My attic is the new bat cave. Thanks Batman.

I live in a town home where the garage entry is in the back of the house.  Just above the garage are some spaces intentionally left between the brick to act as a vent to the attic.  Last week while I was pulling into my garage one night at about 6:30pm I noticed what appeared at first to be black smoke coming from the vent!  I stopped halfway into the garage to take a closer look.  What I thought was smoke at first was actually a dozen or so bats jumping from the vent openings and taking off in flight!

After calling a few places I decided TNT Pest Control (Check out the web site, it’s amazing) could help me out.  They attach a device to the vent that would permit the bats to escape but not re-enter.  After 3 weeks they remove the device and cover the holes inside the attic to keep the bats out permanently.  I wasn’t interested in worrying about the bats for another 3 weeks, but nevertheless was ready to shell out $400 for this service.

Then Mark, my mom’s fiance, prodded me to do it myself with his help.  He insisted it would be easy AND even fun!  Since I’m afraid of spiders, you can imagine that having a personal bat encounter was not at the top of my bucket list.  But Mark persuaded me to man up to the task.

We waited for the bats to leave one night (we estimate there were 500 to 1000 bats in there) and then entered the attic from the garage entry.  We expected to see bat crap in the whole attic, but there was none.  In fact, not a single bat had been in the attic.  The bats were roosting in the tiny space between the attic wall and the brick exterior of the house.  The vent in the bricks did not actually vent the attic at all!

I’d like to take most of the credit, but I mostly watched as Mark did all the dirty work. In order to make sure the bats did not return, we had to make sure they could not re-enter.  So we cut a hole in the wall where the vent was and then glued a metal mesh screen over the entryway.  We did all this hoping the bats wouldn’t return in the middle of the process.  Lucky for us the bats didn’t return. Lucky for me they didn’t ever return.

4 Responses to “My attic is the new bat cave. Thanks Batman.”

  1. Tyson says:

    This story is awesome. Also, Mark is the man!

    Like the new URL/site, Jas.

  2. […] properly maintained, it’s value will drop.  If I actively work to keep the house clean (and bat free) and constantly try to improve it, the value will maintain or increase with good market […]

  3. jack says:

    Hi, I am having the same problem now?? any suggetions of how to get rid of them??

  4. Jason Waters says:

    Hey Jack! Any luck with your bats? Wait until night when they leave, then block where they are getting in so they can’t come back. It’s easier said than done! 😉

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