FAQ

Yes, the CDC recommends that you should always test bats that are in your house and that you catch.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is very clear when addressing rabies. “Recent data suggest that transmission of the rabies virus can occur from minor, seemingly unimportant, or unrecognized bites from bats… Rabies post-exposure prophylaxis is recommended for all persons with [a possible] bite, scratch, or mucous membrane exposure to a bat unless the bat is available for testing and is negative for evidence of rabies.”

If the bat was in a room with a child, a person asleep, a person intoxicated, or someone mentally impaired, they should seek medical attention. Post-exposure rabies shots may save your life, but the shots are very expensive so it is important to get the answer right!

For more information about when to get rabies shots, Visit Here and Here, to view the CDC government website.

If you can safely collect the bat you’ve come in contact with and submit it for rabies diagnosis, you may not need post-exposure rabies shots. To test a bat for rabies virus, its brain must be intact. The bat can be dead or alive when you collect it, but it will be euthanized for the test. You must preserve the bat in a container until it can be picked up or dropped off for testing. If the bat is dead, it should be stored in a cool place to prevent decomposition.

In most cases, you can sweep up and clean bat guano without any cause for concern, however, we always recommend wearing protective equipment such as gloves, mask, and goggles.  There is a small chance you can come into contact with and contract Histoplasmosis.  A small amount of bat guano should be a harmless as a few mouse droppings.  Once the guano piles up, a fungus that causes histoplasmosis can start to grow, and this is when you need to be careful.

​If you are going to clean up bat guano by yourself, we recommend spraying the guano with bleach or fungicide before disturbing it to help mitigate your risk.  The best thing you can do is talk to a professional (like us) before attempting to clean up a large amount of bat guano first.

​If you do not want to clean up bat guano, we would be more than happy to do it for you and provide our services to you!

Yes. Bats make a squeaking or chirping sound known as a bark. Bats inside your home will make a scratching sound that you may be able to hear in your walls or ceiling.

There have been 13 different bat species found in the state of South Dakota.

You may. Bats are very good at hiding and they can go into the tightest spaces in your attics insulation and house to stay warm and out of sight. From there, the bats could and more than likely will go down your walls and this is why you do not see any bats in your attic. However, the only way to know for sure is to have one of our estimators come out and do an attic inspection for you.

The only way bats will start living in a bat house is if you first make your house unavailable to them. Bats mark where they live by the bat droppings and urine they leave when they come and go from where they are living. Some people believe that if you can transport some of those droppings into a bat house it may help them relocate there, however, there is no guarantee to ensure that bats will no longer enter your home unless you use the exclusion method of bat removal. That is why getting a removal service is so important.

Old homes are not the only homes that have bats. Bats will live in any home, business, or building they can get into. This is very important to know because many people believe that they are unsusceptible from bat problems in their new or newer home. We come out and give free estimates and can determine if your home has any bats!

As long as you don’t have a stated coverage policy excluding bats, your insurance probably allows for some sort of coverage for damages caused to the sheetrock by bats. Getting this coverage is often difficult but can be done.

If you purchased your home in the last 24 months and the infestation was not disclosed to you, the errors and omissions insurance for the real estate agent and the home inspector involved in the sale may provide coverage. Additionally, the seller of the property is often liable for the first 24 months after purchase.

No, the bats that live here in our area do not fly south for the winter. They hibernate in your home, businesses, barns, or anything that they can find that is warm enough to survive our cold winters.

Poisoning bats is actually illegal. Bats are a protected species because they greatly benefit our ecosystem. Bats eat half their body weight every day in moths, beetles, mosquitoes, and other insects. This is one of the reasons it is so important to hire a respected and well-known bat removal service that can get bats out humanely and safely without injuring or killing them.

Yes, bats are stinky animals and if they have been in your home or building for a long period of time, it is possible your home will begin to have a bad odor. The scent will be the strongest in the summer months when your attic gets extremely hot.

No, having bats is not a sign that you are a bad housekeeper, but rather that your home has some access points that need to be addressed by a bat removal service company. Nobody wants a bat infestation and we do our best to be as discreet as possible. Bats do leave guano which can be toxic, so if you have had an extreme infestation, we offer a Bat Guano Clean-Up service.