a spot in a bush or tree to consume it.
In addition to the Pallid bat, shown above, and the Mexican Free-Tail bat pictured in a previous blog, 1st Response Wildlife has been called to help home owners and businesses identify and deal with several other types of bats. The one that has been the most fascinating this summer, however, has been the Townsend’s Big-Eared Bat, pictured below. Their most distinctive appendage is their large ears.
If you find that you have a bat loose in your home or business, suspect they have found a way into your attic, notice excessive droppings under the eaves of your home or business, or observe an inordinate number of bats leaving and returning at dusk and dawn and would like to discourage them from using your property or business as their summer home, please give 1st Response Wildlife a call.
Thanks for considering 1st Response Wildlife
Josh's Cell (24/7 Hours): 520-260-9517
Josh Waling is a humane Licensed Animal Trapper who catches and releases wildlife, removing animals including bobcats (lince), snakes, rattlesnakes (serpiente de cascabel), raccoons (mapache), pack rats, gila monsters (monstruos de gila), rabbits (canejo), owls, bats, hawks, ducks, squirrels (ardilla), peacocks, coatimundi (gato solo), skunks (mofeta), exotics, and domestic cats and dogs. He delivers service that is professional and fast and he is available 24/7. Give him a call the next time you hear unusual noises in the attic or crawl spaces in your home or if you see wildlife eating your vegetation, creating nests, and raising their young too close to your pets or children or have an exotic sighting in your neighborhood. 520-260-9517 Thanks!
